Dušan Vlahović and Federico Chiesa both notched as Juventus showed their class by beating SC Freiburg home and away to reach the UEFA Europa League quarter-finals.
Having failed to notch a single shot on target in Turin, it took Freiburg just over 20 minutes to put things right on home turf as Matthias Ginter’s powerful header forced Wojciech Szczęsny into a low save.
That’s about as good as it got in the first half for the hosts, however, who thought they had gone one down minutes later when Vlahović rifled home following a six-yard-box scramble, only for the lengthy celebrations to be rendered meaningless by a late offside call.
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The wheels really did start to come off for Freiburg just before the interval as Federico Gatti’s effort was handballed at close range, which forced referee Serdar Gözübüyük to point to the spot and show Manuel Gulde his second yellow card, effectively ending the tie as a contest.
Buoyed by relentless home support at Stade Europa-Park, Freiburg pushed on valiantly in the second half, with two decent chances falling to Michael Gregoritsch as the visitors took their foot off the gas.
Firstly, the Austrian fired a speculative free-kick narrowly wide of the target from distance, before a snapshot from close range called Szczęsny back into action, but the experienced stopper did enough to keep his sheet clean.
Freiburg goalkeeper Mark Flekken responded with a reflex save of his own in the dying seconds, but Federico Chiesa slotted home at the second time of asking to make Juventus’ victory that little bit sweeter.
