Second legs of big Champions League ties are usually a lot more fun than the turgid affairs you get in the first legs, and I was hoping this would be the case for Juventus v Chelsea. The first leg had been uninspiring, with Chelsea notching a fairly routine 1-0 win thanks to Drogba.
The Old Lady put out an attacking line-up for the second leg though, with forward Vincenzo Iaquinta playing on the wing with Trezeguet and Del Piero up front. Juventus started really well, looking to take the game to Chelsea and looking the better side, although you know that a team of Chelsea's quality is always going to have good spells in the game at some stage.
Nedved went off injured, which looked like it might damage Juve's attacking threat, but Iaquinta scored to level the tie on 19 minutes with a nice finish. After this Chelsea started to get into the game and were attacking with menace down the left hand side, while Juventus still looked dangerous on the break. I've always thought the public perception of Italian defences being really solid is a bit of a myth, I've seen many Italian sides holding a lead from the previous leg get absolutely thrashed, for instance Man Utd 7-1 Roma, Deportivo 4-0 Milan, Inter 1-5 Arsenal and Lazio 1-5 Chelsea.
Despite Nedved's absence the game looked really open to me at this stage, and I was surprised to see one spread betting firm's total goals quote lower than everyone else's at 2.5-2.7. There's no other way to put it than that the game looked like it would yield more goals than that, so I went for an in-running BUY OF TOTAL GOALS AT 2.7.
A buy of goals is obviously a very fun bet if it starts going well. Chelsea were piling the pressure on at the end of the half, and looked to have the ball over the line from Drogba's free kick, but the officials adjudged that Buffon had scrambled it away just in time. Shortly after Chelsea took the lead when Lampard's lob came down off the bar and Essien bundled it in on his comeback from a long injury.
Essien's energy in the first half had made a difference and Chelsea deserved their equaliser. This put me in a great position for my goals buy, with Juventus forced to attack for the rest of the game and Chelsea looking dangerous on the break.
There were chances in the second half, but nothing happened until the 71st minute when Chiellini was sent off for two yellows. He'd hacked Drogba from behind when on a yellow, an absolutely ridiculous challenge considering the way the tie was balanced. One would assume that Juve's heads would start to go down after this, but they were given a penalty for handball a few minutes later.
The referee had lost control of the game at this point, with players pushing and shoving and Del Piero somehow still uncautioned despite five or six tackles that should have got him a card. Del Piero rolled it in to put the score at 2-1, Chelsea ahead on away goals and Juventus on ten men.
Juve still piled forward, with young forward Seb Giovinco, nicknamed 'The Atomic Ant' due to his diminuitive stature, having a positive effect on the game. They didn't score though, and Chelsea caught Juventus on the break with seven minutes left as Drogba got another goal, and it was game over. A good 1.3 profit from this.
AR
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