3 reasons why Manchester United beat Juventus in Turin
Just when you thought Jose Mourinho was spent and out of tricks, he reached into the depths of his gunny and whipped out a pony and let it march around Turin. It's a place from where only Real Madrid have been able to come away smiling in the last 5 years and with the way things were going till the business end of the match, that record looked set to stay on without further blemishes.
Juve will rue their missed opportunities - about 3 of them - gilt-edged and afforded to them courteously by the Red Devils. Juventus were the better side for the best part of the game but their inability to make their dominance count fell like a poison-dipped sword into the hands of football's favourite villain, Jose Mourinho.
It was Ronaldo who looked primed to slot into the front pages tomorrow with a truly remarkable finish in the 65th minute. However, he ended the night with a grimace instead of a grin.
Juan Mata's delectable freekick in the 86th minute restored parity and 3 minutes later, a scramble inside the 6-yard box at the end of yet another set-piece culminated in Alex Sandro nudging the ball home with his belly button.
And at the final whistle, there was this:
Without wasting another second, let's take a look at the 3 reasons why Manchester United won against Juventus.
#3 Wasteful Juventus kept Manchester United in the game
There is no running past this. Juventus had plenty of opportunities to bury the game but their sloppiness in front of goal cost them the chance to seal their qualification to the knockout rounds.
It still is perhaps just a matter of time before they do secure a knockout spot but given how the game unfolded in the first 25 minutes of the second half, United shouldn't have been on the property, let alone have a gander at the backdoor.
Sami Khedira hit the outside of the post after Ronaldo found him unmarked near the 6-yard box towards the latter part of the first half. In the second half, Paulo Dybala was given too much space to operate in and Mourinho's men almost paid for it but the Argentine's curler bounced off the woodwork.
Subsequently, Pjanic and Cuadrado missed gilt-edged chances to extend the Old Lady's lead and they then ended up on the losing side against a team that's making mincemeat out of adversity a truly remarkable quirk of theirs.