Wednesday, 21st November, 2012

Juventus put Chelsea comfortably to the sword in the Champions League, winning 3-0, and then stated that they felt they benefited from the Blues’ decision to play without a recognised striker.

Chelsea boss Roberto Di Matteo opted to leave usual frontman Fernando Torres on the bench in Turin, clear in the knowledge that a draw would be a good result for the Champions League holders.



But Chelsea were soon on the backfoot after Fabio Quagliarella opened the scoring in the 38th minute.

Arturo Vidal added a second on the hour mark, with Di Matteo finally introducing Torres with 20 minutes left. It did not help however and Juventus completed the rout with a goal in the 90th minute through Sebastian Giovinco.

"We had a wonderful match against Chelsea, but we need another point to pass through, so we well have to struggle also in the last match in Donetsk against Shakhtar", commented Juventus assistant boss Angelo Alessio to the press post-match.

"We had plans to push Chelsea to stay on their defensive line. I think that we did it very well."

And Alessio reflected upon the fact that Chelsea choosing to play without a recognised striker for most of the match helped the Bianconeri.

relatedNewsStory

"Probably we had a little advantage playing a Chelsea team without a real striker."

Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon also went on the record as stressing the result sends a message out, given the comprehensive nature of the victory.

"We had a great match, I think we gave a message to Europe", said the goalkeeper.

"It’s an important victory not only for Juventus, but for all Italian football.

"We dominated the match, this was very important, I am very happy for that."

The Bianconeri will now look to wrap up qualification by taking a point from their final group game against Shakhtar Donetsk.

What are the tipsters at Inside Bet tipping? Find out now!