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Juventus beats Real Madrid 2-1 in Champions League semifinal first leg (Video)

Juventus beats Real Madrid 2-1 in Champions League semifinal first leg (Video)

When the draw was made for the semifinals of this year's UEFA Champions League, most observers agreed that there was only one given. While the Barcelona-Bayern Munich matchup was far too close to call, Real Madrid would beat Juventus.

[Slideshow: Juventus vs. Real Madrid in pictures]

This wasn't the Juve of yore, after all, following a 12-year absence from this stage in the tournament, during which it was relegated in the Calciopoli scandal. This was a team that was fortunate to have made it this far, considering the decay of the Italian league – or so the consensus went.

[FC Yahoo: What's the best game plan for Juventus in the return leg at Real?]

But on the evidence of Tuesday's first leg in Turin, all of that was rather premature. Juve claimed a cunning 2-1 win against the defending champions, courtesy of goals by Alvaro Morata and Carlos Tevez, which negated Cristiano Ronaldo's record-setting 76th goal in this competition.

[FC Yahoo: Champions League Live – Juventus vs. Real Madrid as it happened]

Juventus might have been expected to take a cautious approach, taking the temperature of this tie well before it would venture out on anything resembling an attack. Instead, Juve pressed high, disrupted Real's rhythm early and lurked on the counterattack, preying on its opponents' distaste for hustling back on defense.

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Arturo Vidal created a quick chance in the second minute. And then Morata, a Real player just last season, almost lobbed Iker Casillas on another counter, although the goalkeeper saw through it and recovered.

Then, in the next minute, just the eighth of the game, the reborn Carlos Tevez found a wide swath of space behind Marcelo and ripped a shot that Casillas could only push wide. Morata was there to tap it in and put Juventus ahead.

Even more surprisingly, after it had catenaccio-ed its way through their quarterfinals with Monaco on a 1-0 aggregate score, Juve didn't close up shop. The Italian champions kept on pressing and attempting shots from distance, keeping Real's defense honest. Stephan Lichtsteiner barreled his way through Real's left flank but sliced his shot wide just before the half hour.

That's when the tide turned – for a while anyway. James Rodriguez set up a nice play on the right and wound up volleying a ball square from deep inside the box for Ronaldo. The Portuguese star was so inexplicably and irredeemably open that he had time to flex every muscle in his neck and pick out just the spot where he would head the ball past Gigi Buffon for the equalizer.

Real tried to capitalize on its momentum as the half wound down. And just before the whistle for the intermission, it almost took the lead with a wonderful attack. After playing the ball artfully around Juve's penalty area, Isco was found on the overlapping run up the left. He dinked the cross into the path of James, who nodded his diving header off the crossbar, whereupon Marcelo bounced it onto the goal's roof with a flying scissor kick.

In the second half, the picture was largely unchanged. And soon enough, in the 56th minute, Tevez scampered off in a chaotic breakaway with bodies tumbling all over the place. Finally, after he strode into Real's box but had made the angle tight on himself, defender Daniel Carvajal clumsily took him down. The Spaniard was allowed to stay on by referee Martin Atkinson, but Tevez smashed the penalty through the middle of the goal to put the home team back ahead.

Juventus is plainly a less talented side than the record 10-time champions it faced, but Massimiliano Allegri's game plan simply worked better. Juve absorbed a lot of pressure, yet kept Real well away from its goal for the most part. It positioned cleverly, defended tightly – save for the Ronaldo goal – and were entirely deserving of the win.

So it wasn't a surprise that Juventus rode the game out in relative comfort, even making a late push for a third goal. Because after Tevez scored the winner, only Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez's flick-on to Ronaldo fomented any real danger for Real. But Ronaldo couldn't quite connect on that play, which came mere seconds after Chicharito had come on as a substitute.

The final whistle rang out and Juve took a bow to its adoring fans. Real trudged off, shell-shocked, knowing that it returns home needing a win in the return leg next Wednesday. And that if Juventus can appear as composed and cohesively as it did on Tuesday, that win, and advancing to a second consecutive final, could prove a gargantuan task.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.