Antoine Griezmann blasts Barcelona's 'lack of attitude' in defeat to Juventus

Catalans lose final Champions League group game 3-0 at Camp Nou to surrender top spot

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Barcelona players Antoine Griezmann and Marc-Andre ter Stegen criticised their team's performance against Juventus after a 3-0 defeat saw the Spanish club surrender top spot in their Champions League group.

Juventus marched victory at Camp Nou on Tuesday night, with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring two penalties either side of Weston McKennie's superb bicycle kick goal.

The result meant Barca and Juve both finished Group G on 15 points but it is the Italians who progress as group winners on a superior head-to-head after the Catalans claimed a 2-0 win in the reverse fixture in Turin.

It was another setback in a season threatening to spiral out of control for Barcelona, who lost their most recent La Liga outing to promoted Cadiz. Barca have lost four of their opening 10 league matches and languish in ninth place, albeit with at least one game in hand on most teams above them. Crucially though, they trail leaders Atletico Madrid by 12 points and Diego Simeone's team have also played 10 games.

Reacting to the loss to Juventus, Griezmann admitted Barca had been outclassed by the Italian champions in all departments.

"We were not good enough, they over-ran us in the first half, we lacked everything," the French forward told Movistar. "A lack of attitude, desire, wanting to run, defending, attacking, everything was bad."

Dutch goalkeeper Ter Stegen was equally scathing in his appraisal, saying:  "There are two things, one thing is individual mistakes, and the other is how the team defends, these are different things.

"Right now teams can score against us in any given moment. This is very tough, we need to come out of this, and work very hard."

Soccer Football - Champions League - Group G - FC Barcelona v Juventus - Camp Nou, Barcelona, Spain - December 8, 2020 FC Barcelona's Antoine Griezmann reacts REUTERS/Albert Gea
Antoine Griezmann during Barcelona's Champions League defeat to Juventus. Reuters

The mood was decidedly different in the Juventus camp and defender Leonardo Bonnuci praised the togetherness of his team.

"When you have this desire to sacrifice yourself and an infallible sniper, like Ronaldo, you are sure you can win these matches," Bonucci told Sky Sport Italia.

"As we showed in the derby (win over Torino), if we play with this desire, we bring home the results we want. The next step is to do this in all our games."

Barcelona will aim to bounce back when they return to La Liga duties against Levante on Sunday night, while Juventus – third in Serie A and unbeaten from 10 matches – travel to Genoa, also on Sunday.