[attach id=245258 size="medium"]Bayern’s Franck Ribery battles for the ball with Arturo Vidal, of Juventus.[/attach]
David Alaba scored after 30 seconds to set Bayern Munich on the way to a 2-0 Champions League win over Juventus in their quarter-final, first leg last night although it could have been much worse for the Italians.
Barcelona were seconds away from recording a precious away win at Paris St Germain but Blaise Matuidi grabbed a dramatic equaliser in stoppage time to earn Paris St Germain a 2-2 draw.
In Munich, Alaba’s speculative 30-metre effort caught Juve goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon off guard as it bounced in the penalty area and landed in the bottom corner to hand the visitors a nightmare start and they suffered a first-half mauling.
Thomas Mueller added Bayern’s second goal just after the hour in a meeting of the German and Italian league leaders after Buffon had trouble with a long-range effort from Luiz Gustavo.
“It was a good match but we are not through yet. We hardly allowed Juventus a chance and we had several good ones,” Bayern’s Philipp Lahm said.
Juventus playmaker Andrea Pirlo made several uncharacteristic mistakes as his overrun side lost their first European match for three years after an 18-match unbeaten run.
Juve had won their last five games in the competition without conceding a goal but that record quickly fell.
Pirlo’s attempted pass out of defence went straight to Bastian Schweinsteiger who found Alaba and the Austrian’s speculative shot took a slight deflection off Arturo Vidal to leave Buffon out of position.
Juventus appeared strangely overawed and Bayern poured forward with their rivals continually losing possession in midfield.
Buffon made up for his earlier mistake by blocking a close-range shot from Arjen Robben as the Dutchman looked set to score and Franck Ribery was also close in an attack which began when Pirlo’s pass sold Andrea Barzagli short.
Robben squandered another opening when he side-footed wide after Mueller pulled the ball back.
Juve suffered further let-offs when Ribery and Alaba fired low balls across the face of goal in successive moves that nobody got on the end of and Schweinsteiger shot over from the edge of the area after a throw-in.
The second half began with another Bayern foray when a Mandzukic shot was blocked by Buffon after a counter attack and Alaba nearly scored again, this time with a low free kick which Buffon managed to turn away.
Juve’s resistance was broken again in the 63rd minute when Buffon parried Luiz Gustavo’s free kick to Bayern’s Croatia striker Mandzukic who rolled the ball for Mueller to tap into an empty net and give the Germans the upper hand for the return.
In the other tie played yesterday, Barca took the lead against Paris SG seven minutes before half-time when Dani Alves produced an exquisite pass with the outside of his right boot straight into the path of Lionel Messi who drove the ball in with his left foot.
However, that turned out to be Messi’s final contribution as the Argentine was forced out of the match with a hamstring injury and was replaced by Cesc Fabregas at the start of the second half.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic gave PSG a lifeline when he scrambled in the equaliser after a soaring header from Thiago Silva hit the post in the 79th minute.
Xavi calmly restored Barca’s advantage from the penalty spot after goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu rushed off his line in the 89th minute and brought down Alexis Sanchez.
Matuidi then struck with the last kick of the game as his long-range shot eluded the outstretched fingers of Victor Valdes.
Quarter-finals (first legs)
Played yesterday
Paris SG vs Barcelona - 2-2
Bayern Munich vs Juventus - 2-0
Second legs – April 10
Today (20.45)
Malaga vs Borussia Dortmund
Real Madrid vs Galatasaray
Second legs – April 9