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Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini vs Lionel Messi
UEFA Champions League 2016/17 quarter-final second leg (Barcelona 0-0 Juventus | Agg 0-3)
While the two Italian stalwarts kept Ronaldo and company at bay in 2015, they did the same to the magical trio of Messi-Suarez-Neymar in the 2016/17 season. Juventus played Barcelona off the park in the first-leg at the Juventus Stadium where Paulo Dybala stole the show, scoring twice in the opening 22 minutes of the game.
The Catalan giants tried their best to find a way back into the game but couldn’t find a way past the centre-back pairing of Bonucci and Chiellini. The latter then further compounded Barcelona’s woes by rising highest in the box to head home the Old Lady’s third goal of the game.
Barcelona had a mountain to climb in the second leg as they needed three goals to force extra-time and four to win the tie if Juventus didn’t score. The Catalan giants had mounted one of the greatest comebacks of all-time when they overturned a 4-0 deficit against Paris Saint-Germain to ensure progression to the quarters by virtue of a 6-5 win. But Juventus were no PSG and Barcelona found it out the hard way.
At Camp Nou in the second leg, the onus was once again on Messi to lead his side to another improbable comeback but Bonucci and Chiellini produced a defensive masterclass of the highest order. Not only did they stifle Barcelona's iconic front three, but they forced them into taking hopeful shots from outside of the box. The statistics at the end of the game were a testament to this. Out of the 17 shots attempted by Barcelona, only one was on target.
Not only had Bonucci and Chiellini put forth an imperious display, they had put the Blaugrana stars out of the game and Messi played one of the worst games of his life in a Barcelona shirt.
