For Juventus, it was a day of off-sides and the team thoroughly missed out on the services of Cristiano Ronaldo who was been ailing with COVID-19 in the Champions League 2020-21 tie against Barcelona. The match started with both teams producing the best of a thriller in the first half. An early goal from Ousmane Dembele gave Barcelona an edge over Juventus and within the first 14 minutes of the match, the scoreboard read 1-0. Alvaro Morata scored three goals post this but all three were disallowed due to off-side. The first half was still better for the Old Lady, but in the second part of the game, the hosts looked like a hapless unit. Then it was none other than Lionel Messi who sprung into action for the Old Lady. He also broke the record of having the most number of goals in the Group stage.

At the 90th minute of the match, the six-time Ballon d'Or winner converted a penalty into a goal and thus led Barcelona to a 2-0 win. Barcelona dominated every aspect of the game- whether its shots on target or even the possession. The Catalan Giants dominated the possession with 60 per cent, whereas the rest 40 per cent of the times Juventus possessed the ball. For the entire game, Juventus had no shots on target whereas, Lionel Messi's Barcelona had four shots on target which was enough to take them home.

With this, Messi now has 70 goals in the Group stage from 74 appearances which are the most by any player. With this, Juventus tastes their first defeat in the Champions League 2020-21 and is currently standing on number two of the Group G with three points.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 29, 2020 09:00 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).