Gonzalo Higuain had never scored a knockout goal in the Champions League, despite previously playing for Real Madrid and Napoli, so it’s only fitting that when it came it was pretty special.
It took the Argentinian 29 minutes to find the back of the net for Juventus against Monaco following a breathtaking 17 seconds move that started at Ginaluigi Buffon’s feet.
Buffon played the ball out wide to Andrea Barzagli, the least heralded of Juventus’ BBC back three.
Barzagli then slipped it inside to Claudio Marchisio, despite serious pressure from Monaco’s midfield.
Marchisio, in typically calm fashion, took a touch on the ball to evade the attention of Fabinho before clipping the ball up the line to Paulo Dybala.
Dybala instinctively backheeled the ball to Dani Alves who’d made the underlapping run off of Djibril Sidibe.
Now Juventus were really up and running. Alves drove into the Monaco half before sliding the ball into Higuain.
Higuain took two touches before playing the ball back to Alves who was now in the Monaco box, seemingly with a lack of options.
But we should have known better than to doubt the Brazilian.
Alves backheeled the ball to Higuain who had ran, unmarked, up to the edge of the box to slot a finish past Danijel Subasic in the Monaco goal.
It was undoubtedly one of the best team goals of this season’s Champions League, and some way to open the scoring in what could be a very tight tie.
You can watch the goal via BT Sport’s tweet below…