Manchester City conceded late against Juventus in terrible conditions as goalkeeper Ian Lawlor played a blinder for Atillio Lombardo’s side.
Juventus 1-1 Manchester City
Manchester City played out a damp squib of a game against Juventus in Turin in the featured NextGen fixture from last night, in more ways than one. Torrential rain in Italy left the pitch badly waterlogged for the majority of the game leaving a quality game always a difficult prospect. There was much confusion at the back for Juve when Hordur Magnusson played a back-pass that became caught in the deluged surface leaving Constantin Branescu scrambling in the goal, but nothing came of this confusion.
Juventus generally dealt with the conditions better than their English opponents and City clearly missed the invention of Spanish whiz-kid Denis Suarez. Ian Lawlor in the City goalmouth had to be on hand on more than one occasion in the first half as he denied efforts from Italian pair Stefano Beltrame and Stefano Padovan.
Before Manchester City opened the scoring Jules Ntcham, the much talked about French midfielder, had an effort from the edge of the box but Romanian Branescu was not troubled in any way. However on the brink of half-time a whipped in corner saw Courtney Meppen-Walter rise above Icelander Magnusson and nod past the Juve keeper into the bottom of the goal. Meppen-Walter, an England under-17 international, made unfortunate headlines earlier in the year when he was involved in a fatal car crash in Manchester.
Juventus continued to look the more dangerous in the second period and Atilio Lombardo’s men did well to hang on until late in the game. Federico Mattielo had a shot well blocked by George Evans and Juventus were then denied a clear penalty-kick when Karim Rekik bundled over Padovan in the area, only for the Juve man to be booked for diving. Just three minutes later however and the Bianconeri had their opportunity from the penalty spot after Kieran Kennedy handled the ball in the area. City goalkeeper Lawlor continued what was an impressive game for him when he expertly denied Padovan from the spot to keep the Manchester side in the lead.
At this point it seemed that Juventus were destined not to score as they continued to bombard Lawlor’s goal with crosses and corners but with six minutes remaining the valiant defending was to no avail when Beltrame saw a rasping shot ricochet off the crossbar and into the path of Daniele Rugani who prodded home the rebound with a close-range header to earn the Old Lady a deserved point.
Here are some Tweets from the City youngsters….
images: © mitsurinho, © markhillary
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