Di Maria stars again as Juventus march on

Angel Di Maria made the difference yet again as Juventus beat German side Freiburg 1-0 at home in the first leg of their Europa League Round of 16 tie. The Argentine winger scored the only goal of the game with a great header to follow up his fantastic hattrick in the last round against Nantes. Since returning as a World Cup winner, Di Maria has 10 goal contributions for Juve.

It wasn't the most comfortable match for hosts as Freiburg had an equaliser ruled out for handball in the buildup. Other than that though, the German side only had one shot, a freekick from the edge of the box.

A lot of the talk pre-match however was about the absence of Paul Pogba. The French star, who has played 30 odd minutes of professional football since April of last year was left out of the squad despite it being a rare occasion where he was fit. According to manager Allegri, it was because of disciplinary issues as Pogba was late to a pre-match team meeting the previous evening.