Juventus 2-2 Tottenham: Champions League highlights and recap

Juventus drew 2-2 with Tottenham in the Champions League on Wednesday, Feb. 13. Here are all the highlights from the match.

Youth vs. experience was the narrative heading into this game, but after an opening 10 minutes that was almost suspiciously on-script, Tottenham were the smarter, more composed side against Juventus in Turin, coming from two goals down to earn a 2-2 draw that puts them in an excellent position to make the quarterfinals of the Champions League for the first time since the days of Harry Redknapp and Gareth Bale.

Juve led within two minutes due to some prototypically inexperienced defending. With Miralem Pjanic standing over a free-kick 35 yards out in the middle of the pitch, Gonzalo Higuain lost his man — though “lost” might be too strong a term; he never really had a man in the first place — followed the ball expertly as it dropped over his right shoulder and drilled a volley past Hugo Lloris into the bottom corner.

As if that moment of carelessness wasn’t enough, Tottenham gifted Juve their second little over five minutes later, when Ben Davies seemed to lose track of Federico Bernardeschi on his blind side before tripping him with a kick that was more clumsy than malicious. Higuain converted the ensuing spot kick low to Lloris’ right, setting up the Bianconeri to do what they do best: defend.

Tottenham responded remarkably well under the circumstances. So well, in fact, it was hard not to wonder what had overcome them in the opening 10 minutes. Perhaps Juventus’ decision to drop back and protect their lead played into Spurs’ hands, or perhaps going 2-0 down to a team that haven’t conceded a single goal in 2018, and only one in their last 16 matches, was the wakeup call they needed.

Either way, from about 15 minutes onwards, the Tottenham side that have picked up seven points against Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal in their past three league matches finally showed up. Harry Kane could have had a penalty in the 17th minute, and should have had a goal in the 26th, but his header was straight at Gianluigi Buffon.

The chance seemed to galvanize Mauricio Pochettino’s side, however, and their pressure finally yielded the goal it deserved in the 35th minute, Dele Alli stealing the ball deep in Juve’s defensive third and playing in Kane, who rounded Buffon before finishing with his left foot for his seventh goal in this season’s Champions League.

On the stroke of halftime, Tottenham’s inexperience — in this case, stupidity would be more accurate — threatened to cost them again, as Serge Aurier fouled Douglas Costa to hand Juve their second penalty of the match, this one even more clear-cut than the first. This time, however, Higuain missed, drilling the ball straight down the middle, onto the top of the crossbar and away.

Juve improved after the break, slowing the game down to their preferred pace and improving their transition from defense to attack. Bernardeschi forced a good save from Lloris in the 57th minute, Davies again losing track of his man, and Mario Mandzukic hit a free header straight at the Tottenham keeper from the ensuing corner. But that was about as good as it got for Juve, as Spurs once again moved through the gears as the half progressed.

The equalizer arrived in the 71st minute from a free-kick at the top of the Juve box, won by Alli with a wonderfully subtle touch past Giorgio Chiellini, who brought the Englishman down. Eriksen went low with the free-kick, and while he struck it well enough, Buffon, who took a big step the wrong way during Eriksen’s run up, should have done better. It was a cheap goal to concede for arguably Europe’s best defense, but a deserved reward for the away side.

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Highlights

The second leg takes place on March 3 at Wembley.