Juventus makes party at Benfica, Atalanta throws away with Athletic

One great joy and one excruciating disappointment on Wednesday night for the Italians in the Champions League. Juventus rejoices, beating Benfica 2-0 in Turin to erase its fear of risking elimination from the playoffs as well and readjust its ranking. On the other hand, it can only cry over its responsibilities to Atalanta, which was bowed out 2-3 in Bergamo by Athletic Bilbao after dominating the first half. At’halftime the Bergamasks were even third in the standings and sure of the round of 16, at the triple whistle they found themselves even in 13th place.

Marco Enzo Venturini

At Allianz Stadium the match is immediately vibrant: in the first ten minutes Sudakov engages Di Gregorio, then on the flip side Yildiz forces Trubin to save on a corner kick. The two repeated themselves toward halftime, the phase of the match when Juventus seemed to suffer the most. In fact, Benfica also came close to taking the lead with Prestianni, but when halftime is near Miretti crosses out a precious heel suggestion from McKennie, then a precious assist in the center by the American but David misses everything under the goal.

The great balance seems to be confirmed even at the start of the second half, with Prestianni and Pavlidis sowing panic in the Bianconeri’area. Juventus, however, has the strength to take the lead at potentially the most delicate moment of the match: it is 55′ when a David’s intuition allows Thuram to find the space he needs to beat Trubin at the first post. And the Bianconeri, in full confidence, double at 64′; it is McKennie who best handles a triangle with David effectively putting the game on ice. Also because Benfica first hits a post with Aursnes, then misses a penalty with Pavlidis after Bremer’s intervention on Barreiro deemed foul by the referee after Var review.

Everything happens instead at the New Balance Arena, after an afternoon that had celebrated the new friendship between Bergamo and Bilbao fans. In spite of this, Atalanta zeroed in on Athletic for the entire first half that ended in a one-goal lead: it was the one scored by Scamacca’s header on 16′ on a precious assist from Zalewski’s left. However, the many chances missed by the Nerazzurri (there’s also a De Ketelaere post) cost dearly in the second half.

With Atalanta seemingly in control and other chances to double not taken advantage of, Athletic suddenly equalized in 58′ with Guruzeta taking advantage of a Djimsiti slight. Incredibly, the Bilbao team doubles and then triples at 70′ and 74′ thanks to Serrano and Navarro (in both cases Kossounou’s responsibilities are important). Palladino launches a team with more than front traction in the finale, throwing Lookman and Krstovic into the fray as well. Just the former gives the latter the right ball for the tap-in of the 2-3 at’88’ but it is too late.