Juventus beat Monaco 2-1 on Tuesday, May 9 in the second leg of their Champions League semifinal. Here are all the highlights from the match.
Juventus were exquisite in the second leg of their Champions League semifinal against Monaco. Knowing the onus was on the Ligue 1 side to attack, Massimiliano Allegri’s team were ruthless on the counter, scoring twice and creating several more clear goalscoring opportunities.
Monaco started well enough, but there’s a reason Juve hadn’t conceded a goal in the knockout rounds of this competition. Kylian Mbappe was energetic early on, and hit the post from an offside position but that was about as good as it got for the visitors in the first half.
Radamel Falcao stung the palms of Gianluigi Buffon, but was also deemed to be in an offside position. Other than that, Monaco’s first-half threat was limited to a series dangerous, but ultimately well-defended crosses.
Juve’s speed and movement on the counter-attack proved decisive, just as it had in the first leg, with Dani Alves again playing a crucial role. The Brazilian provided the assist for Mario Mandzukic’s opening goal, curling a wonderful cross onto the head of the Croatian, who had his first attempt saved by Danijel Subasic but blasted the rebound into the roof of the net.
Alves almost had his second assist three minutes later — Gonzalo Higuain was pulled back for offside after finishing past Subasic — and doubled his side’s lead in the 45th minute, lashing in a volley from the top of the box after a corner.
The game was beginning to peter out in the second half, with Monaco needing four goals to advance and Juve happy to sit on their lead, but came to life again briefly in the 69th minute, when the visitors scored the first goal against Juventus in 690 minutes of Champions League action, Mbappe poking in from close range after a well-worked short corner.
This was another dominant display by the Serie A champions, who will likely go on to face Real Madrid in their second final appearance in three seasons.
Next: Juventus continue to dominate Europe
Highlights
"What. A. Volley. Dani Alves adds to his outstanding semifinal performances with this stunner 😳 #UCL #JuveASM https://t.co/8TrOVMWzMq— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) May 9, 2017"
The Champions League final will be played in Cardiff on Saturday, June 3.