Many scoffed at the £20m+ price tag on Oscar when Chelsea purchased him from Internacional, but very few will be questioning the youngster's transfer fee after his first half performance against Juventus. He received a surprise start over Juan Mata and has made the most of the opportunity with two first half goals.
Chelsea Vs. Juventus, 2012 UEFA Champions League: Halftime Score 2-1, Oscar Stunning
His first was a tad bit lucky and aided by a deflection, but there was no luck involved in his second of the match. Two minutes after he put Chelsea ahead, Oscar hit a world class strike in the 33rd minute to double their lead. With his back to the goal, the Brazilian international took a touch, made a great turn, then curled an absolutely perfect shot over and around the outstretched hand of Gianluigi Buffon.
Juventus initially looked a bit shell shocked by the goal, but eventually managed to pull themselves together and fight their way back into the match. Arturo Vidal scored the goal that gave Juventus new life in the 38th minute, assisted by Claudio Marchisio. After receiving Marchisio's pass on the edge of the box, Vidal found himself a bit of space and hit a perfect shot across his body, to the far post to make it 2-1.
Chelsea have been the better side and Oscar has been brilliant outside of just his goals -- he's man-marking Andrea Pirlo very effectively -- but this game is nowhere near in the bag for them. Their defense has looked shaky and there's no reason to believe that Juventus can't equalize at any moment.
For more on the Blues, head over to Chelsea FC blog We Ain’t Got No History. For more on the Old Lady, check out Juventus FC blog Black and White and Read All Over. We have coverage of the game in our Chelsea vs. Juventus StoryStream. For more on the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on Twitter.
See More:
