Del Piero features in our 5 classic Real Madrid v Juventus clashes
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Juventus head to the Bernabeu with hopes high that the Italian giants can reach a first Champions League final since 2003’s penalty shootout defeat to AC Milan and history certainly suggests they have a chance against Los Galacticos.
Leading 2-1 from an absorbing first-leg encounter in Turin, Juventus are 19/20 to progress to the final and 4/1 to beat Real Madrid on the night.
But while some may scoff at such a suggestion, given the presence of near-superhuman stars like Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale in the Madrid ranks, previous encounters have seen Juve
upset the odds to advance.
And regardless of whether the Bianconeri beat their Spanish equivalents, the game itself is likely to be as memorable as these five encounters from Champions League seasons gone by.
Juventus 2-0 Real Madrid – 1995/96
Before Juve celebrated their second Champions League crown by beating Ajax on penalties the Old Lady of Italian football first had to traverse a rather tricky quarter-final tie against a Real Madrid side boasting an exciting young talent by the name of Raul.
But after a 1-0 first leg defeat in Spain – settled by a single goal from Raul – Juventus turned it on in the Stadio Delle Alpi, with their very own youngster, Alessandro Del Piero opening the scoring before Michele Padovano, who would later play for Crystal Palace, scored the decisive second.
Juventus 0-1 Real Madrid – 1997/98
Juventus had been quite simply brilliant en route to the Champions League final in 1998, hammering a great Dynamo Kyiv side 5-2 on aggregate in the quarter-finals before seeing off a Monaco team boasting Thierry Henry and David Trezeguet 6-4 in the two-legged semi final.
Yet despite dominating proceedings with more shots on goal and more on target, Juve could find no way past Bodo Illgner in the Real goal. Del Piero finished the campaign with 10 Champions League goals, but it was Predrag Mijatovic’s cool finish in the final that made the difference.
Juventus 3-1 Real Madrid – 2002/03
A classic Champions League encounter that saw Pavel Nedved out-shine the likes of Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo and Ronaldo among others, Juventus successfully overturned a 2-1 first leg deficit to progress with goals from Trezeguet, Del Piero and the aforementioned Czech.
There was even time for Gianluigi Buffon to save a penalty from Figo, with Zidane grabbing a late consolation. It all ended on a sour note for Nedved though, who picked up a booking and missed the final at Old Trafford.
Juventus 2-0 Real Madrid – 2004/05
With a team boasting Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Patrick Vieira and Fabio Cannavaro among others, Juve went into the 2004/05 campaign as dark horses to win the Champions League and showed just why they were a team to be feared bydumping Los Blancos out in the last-16.
Ivan Helguera had given Real a 1-0 first-leg lead but a Juventus team managed by Fabio Capello fought back in the second leg. Trezeguet levelled the tie with 15 minutes remaining before Marcelo Zalayeta grabbed what would prove to be the winner with four minutes of extra time left.
Unbelievably, however, their progress would be halted in the next round by eventual winners Liverpool.
Real Madrid 0 – 2 Juventus – 2008/09
Arguably Del Piero’s last great hurrah in the Champions League came in this impressive 2-0 away win over a solid Real Madrid side in the group phase of the competition some six seasons ago.
It was a victory that allowed Juventus to top the group ahead of Real and featured a goal from the club’s golden boy that remains among the finest seen in the competition.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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