Juventus stumbled into the knockout stages of the Champions League as they were held by BATE Borisov.
Italians cling on to top spot by the narrowest of margins
Juventus stumbled into the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League as they were held to a goalless draw by BATE Borisov.
Juve entered the game as if they believed top spot in Group H was already secure and struggled to raise their game above the mediocre in a disappointing opening period.
BATE did little to add to the occasion, happy to soak up pressure and launch sporadic counter-attacks against illustrious opponents.
The Italians, therefore, saw plenty of the ball but were unable to do much with it.
Sebastian Giovinco did his blossoming reputation no harm with an eye-catching display, but even he failed to fashion any clear-cut opportunities.
A couple of free-kicks which drifted narrowly wide were as close as Claudio Ranieri's side came to forcing a breakthrough, with Amauri cutting a frustrated figure up front.
Within moments of the restart Mikhail Sivakov wasted a glorious opportunity to hand the Belarusians an undeserved lead, but sent a tame header straight at Alex Manninger.
Handled
Then, on 52 minutes, Sivakov's night got much worse as he handled in the area, allowing Giovinco the opportunity to open the scoring from the spot.
However, the talented youngster fluffed his lines as he sent a woeful effort sailing high over the crossbar.
Igor Stasevich sent a looping header onto the top of the net as BATE threatened to make Juve pay for their wastefulness, but they were once again left to rue their inability to hit the target.
Olof Mellberg was slightly fortunate to see a penalty appeal waved away when he appeared to get a hand to a drilled cross from the right, with the decision causing uproar on the BATE bench after they had seen a spot-kick awarded for a similar incident at the other end.
With less than 10 minutes left on the clock the visitors should have snatched all three points when top scorer Gennadi Bliznyuk wriggled his way past Mellberg, but the talismanic striker lacked composure at the vital moment and poked well wide.
Juve then had their opportunity to seal victory, only for a flowing move to be thwarted by a fine stop from Sergei Veremko.
Ranieri's men were ultimately able to hang onto pole position in the group, but looked far from impressive, while BATE's first taste of life in Europe's premier club competition sees them head home with no wins taken from their six games.
| Juventus |
Team Statistics |
BATE Borisov |
| 0 |
Goals |
0 |
| 0 |
1st Half Goals |
0 |
| 5 |
Shots on Target |
2 |
| 11 |
Shots off Target |
6 |
| 5 |
Blocked Shots |
2 |
| 12 |
Corners |
4 |
| 16 |
Fouls |
21 |
| 4 |
Offsides |
9 |
| 1 |
Yellow Cards |
4 |
| 0 |
Red Cards |
0 |
| 71.1 |
Passing Success |
69.3 |
| 21 |
Tackles |
29 |
| 85.7 |
Tackles Success |
93.1 |
| 53.3 |
Possession |
46.7 |
| 59.4 |
Territorial Advantage |
40.6 |
|
