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Juventus – Real Madrid (Champions League)

The long awaited Champions League final will finally take place this Saturday night at 9:45 pm, at the Millennium Stadium, in Cardiff, between two european colossi, Juventus and Real Madrid. The Italians have only conceded three goals all season in the competition and are aiming to win the Champions League for the first time since 1996, arriving here without tasting defeat a single time. Real Madrid, on their turn, are bidding to become the first side in the history of the Champions League to retain the trophy, and the first defending champions to have the chance of achieving the feat since Manchester United in 2009.

Juventus made a fantastic course through the competition, reaching this final after finishing as leader of Group H, and eliminating FC Porto, FC Barcelona and AS Monaco in the qualifiers. Juve has only won the competition twice in their history, and the last time was in 1995/96. However, Massimiliano Allegir’s men arrive here in top form and were crowned Serie A champions for the sixth consecutive time, the first Italian team to achieve such a feat, and won the TIM cup, and they arrive here without having lost any of the 12 clashes played in the Champions League. In those 12 matches played in the competition, La Vecchia Signora won 9 and draw the other 3, scoring 21 goals and conceded only 3 in the process, an impressive record, indeed. Juve have one of the best defensive organization at european level, if not the best in all Europe, showing no signs of defensive difficulties in any defensive process.

Offensively, this is a team very strong in attacking set pieces, can create scoring chances through long shots or through individual skill, and are lethal in counter-attacks. Besides of working perfectly as a team, Juventus has players like Dybala and Higuaín who can score a goal at any time. If the Italian side wins the competition they will become the seventh team, in the Champions League history, to have conquered the trophy without tasting defeat a single time. However, this is a clash that can be decided with the minimum detail, and Juve have conscience of who are their opponents, and will have to take special care of Cristiano Ronaldo, with the Portuguese showing a devastating form and presenting danger to any defensive sector in the world.

In their last 5 official matches, Juventus has a record of 4 victories and 1 defeat. This sequence of results started with a 2-1 victory over AS Monaco, for the Champions League. This result was followed by a 3-1 defeat against AS Roma, a 2-0 victory over Lazio, for the TIM Cup, a 3-0 victory against Crotone, and in their last clash, a 1-2 victory against Bologna. With Pjaca out due to injury, Juventus have no fresh injury concerns and Max Allegri can place his strongest available side in the Champions League final against Real Madrid. Allegri has the luxury of being able to play a 4-2-3-1 or 3-4-2-1 formation and that will keep Madrid on their toes up until kick off

Probable Lineup: Buffon – Barzagli, Bonucci and Chiellini – Alves, Pjanic, Khedira and Sandro – Dybala and Mandzukic – Higuaín.

Real Madrid, on their turn, are also having a good course through the competition, and although they have finished the Group stages as 2nd place in Group D, behind Borussia Dortmund, they have eliminated Napoli, Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid in the qualifiers. The Merengues are the team with more titles in this competition, having already been crowned european champions 11 times, and are the current champions in title. Unlike Juventus, Zinedine Zidane’s men doesn’t show such impressive results, since in the 12 matches played in the competition they have won 8, draw 3 and lost 1, but although they have conceded 17 goals, they were able to score 32 in the process. In their last matches, Los Blancos showed a few defensive difficulties, specially in defending counter attacks and in stopping opponents from creating chances.

However, their overwhelming offensive power compensates their defensive difficulties, with the Merengues being very strong in finishing scoring chances, are lethal in counter attacks, very strong in attacking set pieces and in attacking down the wings. Besides the great players of this team like Modric, Marcelo, Kroos, among others, there are two players who have been standing out lately, the defensive midfielder Casemiro, who gives a lot of balance to Real Madrid, and most of all, Isco, the attacking midfielder has been one of the best players throughout this season, having a great positional sense, great technical capacity, being an expert in transporting the game forward, and create several chances using through balls. It is also important to highlight the devastating form of Cristiano Ronaldo, with the Portuguese scoring 8 goals in his last 4 Champions League matches, and is the 2nd top scorer of this year’s edition with 10 goals, only 1 goal less than Leo Messi.

In their last 5 official matches, Real Madrid has a record of 4 victories and 1 defeat. This sequence of results started with a 0-4 victory against Granada. This result was followed by a 2-1 defeat against Atletico Madrid, for the Champions League, a 4-1 victory over Sevilla, a 1-4 victory against Celta de Vigo, and in their clash, a 0-2 victory over Malaga. Daniel Carvajal remains a doubt but isn’t expected to recover in time to feature in Wales. Gareth Bale has been declared fit to play in the Champions League final but that gives Zinedine Zidane a major problem. Isco has arguably been Real Madrid’s best player this season but he would be the one forced to drop out of the team at Bale’s expense. It would be a huge call from Zidane to leave the club’s most expensive ever player out of the starting XI but you’d have to say it would be justified based on how Madrid have played without Bale for most of the season.

Probable Lineup: Navas – Danilo, Ramos, Varane and Marcelo – Kroos, Casemiro and Modric – Isco – Ronaldo and Benzema.

Juventus has won 4 of their last 8 direct clashes, drawing 2 and losing the other 2.

This will undoubtedly be an exciting encounter between two giants of European football. In one side of the field is the the team with the best defensive organization across Europe, and at the other side is one of Europe’s best offensive sector. All in all, this final is evenly poised and could go either way. However, given the form of both teams, there should be a few goals along the 90 minutes.