00:00Good evening from Villa Park where it finished. Villa nil, Juventus nil and for a few seconds at least Villa thought they had downed another European heavyweight.
00:12Morgan Rodgers sweeping home with the last kick of the game after Juventus keeper Michele Di Gregorio had spilled a free kick.
00:21Some Villa players celebrated, others didn't. There was general confusion. Had the referee given a free kick?
00:28Had he given the goal? No one seemed quite sure. It took about two or three minutes until it was confirmed that no he had given the free kick.
00:37Diego Carlos penalised for a foul on the goalkeeper. Unai Emery described the decision afterwards as very soft.
00:45He felt that the goal would have stood in a Premier League game. Oli Watkins said the same.
00:52The general feeling was that Villa were unlucky and that the goal should have stood.
01:00But in a modern game goalkeepers do get a lot of protection.
01:05In truth the drama at the end was in contrast to a game that for most of the 90 minutes was fairly dull.
01:15Juventus badly depleted, no senior striker available to their manager Thiago Motta.
01:23They kept the ball very well but this was a game of few chances. Di Gregorio saving in the first half from Oli Watkins
01:31and then a superb goal line block in the second half to deny John McGinn.
01:37In between Emi Martinez showed why he won the best goalkeeper in the world award by saving brilliantly from Francesco Conceicao
01:45which was the only one big chance that Juventus had in the entire game.
01:49But to be honest in the first five minutes this looked like a game that was going to finish 0-0 and it duly did.
01:55Good point for Villa, it's probably a point that's enough to put them into the playoff round of the Champions League at least
02:03and they're still well placed to battle for a top eight position.
02:06But a sense that perhaps, yes this was Juventus, this was a game that most Villa fans wouldn't have even dreamed of taking place two years ago.
02:13But also the sense of a missed opportunity as well.
Comments