Juventus striker Carlos Tevez smashed home a second-half penalty as the hosts stunned holders Real Madrid with a 2-1 win in an absorbing Champions League semi-final, first leg on Tuesday. The irrepressible Argentine, playing some of the best football of his career, won the spot kick just before the hour when he was upended by Dani Carvajal on a breakaway and tucked it away past Iker Casillas to give Juve the edge after a pulsating, open game.
The home side’s Alvaro Morata, who moved from Real to Juve last summer after helping them to a record 10th European Cup title, tapped home the rebound from a Tevez strike on nine minutes to send Juventus Stadium into raptures although he declined to celebrate after scoring.
Cristiano Ronaldo became the competition’s all-time top scorer with Real’s equalizer in the 27th minute, a simple header that beat Gianluigi Buffon from close range, but his former Manchester United team-mate Tevez also continued his fantastic season as he restored Juve’s lead.
Although Juve are regarded as one of the most powerful clubs in Europe, Serie A’s recent decline means they have been unable to keep up financially with the continent’s elite and were regarded as relative lightweights among the semi-finalists.
Giorgio Chiellini, booked for a crunching tackle in stoppage time, symbolized Juve’s determination by playing the last few minutes with a bandage around his head after suffering a cut.
Real began shakily and played well in patches though Sergio Ramos, once again moved up to midfield, looked uncomfortable, at one point spraying a cross-field pass aimlessly into touch, and Welshman Gareth Bale was subdued on his return from injury.
However Juve, who last won the competition 19 years ago and last appeared in the last four in 2003 when they were beaten by AC Milan in the final, will feel confident of causing an upset in the return leg.
Backed by a passionate home crowd, the newly-crowned Serie A champions had the better of a frantic opening period and Morata gave his side the perfect start, sending the stadium wild with a simple tap-in after Casillas pushed Tevez’s drive into his path at the back post.
That was Juve’s fourth shot on target in the opening nine minutes but it was to prove their last on goal of the first half as Real regained their composure and equalized when James Rodriguez cleverly flicked a bouncing ball over a defender for Ronaldo to head home at the far post.
Ronaldo’s goal meant the Portuguese regained the lead from Lionel Messi as the Champions League’s all-time leading scorer with 76 goals. The goal literally silenced the crowd, but the Bianconeri were far from beaten.
Juve took back control after the half hour, Pirlo stopping a Real counter to help set up Tevez for Claudio Marchisio to test Casillas with a daisy cutter from 20 meters that shaved the upright. Yet Real’s threat was ever-present. Minutes before the interval, Rodriguez wasted a glorious chance when he headed against the bar from point-blank range.
Real, however, paid the price for pushing up the park and packing the Juve area at a corner 13 minutes after the restart. A corner was cleared to Tevez, who went on a blistering run down almost the entire length of the field before being brought down by Carvajal.
The tension was palpable and the normally ice-cool Buffon couldn’t even bear to look, standing in his goal with his back to the action. However, Tevez blasted his spot-kick straight down the middle for his 29th goal of the season. “I’ve been doing that since the 2006 World Cup final,” Buffon, who won it with Italy, said. “I just focused on a single fan and when he got up, I knew we’d scored!”
Real brought on Javier Hernandez, who had scored the winner in his side’s 1-0 aggregate win over Atletico Madrid in the quarter-finals, and he almost leveled but just failed to get on the end of a cross from Sergio Ramos before another substitute Fernando Llorente missed two good chances to put Juve in an even stronger position.
