What looked like being a promising night for Celtic turned into a sour one as Juventus triumphed 3-0 at Celtic Park in the first leg of the last 16.
Celtic were unable to emulate the performances they gave against the likes of Spartak Moskow and Barcelona earlier in the competition and Juventus capitalised on this. It took just 3 minutes to break the deadlock as a long ball caught out the Celtic defence and Matri slotted the ball through the legs of Fraser Forster and over the line despite the efforts of Kelvin Wilson to clear it. With the backing of a very loud home support, Celtic were the dominant side, applied pressure on the Juventus goal and forced Juventus to make errors. Wanyama and Kris Commons both had efforts but Buffon saved comfortably and was never put under any real threat. Juve, for their part, looked happy to soak up what Celtic had to throw at them and play on the counter-attack.
Celtic kept running at Juventus, but did little to truly threaten the Italian goal. Celtic couldn’t find the equaliser and Juventus punished them on the 77th minute when Marchisio cut back inside from the left hand side of the penalty area to stroke the ball past the near post. It took just 5 minutes for Juve to get the 3rd goal to kill the name when Marchisio turned provider to slide the ball through to Vucinic who in return cooly put the ball past Forster from close range.
Celtic Manager Neil Lennon said: “For 70 or 80 minutes we were on the front foot, we were the better side and pressured Juventus into making mistakes. Particularly in the first-half, our energy and quality was as good as we’ve had here for quite a while.” He continued “We know it’s a daunting prospect going to Turin at any stage and a 3-0 deficit is almost insurmountable,”
Celtic now have a huge mountain to climb and they head to Turin looking to retain the respect they have already achieved in this seasons competition. The second leg against Juventus Turin is on March 6th at the Juventus Stadium.
