20 February 2019
The Primavera’s hopes of winning the UEFA Youth League were put on hold after they failed to progress into the Last 16 of the tournament. Just like against Ajax in 2017, Juventus’ adventure in Europe came to an end in the play-offs. At Valerij Lobanovskiy Stadium, the host team progressed with a 3-0 result, which started at the beginning of the game and was secured in the final minutes. Francesco Baldini’s men struggled to threaten the opposition and to contain the attacks of the Ukrainians for almost the whole match. After a good run in the group stage with Manchester United, Valencia and Young Boys, their time came to an end in the playoff stage of the UEFA Youth League.
In the cold in Kiev, Juve was hit immediately with a goal in the sixth minute of action from Vashchyshyn, who capitalised on a parry from Loria, to put the Ukrainians in the lead. The home side gave the impression of always being dangerous, and did not give any space to Juventus. In the 34th minute Nicolussi Caviglia came close to pulling one back through a dangerous set-piece. It then fell to the feet of Moreno, who left Neshcheret shook with his effort.
In the second half, Dynamo Kiev continued to command the flow of the game. In the 56th minute, Loria was simply fantastic with a double save off the efforts of Shulianskyi. The defenders couldn’t do anything when Buletsa doubled the Ukrainians lead in the 70th minute. Juve were under pressure, and in the end, the hosts found their third through Popov, who sentenced the Bianconeri to an elimination.
Baldini's words
"Our approach to the match was wrong," commented Mr. Baldini at the end of the game. “Because we were playing something important. We did not prepare for it like this, especially from a mental point of view, and we must quickly understand that there is still a long way to go. Now we have to be good at resetting and focusing on the championship, where an important match awaits us.”
