juventus end malmö bid to close in on qualification published: wednesday 26 november 2014, 23.01cet malmö ff 0-2 juventus fernando llorente and carlos tévez goals ended home hopes of progressing and moved the bianconeri within a point of the knockout phase.
• fernando llorente and carlos tévez secure juventus win in second period • loss ends malmö's hopes of progressing out of group a • robin olsen holds bianconeri at bay during first half with string of outstanding saves • final-day draw with atlético will take bianconeri into knockout phase • next games: olympiacos v malmö, juventus v atlético (9 december)
juventus moved within a point of the uefa champions league knockout phase as second-half goals from fernando llorente and carlos tévez ended ten-man malmö ff's hopes of advancing.
much talk ahead of the match was of how the swedish side were going to contain tévez, the man who scored twice against them during the matchday one encounter in turin. as it turned out, they kept him quiet until the final moments and gave the ıtalian champions a closely run race, especially during the first period.
the opening 45 minutes may have been more grit than grace, but the hosts showed plenty of early promise. ısaac kiese thelin had two half-chances within the first ten minutes, the second of which came about as lively left-back ricardinho intercepted a risky andrea pirlo ball, heading into the forward's path but the no24 failed to find the target.
juventus's first and best opportunity also originated from an enterprising full-back. stephan lichtsteiner surged down the right and crossed diagonally through the malmö area. when enock adu mis-hit his clearance, arturo vidal rifled a powerful shot towards goal but keeper robin olsen held on despite having his fingers stung.
midfielder claudio marchisio started getting involved around the half-hour mark and forced another fine save from olsen after toe-poking a trademark pirlo centre towards goal. minutes later he connected with more power – this time vidal provided the delivery – yet olsen again stood firm, ensuring the teams went into the interval level.
the deadlock was broken shortly after the restart. marchisio struck a beautiful defence-splitting pass from his own half, setting llorente free and the spain forward made no mistake, keeping his cool to round olsen before slotting in.
the best malmö could manage in reply was an adu strike – powerful but straight into gianluigi buffon's safe hands. substitute álvaro morata seemed certain to wrap up the points but rattled the crossbar from under five metres, so tévez showed the youngster how it was done with two minutes to go, collecting paul pogba's pass after the midfielder's surging run and slipping an effort into the corner.
malmö's frustration told and they saw erik johansson sent off in the goal's aftermath for dissent, but they can console themselves with a uefa europa league spot should they defeat olympiacos fc in greece in a fortnight's time.
