Pirlo strikes as Juve beat Lyon to reach the semi-final.
Italian champions Juventus proved too strong for a spirited Lyon in the Europa League quarter-finals.
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Juve’s main focus is on retaining the Serie A title, but Antonio Conte’s side are also desperate to reach a Europa League final that will be played in their own stadium in Turin on May 14, and a 2-1 win against Lyon on Thursday took them into the semi-finals 3-1 on aggregate.
Unbeaten at home this season and leading 1-0 from last week’s first leg in France, Juve got off to a superb start at a packed Juventus Stadium as veteran Andrea Pirlo curled home a typically brilliant free-kick inside four minutes.
Lyon, who were missing a host of key players through injury, showed great spirit to level the scores on the night when Jimmy Briand headed in off a post in the 18th minute, and suddenly OL knew that one goal would be enough to take them through.
However, with former Juve player and coach, and current France boss, Didier Deschamps, watching on from the stands, Carlos Tevez had a headed effort disallowed for offside just after the hour mark before a Claudio Marchisio strike that took a huge deflection off Samuel Umtiti wrong-footed Anthony Lopes in goal and effectively ended Lyon’s dreams.