team succeeded Juventus The Italian finished the first half, ahead of its Spanish host, Villarreal, with a goal free of charge, in the confrontation being held between them at the “La Ceramica” stadium, in the first leg of the 16th round of the European Champions League.
Dusan Vlahovic scored the first goal for Juventus in the first minute of the match, after 32 seconds, in his first appearance in the Juventus shirt in the European competition.
Villarreal vs Juventus
And the global network “Opta” specialized in statistics, stated that Vlahovic is the Juventus player, who took the least time (32 seconds) to score his first goal in the Champions League.
She added that Vlahovic also became the first player from Juventus to score in his first match in the tournament in the knockout stage of the modern system.
Vlahovic, 22 years and 25 days, became the second youngest player to score in his first appearance in the Champions League with Juventus, after Alessandro Del Piero, 20 years and 308 days.
Juventus line-up against Villarreal
Goalkeeper: Wojciech Szczesny.
Defenders: Mattia de Sciglio – Matthias de Ligt – Danilo – Alex Sandro.
Midfield: Juan Cuadrado – Weston McKinney – Arthur Melo – Manuel Locatelli.
Forward: Alvaro Morata – Dusan Vlahovic.
As for the Villarreal formation, as follows..
Rolly – Foyth – Albiol – Torres – Pedraza – Choquezi – Cabo – Parejo – Moreno – Lo Celso – Daniyama.
The Juventus team misses many players in the face of Villarreal, and they are Paulo Dybala, Federico Chiesa, Giorgio Chiellini, Federico Bernardeschi, Daniele Rugani.
Juventus hopes to win during the first leg in Spain, to make the task easier on itself in the return match in Italy on March 16, while Villarreal seeks to win a comfortable result at home and among its fans to approach the quarter-final qualification.
While Villarreal enters the Champions League, revitalized by its recent victory over Granada by four goals to one in the last round of the Spanish League, the task of the old lady will not be easy at all, especially since he will face Villarreal, who has an experienced coach, Unai Emery..
Juventus qualified for this round after topping the table of Group H in the group stage with 15 points, while Villarreal finished second in Group F with 10 points.