Well Barcelona is a tough draw, but this might just be the best time to face them honestly. Busquets is suspended for the first leg. Neymar, Rakitic, and Pique are a yellow away from a ban and will miss the second if they get booked. We can do this guys, this is a challenge. If we want to win this competition we have to beat the big teams. Even better is the first leg is in Turin. Many people might see this as a disadvantage but when big teams play each other its really better to have first leg at home. Because away goals play huge factors, so its better to concede as little as possible at home, and then be ready to score a lot in 2nd leg. If PSG can keep a clean sheet against Barca at home, I see no reason why we cannot, especially without Busquets. I think maybe we should go back to a 3-5-2 for this. Alves against his old club will also motivate us. Barcelona beat us in the UCL final, but we beat them over 2 legs back in 2002-03, so history is not against us. If we lose, it just means we are not good enough and there will be more chances within years to come. In Allegri we Trust, FORZA JUVENTUS!!!
I agree. Not to mention that Barca has a big target on their chest with that "fishy" officiating against PSG.
The ref actually got in trouble by the way. Did you hear he was demoted to the Europa League? I think refs will be a lot more careful after that happened.
If Suarez dares to act up and gets violent , not only do I hope he gets sent off , but also hope Chiello sneaks an elbow and knocks out his buck teeth onto the pitch
This is the problem I have with plying the second leg there. We just saw that the ref can be intimidated by that crowd and, well, there is always "Barca Time" like their was "Bayern Time" last year. Still, would rather play them than Bayern right now.
Barca and Bayern are both teams I would've liked to see in the final. We are going to have to step up big time to advance.
Juve isn't going to beat Barca 4-0 like PSG, but they're not going to let them score 6 either. It will be close. The advantage of playing second leg away is that should Juve need a goal late, the away goal rule will work in our favor. Must win the first game Turin to have a legitimate shot imo
This Barca side aren't as impressive as that monstrous 2015 version. The question is whether this Juve are better. This is why the CL is an epic tournament. These matches are of the highest quality in the world and it's great to see Juve play a major part. In their last three CL KOs, Juve have been eliminated by Bayern twice and Barca in the final. It's time for Juve to break this ceiling. If the team aspires to win the CL, these matches are to be relished. Juve can do it.
In terms of match ups, this Juve may be more equip to playing against Barca than they were in 2015. Cuadrado and Alves vs Neymar and Alba. Mandzukic and Sandro vs Messi and Sergio Roberto. Higuaín and Dybala vs Mascherano and Pique. Chiellini and Bonucci vs Suarez. Defensively, this 4-2-3-1/4-4-2 shape will help Juve with Barca's left side. Cuadrado and Alves have he speed to restrict Neymar. As much as I've been clamoring for Allegri to start Pjanic, Khedira, and Marchisio together, Cuadrado's workrate, pressing, and counterattacking will be very important. Mandzukic needs to be an absolute beast on Sergio Roberto.
Give Higuain, Mandzukic be Dybala all the rest they need, we might need Khedira to be rested too for this game and an A game from Pjanic, we will need to avoid injuries before this match up. If we keep everyone healthy including our backline then we should be okay. This roster will give us the best chance to win: Buffon Rugani Bonucci Chiellini Sandro Marchisio Khedira Alves Pjanic Dybala Higuain Maybe you can fit Mandzukic somewhere in there. The only concerning factor is Alves, he makes us vulnerable on defense, so someone like Litch might be better even though his offense kinda sucks.
I'd give it close to a 0% chance that Allegri reverts to a back 3 unless Barza plays as a RB (which I doubt). Allergi loves his 4-4-2 shape and defensively it has worked very well.
You make some very valid arguments. When we played Barca in the final two years ago, Allegri was forced to play with a back four due to Chiellini's injury-enforced absence. I feel like packing the midfield is the way to go. Ideally, we would want Marchisio sitting in front of the defense with Pjanic in the trequartista role.
The focus should be on keeping the pressure on. Our final against them a couple years back, or the two Bayern fixtures last season, serve as good examples of what happens when you sit back and try to defend against an elite attack. Let them defend our "five-star" attack. If you lose, go out fighting.
If you take away the MSN, the rest of FC Barcelona is pretty average. We have more depth and quality in our side. Iniesta doesn't impact games the way he used to -- he is now 33. Many of Barca's summer acquisitions have been labelled as not being good enough to don the Blaugrana shirt. What has frustrated me about Juve this year is that we're not ruthless enough in front of goal and we have this unusual tendency to switch off once we're ahead in games. I hope these deficiencies can be ironed out in time for this crunch tie.