Dan Payne's Old Lady side arguably went into the tie as strong favourites having significantly strengthened their youth setup during the campaign, most notably with the capture of former Real Madrid pair Gabriel Jesus and Ousmane Dembele.
However, their confidence took a knock losing 4-3 at home to a weakened Madrid side in the semi-final second leg, and only progressed thanks to two sendings off for Real, and the cushion of a 3-0 away leg win courtesy of Madrid's failure to organise their home fixture.
On top of that, Bayern had won 9 of the last 10 fixtures between these two at senior level.
Youth Cup Final 1st leg at the Allianz Arena, Saturday 23 December 2017
In his pre-match press conference, Juve manager Payne had this to say:
"just hoping our weak areas in FB & GK positions don't cost us, especially in the away leg where the tie could essentially be wrapped up by Bayern alike the 1st leg of the semi-final they contested. "
Bayern also made what might be thought of as a defensive change from the eleven that saw off Benfica in the semi-finals, with Harry Winks coming in for Anastasios Donis to strengthen the midfield. Semi-final hat-trick hero Breel Embolo moved to centre-forward.
Bayern boss ruts heaped the pressure on Payne in his pre-match presser, playing up his team's role as underdogs:
"It would take a huge dollop of SM f***wittery to deny Juve over two legs but we've seen it before so you never know... :-)"
Juve dominated much of the first half, creating the better chances, but Gabriel Jesus's early strike which cannoned off the cross-bar was the closest they came to breaking the deadlock.
The second half began in much the same way until Juve boss Payne made a tactical switch on the hour, replacing the anonymous Ousmane Dembele with Mahmoud Dahoud in a holding role, allowing wide men Marco Asensio and Leroy Sane to push further forward in a three with Jesus.
The change backfired, though, as almost immediately, Ante Coric played a long cross-field ball to Christian Pulisic into the space that Asensio had just vacated on the right. Pulisic brought the ball down beautifully, and in the same movement, cut inside leaving Pedro for dead. His shot seemed to take Juve keeper Adrian Semper by surprise, who stood motionless as the ball swept past him into the net to give Bayern an unexpected lead.
Straight from the restart, Juve hit back. Sane played in Asensio in much the same way that Coric had teed up Pulisic only moments earlier, but rather than take the ball down and dribble into the box, the young Spaniard hit a looping rocket of a shot into the top corner, leaving Bayern keeper Alex Meret to watch as the ball bounced in off the woodwork to make it 1-1.
Bayern had the better of the remaining 25 minutes or so, and came closest to making it 2-1 on the night, but it was not to be, and they may live to regret not taking advantage of the chances they created once Juve opened up a little on the hour mark.
Final Score 1-1. Man of the match Christian Pulisic for Bayern Munich.
Youth Cup Final 2nd leg at the Juventus Stadium, Wednesday 27 December 2017
Team news
Bayern reverted to the team that disposed so comfortably of Benfica in the semis, with Donis replacing Winks from the first leg. That also meant Embolo reverting to the right wing, and Pulisic to an attacking midfield/second striker role behind the young Greek centre forward. A more attacking line-up reflecting the fact that they had to score.
For Juve, Dahoud replaced the ineffective Dembele, and boss Payne perhaps surprisingly stuck with the 4-3-3 he employed in the final half an hour of the first leg. A more defensive line-up, you could argue, but Juve knew that all they had to do to win the trophy was to stop Bayern from scoring.
The second leg played out almost like the first leg in reverse, with Bayern having most of the play and the better chances in the first hour. Unlike Juve in the first leg, however, The German club were more efficient in front of goal and took there early chance when Aaron Martin slipped in Coric, playing down the left, who hit a hopeful effort up and over the despairing dive of Semper.
A goal down at half-time, Juve reverted to the tried and tested 4-2-3-1 after the break, replacing Sanches with Dembele, who took up a position in behind Jesus. Bayern also made a change, with young Turk Enes Unal taking over from Donis up front.
This time it was the Turin side who exploited extra space down the flanks as Bayern pushed on emboldened by their lead and the vociferous home support. And it was Sane and Asensio who combined again as in the first leg, although Meret will be disappointed he didn't keep it out having got a touch to it.
1-1 on the night, and 2-2 on aggregate with both teams having an away goal, it all looked set for extra time, until five minutes from time when man of the tie Pulisic was fed in by supersub Unal to sink Juve and fire the German giants to victory and their first ever Youth Cup in manager ruts's first season in charge!
Final Score 1-2. Man of the match Marco Asensio for Juventus. Bayern win the Youth Cup 3-2 on aggregate.
After the match, Juve boss Payne was ruing his sides missed chances, but took full responsibility for the defeat:
A cracking end to a long and at times intriguing competition. Well played both, commiserations, Dan, and congratulations to ruts!
No comments:
Post a Comment