Juventus suffer shock elimination at the last 16 stage of the Champions League

Juventus ended their Champions League campaign on a disappointing note as they were eliminated by Lyon on the away-goal rule at the Allianz Stadium on Friday.

The Bianconeri went into the second leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie with a 1-0 deficit and they had a mountain to climb after Memphis Depay scored from the penalty spot in the 12th minute.

The penalty awarded by referee Felix Zwayer was a shocker, considering Rodrigo Bentancur had perfectly intercepted the ball before he made contact with Houssem Aouar.

Surprisingly, VAR decided against overruling the decision and the goal meant that the Bianconeri needed to score three times in normal time to progress to the last eight of the competition.

Prior to the interval, the Italian champions were handed a penalty of their own and it was another astonishing decision, considering Miralem Pjanic’s free-kick struck Memphis’ arm, which was by his chest.

Cristiano Ronaldo stepped forward to convert his 10th successive penalty in the competition. After the break, the Bianconeri continued to pile the pressure and made it 2-1 at the hour mark after a superb left-footed strike from Ronaldo.

However, that was not sufficient as Les Gones held on to a 2-2 aggregate score and therefore qualified for the quarter-final stage by virtue of the prestigious away goal.

With the defeat, the Bianconeri missed out on the last eight of the elite competition for the first time since the 2015/16 campaign where they were beaten by Bayern Munich.

Meanwhile, Ronaldo won’t feature in the quarter-final of the Champions League for the first time in a decade. Coincidentally, Lyon were the last club to deny him the chance when he played for Real Madrid in 2010.

Rudi Garcia’s side are scheduled to face Manchester City in their next European outing. The final eight teams in the Champions League will play their games in Lisbon.

The quarter-final and semi-final matches will be single elimination games at the neutral venue rather than the usual double-legged ties. The format change was made by UEFA in June amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Stats from Transfermarkt.com