The visitors began the game with a rapid tempo and came desperately close to taking a surprise early lead. Anderson Silva’s audacious close-range back-heeled effort rolled inches wide of the post, before an excellent reflex save from Michele Di Gregorio prevented Andrea Cambiaso from inadvertently putting the ball into his own net just a few moments later.
After those two wake-up calls, the hosts sprang into life. Kenan Yildiz saw a shot from inside the box parried away from danger by Neofytos Michail, while Teun Koopmeiners really should have scored with a free header in the 10th minute.
However, the Cypriot champions responded well to the Bianconeri’s surge of pressure and continued to threaten Juventus with their lightning-quick counter-attacks. Shortly after the half-hour mark, Silva fired a shot that rattled the woodwork while Romania international Vlad Dragomir’s ambitious long-range volley forced a superb save from Di Gregorio to tip the ball over the bar.
At the other end, with the interval on the horizon, Jonathan David wasted a golden opportunity to put the Old Lady in front, but somehow steered the ball wide with the goal at his mercy. How the score was goalless at half-time will remain a mystery, but there was no doubt that Juventus were taken aback by Pafos’ willingness to go toe-to-toe with their opponents.
Bianconeri head coach Luciano Spalletti brought on Francisco Conceição for the restart, and he almost broke the deadlock on the hour mark, but his close-range attempt was brilliantly kept out by Michail at his near post.
Juventus finally eased the tension midway through the second half, as Cambiaso picked out Weston McKennie, who promptly rifled the ball into the top corner in emphatic fashion to give the hosts the lead.
The game was all but over as a contest six minutes later, when Yıldız’s perfectly-weighted pass found an unmarked David after hitting their opponents on the counter, and he made no mistake to slot the ball past Michail to notch his second UCL goal of the season.
Spalletti’s side have risen into the top 20 of the league phase following their second UCL victory in a row and will face SL Benfica at home in their next game in the competition. Despite being on the losing side, Pafos can take plenty of positives from their performance and still have a real chance of advancing beyond the league phase, one point off the pace with two games remaining.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Kenan Yildiz (Juventus)
