Barça fail to learn their lesson and will need another miracle to topple Juventus

Barcelona will have to produce another miracle at Camp Nou if they want to reach the Champions League semi-final. 

Paulo Dybala scored twice in the first half and Giorgio Chiellini headed in a third after the break as Juventus beat Luis Enrique’s side 3-0, drawing comparisons with Barça’s four-goal hammering in Paris in the last round. 

They came back from that defeat, incredibly beating Paris Saint-Germain 6-1 in the second leg, but you get the feeling Juve will not be so forgiving when the two sides meet again next week. 

Barça were better here than they were in the French capital and they’ll feel aggrieved not to have scored an away goal. Andres Iniesta and Luis Suarez both passed up super chances. 

But at the same time Juve were worthy of the win: solid at the back, as expected, and clinical when it came to exploiting the weaknesses Barça have in defence which Massimiliano Allegri spoke about on Monday. 

With Sergio Busquets suspended, Luis Enrique kept Jeremy Mathieu in the side and pushed Javier Mascherano into midfield. 

It didn’t work as Juve took the game to the Blaugrana in Turin, pinning them back in the first five minutes and then taking a deserved lead in the seventh minute through Dybala. 

Juan Cuadrado was left in space on the left, allowed to roll the ball to the Argentine forward, who was bizarrely left in even more space in the area. Neither Iniesta nor Gerard Pique closed him down and he spun and curled the ball into the bottom corner. 

Barça briefly regathered the composure and took control of the ball but 15 minutes later they were picking the ball out of the net for the second time, Dybala with a another fine finish. 

Before then Iniesta had missed a great chance, Gianluigi Buffon making a super save after Messi’s pass had split Juve wide open. 

Andre Gomes replaced Mathieu at the break and Barça starter well but received a killer blow from a corner. Javier Mascherano was tasked with marking Chiellini, who was able to use his height advantage to ditch the Argentine and head in off the post. 

A lost Barca kept plugging away in search of an away goal and Suarez was gifted a great chance. Messi was again the creator but the Uruguayan flashed wide, the ball taking a nick of someone and going behind for a corner. 

A Neymar shot was blocked with the help of a hand from Chiellini, but no penalty was given, with Suarez blazing a Sergi Roberto pull back over under pressure and Messi firing a well-placed free-kick into the wall. 

Perhaps the biggest disappointment for Barcelona was that no-one was especially surprised by this result. 

It could have been better, it could have been worse. But what it will almost certainly mean this time is that the Catalan side’s Champions League campaign is over. 

Recent, strong defensive evidence suggests Juve will score at Camp Nou and Juve are unlikely to panic like PSG did. You can say with some authority that they will not let Barça score five. 

And so another, an even bigger miracle aside, it looks the comeback against PSG was in vain. Luis Enrique’s decision to announce he will leave was not the magic wand it quite seemed after all. 

But Barça will believe. And you can’t blame them. What happened against PSG was ridiculous. Why not back themselves to produce another remontada?