UEFA Champions League Final: After ugly head, football’s beautiful feet
After the filthiest fortnight imaginable, and before the lawyers feast on FIFA’s carcass, there is just a chance that true stars will shine in Berlin on Saturday night.
The prize in the Olympic Stadium is worth more than money. It is legitimate to ask if Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and Neymar constitute the most incredible trio of strikers in one lineup since Alfredo Di Stéfano, Ferenc Puskas and José Héctor Rial.
Comparisons across the decades light a bonfire of argumentation. Di Stefano, Puskás and Rial will remain unbeatable in the memories of older fans, but the game has changed since they scored, almost at will apparently, for Real Madrid between 1955 and 1960.
One thing that hasn’t changed is that Europe — Spain in particular — attracts the finest global talent like gold dust to speculators. Barcelona’s front three against Juventus this weekend are an Argentine, a Brazilian and a Uruguayan. Real of 50 years ago was led by two Argentines and Puskás, a Hungarian.
What magic they reaped, and what devastation Messi and his two cohorts have wreaked in the Spanish league and in the Champions League this season. When Barça paid out over $100 million to sign Suárez last summer, the most prevalent questions were why does it need another goal scorer, why not fix the defense instead, and why in any case buy the villain Suárez who was banned through August, September and October after biting the shoulder of Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup?
reservoir gods: Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, Javier Mascherano and Luis Suarez arrive in Berlin on Friday, ahead of their Champions League final against Juventus on Saturday. The strike troika of Messi, Suarez and Neymar (not in picture) have scored a whopping 120 goals between them this season. (Source: Reuters)
The first answer is that great players adapt. Messi changed his role, not as one imagined by dropping deeper to create for the other two, but by moving out to the right wing.
But with Messi cutting inside, onto his favored left foot yet with breathtaking pace and balance and dancing spontaneity, he was still able to outscore the others, while also assisting each of them with regularity.
The outcome, in cold statistics, is Messi 58 goals in 55 games, Neymar 38 goals in 48 appearances, and Suárez 24 goals from 40 matches. A grand total, unprecedented in any Spanish club, of 120 goals from just three men. And the math says nothing of Messi’s mesmerizing moves or the chances he sets up for others; it says nothing of the way that Suárez stretches defenses with his running down of lost causes, and little of the way that Neymar still so impishly gives the impression of playing for the sheer joy of it.
How is Juve to cope with this trident? Juventus have reached this showpiece by eliminating Real Madrid, who in Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale had, on paper at least, a credible — and even more expensive — trio of their own.
Laced with organization, experience and hunger, this collective effort has driven Juve toward the same triple peak of league, domestic cup and Champions League titles that Barça is pursuing.
Each team also has a golden oldie on the brink of retirement, at least from playing at this level. Xavi, the first man to play 150 games in the Champions League, will probably start on the bench, but come on at some stage to mark his farewell before he leaves to semi-retirement in Qatar with Al Sadd.
The Juventus playmaker Andrea Pirlo negotiated the past week with the M.L.S. team New York City FC.
At 35 and 36 respectively, Xavi and Pirlo depart as playmakers who have distinguished European soccer.
And Juventus will contest Saturday’s final without the veteran Chiellini, who tore a calf muscle in training Wednesday.
Maybe all that running, all that pushing of mind and muscle carrying Juve further than the experts predicted, is taking a toll on the Italians as they head for the hardest task of all. Barcelona, toughened up at the back, changed in midfield, and simply irresistible in the attack, are the heavy favorites to win in the Olympic Stadium.
Remember, though, the words of Gianluigi Buffon, the captain, the night when Juve knocked out last season’s champions Real in Madrid. “I expect,” he said, “not to have any regrets. We will not go to Berlin as tourists, after all the work and the journey we’ve made; we are there to play a game that means a huge amount to us.” NYT
Doing a Guardiola in Germany
Berlin: The enduring image of Luis Enrique for many soccer fans is the Spain player with blood gushing from his nose after a vicious elbow from Italy defender Mauro Tassotti in the 1994 World Cup quarter-finals in Boston.
That could now be replaced by a picture of the beaming Barcelona coach proudly showing off the treble of trophies the Catalan club are on course to win in his hugely impressive first season in charge.
Barca wrapped up the La Liga title with a 1-0 win at Atletico Madrid and beat Athletic Bilbao 3-1 to secure a record-extending 27th King’s Cup last month before they take on Juventus in Saturday’s Champions League final in Berlin.
Few would have predicted former Barca and Spain midfielder Luis Enrique, 45, could even come close to matching the historic achievement of his ex-team mate Pep Guardiola during his debut campaign in 2008-09.
The Catalan giants became the first Spanish club to win the Champions League and the domestic league and Cup in one season, something no other side, including their arch rivals Real Madrid, have managed.
Barca are on the brink of a fifth continental crown, having eliminated Guardiola’s Bayern Munich 5-3 on aggregate in the semi-finals. The club’s decision to repeat the Guardiola gamble with Luis Enrique has proved a resounding success, whatever the result at the Olympic Stadium on Saturday.
He succeeded Gerardo Martino after Barca ended 2013-14 without a major trophy for the first time in six years.
In five more games, 72 more goals for Barcelona
1st Final in Champions League history to be staged in Berlin
19 years since Juventus last won the Champions League. Barcelona last won it in 2011
3-1 The scoreline read against Juventus the last time they played a final in a German city — in Munich at the 1997 European Cup versus Borussia Dortmund
8th Final for both Juventus and Barcelona. Juventus have a 2-5 win-loss record while Barcelona’s record is 4-3
7th Time the final will be contested between an Italian and a Spanish side, with the later holding a 5-2 advantage
120 Goals scored by Messi (58 out of 55 matches), Neymar (38/48) and Suarez (24/40) this season. Only three clubs in Europe’s top five leagues have scored more than them this season — Real Madrid (162); Bayern Munich (123); PSG (122)
51 Goals scored Carlos Tevez (27 of 47 games), Alvaro Morata (14/45) and Paul Pogba (10/40) for Juventus, seven less than what Messi has scored alone.
72 More goals scored by Barcelona (172) this season than Juventus (100). Juventus (35) have conceded 2 goals less than Barcelona (37), but the Spanish side have played four games more.
28 Goals scored by Barcelona in 12 Champions League games against 16 by Juventus. The Catalans have conceded 10 goals to the Italians 7
8 Goals scored by Barcelona this season in the last 15 minutes, the most by any clubs. Juventus are yet to concede a goal in that period
99 Champions League goals Messi has been involved in so far (77 goals and 22 assists) in 98 games
150 Champions League matches that Xavi is tied in with Casillas and could surpass him if he plays on Saturday
6 Gianluigi Buffon and Marc-André ter Stegen share the record for most clean sheets this season
1 Massimiliano Allegri has won only one of his eight Champions League encounters against Barcelona, drawing three and losing four
