Italian champions Juventus cast their early-season woes aside by

beating in-form Manchester City 2-1 in their opening Champions League

Group D fixture at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday.

Last season’s beaten finalists, Juve have lost two and drawn one of

their first three Serie A games and went behind in the 57th minute when

Vincent Kompany pressured Giorgio Chiellini into scoring an own goal.

The Juventus centre-back protested with justification that he had

been fouled, but his side drew level 13 minutes later through Mario

Mandzukic before Alvaro Morata curled home a fine 81st-minute winner.

“Well done to the boys, because I think they played a really good

game against an excellent team that has outstanding players,” said

Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri.

“It’s a pretty delicate moment for us. It’s not easy to win here and I think the players played extremely well.”

After five straight wins in the Premier League, it was a first

setback of the season for Manuel Pellegrini’s City, whose home form has

bedevilled them in their unsuccessful attempts to progress beyond this

tournament’s last 16 in the last four seasons.

They have won only three of their last 12 home games in the

competition and find themselves on the back foot already ahead of their

next match away to Borussia Moenchengladbach on September 30.

“It’s disappointing. I don’t think we deserved to lose,” said City manager Pellegrini.

“We had better chances and played better than Juventus. It was a

typical Champions League game. Both teams didn’t create many chances,

but we had more possession.

“It was not a tactical problem. Juventus just scored two beautiful goals.”

Allegri admitted on the eve of the game that his side had been

scarred by their dismal domestic form and he will have been alarmed to

see their defences breached inside two minutes.

Fernandinho drove forward from midfield and slipped a pass into the

path of Raheem Sterling, whose low shot was blocked by Gianluigi Buffon.

Both sides were largely reduced to pot shots in the first period,

Fernandinho going closest for City with a wicked 25-yard effort that

drew a collective intake of breath from the home fans.

The hosts spent the first part of the second period inside their own

half, but in the 57th minute they broke through in circumstances that

left Juventus fuming at Slovenian referee Damir Skomina.

David Silva’s left-wing corner appeared to have been headed in by

Kompany, but replays revealed that the Belgian had in fact pressured

Chiellini into heading the ball into his own net.

Suddenly Juve were all at sea, Buffon producing a superb double-save

to thwart first Sterling and then Silva, before beating away an effort

from Wilfried Bony.

The action quickly switched to the other box and Buffon’s opposite

number Joe Hart was obliged to parry a scuffed shot from Stefano

Sturaro.

It had been a quiet night for former Manchester United midfielder

Paul Pogba, who was jeered after slicing a volley wide, but in the 70th

minute he created the equaliser with a glorious, arcing left-wing cross

that the airborne Mandzukic touched home.

After five Premier League clean sheets, it was the first goal City had conceded this season.

City had been readying £54 million ($83.3 million, 73.5 million

euros) record signing Kevin De Bruyne and he came on for Sterling,

before Kompany succumbed to a calf injury, with Nicolas Otamendi going

on for his debut.

Kompany wore a glum expression as he took his seat on the bench and

his mood was not improved when the ball bounced off Aleksandar Kolarov

and into the path of Morata, who bent a sweet left-foot shot in off the

left-hand post.

Sergio Aguero, surprisingly named on the bench after Pellegrini had

ruled him out of the game with a knee injury, made a late entrance, but

the closest City came to an equaliser was a Yaya Toure curler that

Buffon acrobatically palmed behind.