Juventus are one step closer to the quarter-finals of this season's UEFA Champions League after a dominant 2-1 win over Bundesliga strugglers Borussia Dortmund.
The visitors got off to an encouraging start when former Juventus academy striker Ciro Immobile almost opened the scoring, in the opening minute when the Italian striker found some space from 30 yards out but his shot from distance went inches over the bar. After the late scare Juve began to play like themselves, keeping possession well but finding it difficult to break down the Dortmund defence, however the pressure paid off in the 13th minute when Carlos Tevez opened the scoring for the Old Lady. It came from a breakaway, with Alvaro Morata breaking down the left wing and crossing the ball the into the box, the cross was intercepted by Roman Weidenfeller but the error-prone goalkeeper palmed the ball straight into the path of the former City and United forward, who scrambled the ball into the net from close range to break the deadlock.
However, their lead didn't last long after a terrible defensive error from Giorgio Chiellini in the 18th minute allowed Marco Reus to race through on goal and neatly finish the loose ball beyond Gianluigi Buffon to level the scoring and give the visitors a valuable away goal to keep themselves firmly in the tie. Morata could have had a goal of his own, just minutes later when Tevez crossed a teasing delivery towards his path but the former Real man's headed effort went just wide of the post. Leonardo Bonucci had a big chance to give Juventus the lead in the 26th minute when Andrea Pirlo whipped in a perfect free-kick, which found the Italian centre-back, but his header flew inches over the bar. Dortmund’s lacklustre defending was again their downfall when Paul Pogba played a great through ball into the box to find Morata; whose well-taken slot beat Weidenfeller to ensure Juve took the lead once again, just before the half-time interval.
Weidenfeller was called into action in the 52nd minute when Morata’s miss-header caused confusion inside the penalty box but the German keeper managed to parry the danger away to keep the score at 2-1. Dortmund then began to wake up in the second-half; Immobile came close again to scoring just three minutes later with his close-range effort failing to really stretch experienced 'keeper Buffon in the Juventus goal. Tevez was unlucky not to have completed his brace after a great probing Juve counter attack saw Stephan Lichsteiner cross the ball towards the path of Roberto Pereyra, who flicked the ball onto the incoming Tevez in the area, but his volley flashed wide of the post.
The Argentinian managed to miss the target once more, this time after 70 minutes; his effort from just outside the area skimmed the post, inches away from goal. Weidenfeller was called into action in the 77th minute, and made a good stop to deny Tevez from all but sealing the tie with a teasing shot, 20-yards out.
Despite Juventus missing a fair few goal-scoring opportunities during the game, the general consensus was that if Dortmund had defended better, they would have secured a draw in a tough fixture in truth; the only real positive they can take from the match is the crucial away goal, meaning they are very much still in the tie as they host the Italian giants in three weeks time for the return leg looking to overturn a 2-1 deficit.