Juventus vs. Maccabi Haifa

The visitors enjoyed a strong start to the game and almost took the lead in the opening stages. Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon made a stunning save to deny Vladimir Dvalishvili's close-range header from Gustavo Boccoli's cross.

Shortly after, Fabio Grosso tested Nir Davidovitch with a stinging free-kick which the Maccabi goalkeeper punched away out of danger. Maccabi struggled to get past Juve's defence and Lior Rafaelov tried his luck from the distance but his effort went high and wide.

Ciro Ferrara , Juventus coach was was forced to make a substitution in the 35th minute with Martin Caceres replacing the injured Jonathan Zebina. On the stroke of the half-time, Buffon was called on to make a save from Dvalishvili's left-footed strike from the edge of the area.

Juventus regrouped and came out much stronger in the second half. Juve showed more determination after the restart and it did not take long for them to break the deadlock

Chiellini latched onto Diego's free-kick from the left towards the area before heading past Davidovitch , just one minute after the game restarted.

In the 53rd minute, Diego's lobbed ball went just high over the bar with the Maccabi keeper already beaten. On the hour mark Felipe Melo was forced to leave the pitch having sustained an ankle injury.

The visitors were handed a blow when midfielder Tiago Dutra was shown a straight red with 22 minutes remaining after a hard tackle on Chiellini. The hosts were unlucky not to put the game beyond Maccabi's reach.

Juve were made to sweat in the final stages of the game with the visitors surging forward in search of the equaliser.Their efforts were almost rewarded deep in stoppage time but Buffon made a crucial save from Mohammad Ghadir's strike from the left side of the box.

Despite playing in numerical superiority, Juve failed to extend their lead as Maccabi went in search of the equaliser but the hosts held on for victory. Maccabi Haifa lay rock bottom of Group A with no points to their tally yet.