Juventus players celebrate the victory
Juventus crowned their return to the new edition of the Champions League after a two-year absence by beating their guest, Dutch club PSV Eindhoven, 3-1 on Tuesday, in the first stage of the first round. Juventus won the match in their favor within 6 minutes in the first half, with goals from Turkish Kenan Yildiz (21) and American Weston McKennie (27), and added a third goal in the second half through Argentine Nicolas Gonzalez (52). Moroccan substitute Ismail Saibari scored PSV’s goal (90+3). Juventus returned after an absence of 685 days, specifically since their loss to Paris Saint-Germain 1-2 on November 2, 2022 in the group stage, with their new coach Thiago Motta, who, after an ideal start in the league with two wins with the same result of 3-0, their image was somewhat shaken by two goalless draws. The Italian clubs continued their dominance against Eindhoven, as the latter did not win in their seven away matches in the Champions League (two draws and five defeats). In contrast, Eindhoven, who were eliminated in the round of 16 of the continental competition last season and entered the match with high morale while leading the Dutch league with a full mark of five wins, failed to translate their local superiority on the continental stage. Juventus dominated the first half, pressing early and opening the scoring through Yildiz in his first match in the Champions League and the first goal of the new edition with a magical right-footed shot from inside the area that settled in the opposite corner of goalkeeper Joel Drummel’s goal (21).
At 19 years and 136 days, Yildiz became the youngest player to score in the continental competition for Juventus, breaking the record of Alessandro Del Piero (20 years and 308 days), according to Opta statistics. The home team added the second after 6 minutes after the Argentine striker Nicolas Gonzalez, who had just arrived from Fiorentina, played with the Belgian defender Mathieu Dams to enter the penalty area and pass to McKennie, who shot from the penalty spot to the left of the goalkeeper. At the beginning of the second half, Juventus increased their tally to three goals after exploiting a defensive error by their Dutch guest, as the Serbian Dusan Vlahovic passed the ball to Gonzalez, who was alone with the goalkeeper, who forced it with his right foot and shot it into the net (52). Saibari reduced the score with a late goal with a low shot from inside the area after a pass from the Belgian Johan Bakayoko in the third minute of stoppage time.
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