Juventus 3 Barcelona 0: Paulo Dybala’s brace and Giorgio Chiellini leave Barca on the brink of Champions League exit… (again)
Lionel Messi and Co will need another miraculous performance as they face another mountain to climb at the Nou Camp
BARCELONA will have to produce mission impossible two to keep their Champions League dream alive after they were thrashed 3-0 at Juventus.
A brace from Paulo Dybala and Giorgio Chiellini's header condemned the Catalans to a first leg defeat in Turin, and left them facing elimination from Europe's biggest stage.
Of course, Lionel Messi, Neymar and co have already produced a miraculous comeback in the last round as they overturned a four-goal deficit to claim a remarkable victory over Paris Saint-Germain.
But surely even a call to Tom Cruise will not be able to help them conjure up another magical night when they face the Serie A giants in the return match next week.
They fell behind on 22 minutes in Italy as their poor defending proved to be their undoing.
Juan Cuadrado was not closed down by Jeremy Mathieu on the right and the former Chelsea man picked out Dybala, who turned to curl the ball home.
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Barcelona were denied an equaliser when the legendary Gianluigi Buffon lived up to his reputation as he superbly saved Andres Iniesta effort after the midfielder had been played through by Messi.
And 76 seconds later it was double woe for the Spanish side as they fell further behind as Dybala bent a first-time shot round Gerard Pique and into the net.
Luis Suarez did get the ball over the line for the visitors before the break, but his effort was ruled out for offside as frustrations began to mount for him and his team-mates.
And their misery was compounded ten minutes after the restart as Juventus grabbed their third of the net.
Javier Mascherano was the man caught out in the Barca defence this time, as he allowed Chiellini to brush him aside to power home a header from a corner.
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HOW THEY LINED-UP:
Juventus: Buffon, Alves, Bonucci, Chiellini, Alex Sandro, Pjanic (Barzagli 89), Khedira, Cuadrado Lemina 73), Dybala (Rincon 81), Mandzukic, Higuain
Subs not used: Marchisio, Asamoah, Neto, Lichsteiner
Barcelona: ter Stegen, Pique, Umtiti, Mathieu Gomez 45), Mascherano, Roberto, Iniesta, Rakitic, Messi, L Suarez, Neymar
Subs not used: D Suarez, Cillessen, Alcacer, Alba, Digne, Alena