PHOTO: AFP
KARACHI:
Massimiliano Allegri’s men host defending champions Real Madrid for the first leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-final at the Juventus Stadium in Turin after just being crowned champions of Italy with a 1-0 win over Sampdoria.
The two sides have met 16 times in Europe’s elite club competition, with Real enjoying a slightly better record of eight wins to Juve’s seven, with only one of the ties finishing all square. However, their latest meeting at the same stage of the competition in 2003 went in favour of Juventus as Old Lady progressed into the final after Los Blancos surrendered a one-goal lead from the first leg at the Bernabeu to lose the tie 4-3.
While both sides come into the game in good form, Juventus have history to fall back on with Real’s sketchy past in Italy in European competitions. Real Madrid has won just four of their 29 games on Italian soil, with their last win coming against Roma back in 2004. Meanwhile, Juve have defeated the defending champions five times out of seven on home soil and will be looking to make it six on Tuesday.
Real, looking to become the first team to successfully defend the Champions League title, have a tough road ahead as Juventus have arguably the best defence from among the semi-finalists, having conceded only five goals in the competition, and with Karim Benzema doubtful for the tie, the burden would fall on Cristiano Ronaldo and Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez to lead the attack and breach Juve’s back four.
The midfield battle
Although Real Madrid boast a better attack, having scored nine goals more than their Italian counterpart in the competition, the tie would be decided in the centre of the park where the deep-lying Andrea Pirlo can cause all sorts of problems for Carlo Ancelotti’s men with his pinpoint passes and an uncanny ability to find the forwards better than any player in the world. Arturo Vidal and Claudio Marchisio have also been in spectacular form in the Serie A, with the former coming into the contest on the back of scoring the winner that handed Juventus their fourth consecutive Serie A title.
On the other hand, the injury to Modric has left a gaping hole in midfield for Los Blancos, but the return of Gareth Bale from injury would provide much solace to Ancelotti, who has been without his star winger since mid-April, and may need all the firepower at his disposal to get past the stubborn defence of his former team.
However, Real are short of a defensive midfielder — with only Sami Khedira a natural for the role, but the World Cup-winning German has only featured in 17 games for Real this season raising concerns over his fitness and form — and thus would have to assign the role to either Sergio Ramos or Toni Kroos to try to nullify the threat posed by Pirlo. Ancelotti will be well aware of 35-year-old’s ability, with Pirlo being the orchestrator of Ancelotti’s Milan side that won two Champions Leagues.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 5th, 2015.
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