THE Old Lady of Italian football Juventus bowed 3-1 to FC Barcelona in the UCL final last Saturday, thus ensuring their place in the unwanted page of history book as the first club to lose six Champions League finals!
Without a shred of doubt, Barca thoroughly deserved this triumph, their fifth overall which made them joint third on UCL all-time winners list alongside Liverpool and Bayern Munich. Only Real Madrid (10 UCL crowns) and AC Milan (7) boast better UCL success record than the Catalans.
However, no club can claim to be better than Barca in the last decade during which they have won four out of the 10 UCL crowns on offer. The remaining six crowns were shared by six different clubs – AC Milan (2007), Manchester United (2008), Inter Milan (2010), Chelsea (2012), Bayern Munich (2013) and Real Madrid (2014) are the other six clubs to share glory with the Catalans in the last decade.
By their victory in Berlin, Barca also became the first club to do a unique treble of UCL, domestic championship and the domestic FA Cup, twice following their first success of 2009. Now what remains for coach Luis Enrique and his wonderful team is to emulate the incredible feat achieved by their predecessors of 2009 who were led by Pep Guardiola who managed them to clinch all six available trophies that year.
But spare a thought for Juve and some of their aged players such as Gianluigi Buffon, Giogio Chiellini and Andrea Pirlo who may never have another chance to win the UCL again. Juve didn’t turn up in the first half and could have been overrun had Barca not been guilty of over elaboration. And Buffon also made two world class saves to keep his side in it despite going behind to a 4th minute opener by Ivan Rakitic.
Things improved briefly in the second half and promising poacher Alvaro Morata leveled scores. That sparked some Juve revival during which they nearly got a second as they completely seized the initiative from the highly fancied Catalans.
But once Barca regained composure, there could only be one outcome. Suarez stabbed home from close range after Buffon parried Lionel Messi’s shot in the direction of the onrushing striker who himself only came alive in the second half. The World Cup-winning goalkeeper would not be proud of his save as he failed to fulfill a basic goalkeeping principle while parrying Messi’s effort.
Neymar thought he had doubled the Catalans’ advantage in the last quarter of the match before his goal was rightly chalked off for a handball by goal-line assistant ref. Interestingly, that was the first time I would witness a goal-line assistant ref influence a crucial decision in matches. As we’ve always argued, these goal-line assistants should be allowed to do more than standing as mere stooges behind the goal post.
However, the enterprising Brazilian couldn’t be denied his goal when he shot through Buffon’s leg in the very last kick of the match to seal a thoroughly deserved 3-1 win for the Catalans. Again Buffon would ask himself what he was doing far away from his goal after he would not be allowed to take a free-kick near the half-way mark. He should either go into the opponents’ box to help with a potential equalizer or simply return into his penalty box.
But no, the hugely experienced goalkeeper inexplicably stood in no man’s land, some tidy 20 yards away from his penalty box. Expectedly, Barca cleared the free-kick and quickly countered, leaving a back-tracking Buffon in all sorts of panic. Neymar drove the final nail on Juve’s coffin after swapping passes with Pedro.
In spite of these aberrations, however, Buffon had a good game in my opinion and was one of the few Juve players who could raise their head high after a UCL final chastening at the hands of imperious Barca.
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