March 7 (UPI) — Juventus escaped Wembley Stadium with a 2-1 victory against Tottenham Hotspur Wednesday in London, advancing into the Champions League quarterfinals.
The Old Lady beat Spurs 2-1 in the second leg matchup, after a 2-2 draw in the first leg on Feb. 13 at Juventus Stadium in Turin, Italy.
Spurs opened the scoring in the 39th minute, getting a goal from forward Heung-Min Son. Christian Eriksen dribbled toward the box before sending a ball into Dele Alli during the play. Alli was knocked down but the ball rebounded out to Kieran Trippier on the right side. He laced a pass to the other side of the box finding Son. The Tottenham forward hit a one touch shot past keeper Gianluigi Buffon for a 1-0 lead.
Tottenham took the edge into halftime. But Juventus evened it up in the 64th minute. Defender Stephan Lichtsteiner crossed a ball in from the right side, finding Sami Khedira for a header. The flick went on toward goal, before being intercepted by Gonzalo Higuain, who flicked it into the net.
Juventus jumped ahead just three minutes later. Higuain fired a perfect through ball ahead of fellow forward Paulo Dybala in the 67th minute. Dybala sprinted past the defense on the breakaway and finished with a powerful blast past Hugo Lloris.
“We’re so happy — we turned it around from a losing position, against a Tottenham side that showed themselves to be an excellent and aggressive team, who always give everything,” Higuain said after the match, according to Juventus.com.
“We’re really satisfied with the result. I’m so proud to be part of this team and to have won here, at Wembley — that doesn’t happen every day.”
“I’d also like to thank the medical staff and all those who’ve stuck by me – the last few days haven’t been easy. It’s already time to turn the page and switch our focus to an important game on Sunday.”
Juventus joined Manchester City, Real Madrid and Liverpool in the final eight Champions League pool with the victory.
“Sometimes football is cruel but it’s part of the game,” Lloris said after the game, according to TottenhamHotspur.com. “Today we can keep our heads up because I think we did some positive things in the game. Unfortunately we lost it in two situations that we should have dealt better with but in front of us was one of the biggest teams in Europe, they have a lot of experience and they showed their mentality today because even at 1-0 down they didn’t give up and kept faith in themselves.”
“We’re going to learn about this big disappointment. We are still a young team. Juventus are used to winning a lot, they’re used to playing a lot in the Champions League and they have the experience of this stage of the competition. For us it was our first time with this team but we’re going to keep working because we have a lot of quality, we have a very talented team, we’ll show it again but unfortunately it wasn’t enough today.”
The Old Lady find out its quarterfinals opponent on Friday.