Champions League 2019-20 day 1
Juventus Turin and Cristiano Ronaldo went back to Wanda Metropolitano stadium in Madrid to face Atletico, only a few months after the last Champions League round of 16 matchup.
The Serie A champions took a 2-0 lead in the second half and controlled the game. But Atletico Madrid players roared and came back in the 20 minutes of the game to save a point at home 2-2. It was splendid second half with 4 goals scored and concluded with a late goal from Atletico.
It was also the first game in the Champions League for the newly appointed Juventus coach, Maurizio Sarri. The Italian comments post-game:
“We have grown a lot compared to the last performance; we haven’t score here for a while. It’s a pity we drew the match, because we had the game in our hand for a long time. We need to improve in our aggressiveness and attention.
The feeling is that it is not a question of form, because if you are passive, you are passive even marking yourself. The choice of playing Cuadrado? It was expected that there would be spaces and Juan’s brilliance could come in handy.
In Florence, we lost focus on the goal, which was a victory, while Fiorentina was more determined; tonight, instead, things were on display that we implement every day in training, but conceding these goals too is penalising.”
Down 2-0 at the 65th minute, Atletico Madrid did not give up and showed a strong character to not lose this game.
Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone hails his players reaction:
“We faced a very strong side with experienced players. We never gave up. If we continue to grow like this, this game will have been very important for us in our development.
I think we played very well, we controlled the match and didn’t deserve to lose. It wasn’t easy to come back from 2-0 down, but we always kept believing.”
