Strongest of all. Juventus conquered Valencia despite the absurd expulsion of Cristiano Ronaldo, demonstrating all of its strength, technique and mentality to the whole of Europe. In football, just like in life, there are no certainties but who knows if tomorrow Mestalla's 0-2 won't take on a much more important value than the "only" 3 points: because missions that count, as you know, always reserve some surprises and the Lady, unlike in the past, was able to react and come out with her head held high, indeed very high.
The opposite of Rome, which instead seems to have lost those certainties acquired a few months ago, when it was able to enter among the first in Europe. But now it's a whole different story and the 3-0 in Madrid certifies the return to earth of a team that was culpably revolutionized in the summer, when instead a few tweaks would have been enough to reinforce it properly. But let's go in order and let's start from the highlight of the evening, namely from what happened in the 29th minute of Valencia-Juve.
Murillo and Ronaldo collide on the edge of the area with the ball far away, the Colombian ends up on the ground: the referee Brych, on the indication of the line assistant, extracts the red card and kicks the Portuguese off the pitch. In an instant Mestalla catches fire, with CR7 in tears of anger and all of Juve protesting. Someone fears a Douglas Costa bis case but the images, in a few seconds, make it clear that this is not the case, on the contrary: Ronaldo has not done anything serious and the expulsion simply does not exist.
Clamorous injustice to which Juve, however, responds as a great team. At the end of the first half Parejo overwhelms Cancelo in the area, this time Brych sees well and assigns a penalty that Pjanic converts perfectly, for the Bianconeri's advantage (45'). Situation that repeats itself at the beginning of the second half, only this time the interpreters are Murillo and Bonucci: the factor however does not change and the Bosnian, once again, cold Neto without problems (51 ').
From then on, despite the numerical inferiority, management of the match was almost perfect, even if in the final Valencia came out enough to earn the third penalty from Brych for a foul by Rugani: Parejo, however, is not Pjanic and so Szczesny can earn a minute of glory.
“It's an important and deserved victory – commented Allegri – We were good at managing the two phases of the match, we would have deserved the advantage even before remaining in 10. The expulsion? I'm not saying anything, but with the Var the referee could have made the best decision".
Instead, there was no arbitration controversy at the Bernabeu, where the strongest team simply won. It was known that Real Madrid was superior to Roma, but it was also legitimate to expect something more from those who, not later than 4 months ago, had come close to the final in Kiev. But the Giallorossi have changed a lot and for the worse, at least that's what the first games of a season say which, barring a sharp turnaround, risks being quite complicated.
Exam passed instead for Lopetegui's Real Madrid, confirmed at the top despite Ronaldo's departure. After all, there is no shortage of alternatives: look at Isco and Bale to believe it, or the young Mariano Diaz. The three goalscorers from the Bernabeu (45', 59' and 92') reminded all of Europe that Madrid is always Madrid, with or without the Golden Ball in charge, and reminded Roma that the Champions League must be tackled with great quality otherwise you risk foolishness.
"I'm worried in a general sense about some of our shortcomings, even if on the other side there was a really strong team - thought Di Francesco - The final plays were never qualitative, we weren't good at taking advantage of the opportunities we had they conceded. Now we have to get back on track in the championship and recover those who dragged us down in the past: we expect much more from them".
After all, games are won with leaders. Those that Juve has in abundance and that in Rome, on the other hand, are no longer to be found.
