Juventus vs. Barcelona 2017: Live coverage and score updates from the Champions League quarterfinals

Juventus is heading to the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League after an impressive performance at Camp Nou on Wednesday. They were able to follow up their 3-0 win in the first leg with a fantastic defensive performance, drawing 0-0 in the second leg to knock Barcelona out of the competition.

Things almost started poorly for the Bianconeri, though, when Dani Alves was bizarrely not ready to start the match. He was taking care of an equipment issue when the whistle blew and his team was under pressure when he rushed back onto the pitch.

During the first leg of their UEFA Champions League quarterfinal against Juventus, Barcelona tried to match up against Paulo Dybala specifically. They benched Sergio Busquets and deployed Dybala’s countryman, Javier Mascherano, to mark him specifically. That went poorly — Dybala scored twice.

Barca has also been experimenting with a back three as well. But they’ve thrown both of those things out the window and gone back to their most tried and true lineup: 4-3-3 with Busquets at the base of the midfield, Jordi Alba at left back, and Ivan Rakitic in a box-to-box role.

Last week saw a stunning turn of events, as Juventus not only beat Barcelona in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal tie, they absolutely dominated them to take a 3-0 aggregate lead into the second leg at the Camp Nou. Now they have to protect that lead, and try to prevent another miracle comeback from Barcelona.

As just about every fan will remember, Barcelona mounted a huge comeback against Paris Saint-Germain under incredibly dire circumstances in the round of 16 just a month ago. Of course, Juventus are a completely different kind of challenge for a team to face — the Italian side is incredibly well-drilled by Max Allegri, and their focus is much, much greater than their French counterparts. They’re not going to seemingly finish the match early like PSG did, so Barcelona will have to scratch and claw and fight for every inch of ground in this match.

Tuesday brought us a surprising and exciting result, with Juventus not backing down from Barcelona at all in the Champions League quarterfinal. In fact, the Italians took the game to their opponents early and often, and came away with a huge 3-0 win from it thanks in large part to a first-half brace from Paulo Dybala.

Juventus started out just as aggressively as their lineup looked to be, and it took only minutes for them to break Barcelona’s patchwork defense down and take an early lead. A run from Juan Cuadradro down the right side left Jeremy Mathieu tied up in knots, and one centering ball to Paulo Dybala later, and it was Juventus’ Argentine attacker that was opening the scoring in fantastic fashion — not Barcelona’s Lionel Messi.

It has taken less than 10 minutes of the second half for Juventus to go three up against Barcelona in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal, with veteran centre-back Giorgio Chiellini the unlikely goalscorer.

Barça defender Javier Mascherano was no match for the towering Italian when Miralem Pjanić floated a corner into the box, with Chiellini left with the simple task of guiding the ball inside Marc-André ter Stegen’s far post. He made no mistake, and it’s no exaggeration to say that Juve already have a foot in the final four.

Juventus have made a lightning start to their Champions League quarterfinal first leg at home to Barcelona, with young Argentine Paulo Dybala scoring twice in the game’s first quarter.

The first was a fine finish on the turn from the 23-year-old, scored from a tight angle in just the seventh minute of action.

Two of the Champions League favourites go head-to-head in Tuesday’s quarterfinal first leg, with Juventus welcoming Barcelona to Turin. It’s a rematch of the 2015 final, which the Catalan outfit eventually won 3-1 in Berlin two years ago. Given events since, Juve will be confident of reversing that result this time around.

Though Barça are still a very good team, their recent form has left something to be desired. Luis Enrique’s side needed to pull off a record comeback to beat Paris Saint-Germain in the last round, and head into this match on the back of a surprise 2-0 defeat away at Málaga in La Liga. They’ve not been firing on all cylinders, and Juve could well make them pay.