1. Spotlight
SSAANNDDEEEEPP MMEENNOONN
DECCAN CHRONICLE
B
arcelona are on the brink of a treble. With the
La Liga title almost in their kitty as well as
entering the final of the Spanish Cup and the
Uefa Champions League, the Catalan giants are well
on their way to yet another historic season.
Barcelona are by no means new to all the plaudits
and admiration that has been coming their way as
they have rewritten football’s age old tactics with
their high pressing and possession based football over
the years.
The terms ‘false nine’ and ‘tiki-taka’ all part of foot-
ball’s lexicon have come from the Spanish side.
Even as the season draws to a conclusion — presum-
ably a silver laden one for the side — there are still
question marks over the defensive prowess of the side.
While there is no argument about the clean sheets
that they have kept over the course of the season,
Bayern Munich — in their ultimately unsuccessful
attempt to make it to the final of the Champions
League — showed exactly where the weakness of the
side lies. High balls and direct runs.
As a team, the La Liga champions elect are set up to
defend from the front. Pressing from the front line,
never allowing the opponents to settle and thereby
forcing mistakes while crunching the playing area
with defenders pushing up the field, has been their
hallmark to trap the opposition offside.
But when it comes to the crux of it, as a defensive
unit, the defenders leave a lot to be desired. With
Gerard Pique — who seems ever so much more com-
fortable with the ball than without it — having fallen
short of his previous performance levels, Javier
Mascherano — a midfielder turned defender — has
often been called upon to cover his partner.
The attacking mindset of Dani Alves and Jordi Alba
— which more often than not pays dividends — only
adds to their defensive worries.
As Bayern showed during their win at Munich, high
balls and lofted crosses are a major problem for the
defence. With most of their backline on the shorter
side and Pique unable to position himself correctly to
get to the ball, Robert Lewandowski and Mehdi
Benatia were more than happy to go for the header.
The German side also troubled the defenders as they
forced them to backpedal with Thomas Muller and
Lewandowski choosing a direct approach and run at
the defence.
While the brilliance of their front three — Lionel
Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar — lovingly called
MSN — can get them out of almost any problems with
their panache, finishing ability and unparalleled
skills, Barca need to tackle the defensive woes before
next season.
With the inconsistent Jeremy Mathieu and ever-
injured Thomas Vermaelen yet to add stalwart value
to their side following their summer moves, the
Blaugarana will need to make sure that they get a
tough-tackling defender — in the same mould as
Carlos Puyol — to shore up their base if they aim to
dominate in the forthcoming seasons.
BARCA NEED TO
LOOK AT THE
FULL PICTURETT..NN.. RRAAGGHHUU
DECCAN CHRONICLE
A
fter suffering a 5-0 aggregate
pasting at the hands of Bayern
Munich in the quarter-final of
the Champions League in 2013,
Juventus manager Antonio Conte had
said an Italian club wouldn’t be able to
win the blue ribbon event of Europe
in the near future. Conte wasn’t
wrong because Serie A was in dol-
drums then. Things haven’t improved
dramatically in Italian
top flight because
Milan giants, AC and
Inter, are in the throes
of mediocrity on the
field and uncertainty
off it. Conte left
Juventus last season to become the
Azzurri coach, partly frustrated by
the lack of funds that was available
for him to build a squad that was capa-
ble of winning the Champions
League.
Juventus, who have just sealed their
fourth Serie A title in succession and
whose finances aren’t as bad as the
top Milan clubs, are a match away
from proving Conte wrong. The Old
Lady of Turin have set up a
Champions League final with
Barcelona after dumping holders Real
Madrid out of the tournament with a
3-2 aggregate win.
Juventus are on the
verge of offering a
flicker of hope to
Serie A.
Juve forward Alvaro Morata came
back to haunt his former club, Real
Madrid, by finding the net in both the
legs of the compelling semi-final. The
sadness of missing out on El Clasico
at the summit of Europe is fast giving
way to a potentially cracking contest
between two teams that are brimming
with talent, old and new. Both Barca
and Juventus are chasing a treble and
a win at the Olympic Stadium in
Berlin on June 6 could be the icing on
the cake in an outstanding season.
The contrasting casts of the two
finalists are hard to miss. While
Barcelona have an attacking trident
that appears to have been assembled
in footballing paradise the squad of
Juventus is full of oldies who are in
the twilight of their careers and a
couple of youngsters who were cast
away by their former clubs as surplus
to requirement. Goalkeeper
Gianluigui Buffon and midfield
enforcer Andrea Pirlo have the
gnarling looks of being con-
temporaries of dinosaurs but
they are as integral to
Juve’s success this sea-
son as Morata and
dynamic midfielder
Paul Pogba, who was
offloaded from
Manchester United
by a man whose eye
for talent was
unmatched in his
heyday: Alex
Ferguson. Even
Juve’s spearhead
in attack, Carlos
Tevez, didn’t come
to Italy in a blaze of glory.
The highest goal-scorer in Serie
A this season didn’t even make
the Argentine World Cup squad
last year. Tevez would be eager to
make Lionel Messi’s team suffer
in Berlin’s historic stadium
where the Italians won their
fourth World Cup nine years ago.
Another intriguing sub-plot will be
the meeting of Barca forward Luis
Suarez and Juve defender Giorgio
Chiellini. Suarez was banned for four
months for biting Chiellini in a World
Cup group match last year. The
Uruguayan would also come face to
face with Juve full-back Patrice Evra
who he had racially abused during his
Liverpool tenure. There is still time to
break one’s head over the Champions
League final. The moment is ripe to
celebrate the renaissance of Italian
football.
ITALIAN
RENAISSANCEBoth Barca and Juventus are chasing a treble and a win
at the Olympic Stadium could be the icing on the cake
Luis Enrique
Alvaro
Morata
Arturo
Vidal
37SATURDAY 16 MAY 2015
Chennai Chronicle
football