Juve salvage draw against BATE

Juventus came from two goals down to rescue a point against BATE Borisov in Tuesday's Group H clash.

Early Sergei Krivets and Igor Stasevich strikes stunned the visitors in their first visit to Belarus, but a Vincenzo Iaquinta first-half brace saw the Italian side claim a point.

Juve boss Claudio Ranieri was forced to leave out several of his top stars due to injury and will be relieved to come away with a point after the worst possible start.

The Turin outfit were caught cold in the early goings after a scrappy opening 20 minutes saw the Belarusian league leaders open the scoring.

Landmark

BATE scored their first ever Champions League goal on 17 minutes when Stasevich's beautiful 40-yard through ball found Krivets, who slotted home after rounding former Arsenal keeper Alex Manninger.

And the Belarusian minnows were in dreamland when they doubled their lead after some woeful Juventus defending.

Pavel Nekhaychik was given time on the left to swing in a right-footed cross and his ball found Stasevich in the penalty area with four Juve players surrounding him, but the striker coolly headed back across goal leaving Manninger with no chance and his marker Pavel Nedved slightly red-faced.


Brace

Juventus found their feet after a terrible opening quarter and scored with their first real chance of the match.

After seeing a corner cleared, Sebastian Giovinco's right-footed cross found Iaquinta and the big No 9 powered his header into the top-left corner.

And the pair linked up again right on brink of half-time when Giovinco's through-ball was neatly slotted through keeper Sergei Veremko's legs by Iaquinta to double his tally for the night.

The second half saw both teams pick up several yellow cards, but fail to carve out any gilt-edged chances.

Juve replaced goalscorer Iaquinta for Brazilian striker Amauri with 10 minutes to go, while BATE were clearly happy for a point, and despite having 20 efforts on goal throughout the night, the Italians were unable to break down the home side.

The result moves BATE up to third while Juventus are second, two points behind Real Madrid.

Muahahaha!