To ensure that their final group game at home to Borussia Mönchengladbach next month is a dead rubber, City must breach the barrier posed by Buffon, who will move into second place on the list of players with the most appearances for the Italians against City.
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Mario Mandzukic’s 18th-minute opener proved decisive in Turin but there were a host of chances spurned at both ends throughout a keenly contested match.
“I hope that we are not going to get Barcelona again”, said the Chilean, “because last season and the first season they had [Lionel] Messi and Neymar, and now with [Luis] Suarez they are a very hard team to beat, but at some moment we are going to be at the same level”.
“I think we missed quite a few important injured players, but we have a fantastic squad”.
“I left him on the bench for the first game but an injury obligated him to play immediately and from that day he’s been doing very well”.
David Silva has a chance of bring fit for the weekend against Southampton, but Vincent Kompany out for another two weeks.
The boys are in good shape and the trio of recent wins has also boosted moral. It’s important for everybody to finish top of the group.
The City defence looked shaky from the start against a strong Juventus side, with Mandzukic joined by Paulo Dybala up front and Paul Pogba surging forward from midfield whenever there was a hint of an attacking opportunity.
“We don’t have the team that we need but we need to wait until the last game because we can still win the group”. There were missed scoring chances in both halves.
“It is not an easy team or stadium but it is not the result we wanted”.
Substitute Álvaro Morata and Marchisio went close for the Old Lady as the match approached the hour mark, while City substitute Fabian Delph fired wide of the top-right corner with a long-range effort on 68 minutes.
All four of Griezmann’s goals in this year’s Champions League have come against the Turkish team.
On the back of their humiliating 4-1 loss to Liverpool on Saturday, the Premier League side turned in a much-improved showing but lacked a cutting edge to lend Juve the advantage in the battle for a seeded place in the knockout draw.
“There’s no point in looking to get to a certain point and then thinking, “it doesn’t really matter now”. The veteran Juve goalkeeper also denied Aguero just before the break.
Buffon – and the goalframe – prevented City from levelling early in the second half.
Fernando nodded the ball downward and it hit the under of the post but Yaya Toure failed to score from a rebound, Buffon alert to the situation.
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Juventus introduced Alvaro Morata two minutes later and the striker almost made an immediate impact, but his attempted lob crashed against the upright.
