Mouthwatering Cardiff contest looms
SHORT of Lionel Messi and his Barcelona mates pitching up at the Principality Stadium, we have pretty much the perfect Uefa Champions League final on its way to Cardiff.
The Wales Online website waxed lyrical this week after the finalists of this year’s competition was decided — Spain’s biggest club — and arguably the biggest in the world — versus Italy’s finest, as Real Madrid attempt to become the first side to successfully defend their crown.
This is truly mouthwatering fare, the website said, as some of the greatest players on the planet right at this moment in time prepare to do battle in Wales.
It is the final Welsh organisers probably dreamed about more than any other when the historic decision to bring the biggest club game on Earth to Cardiff was announced by Uefa a couple of years back.
FA of Wales and Welsh Rugby Union chiefs, of course, couldn’t go public in handpicking their preferred two finalists. Privately, however, you wouldn’t have gone too far wrong in assuming they wanted a Real Madrid versus Juventus showdown. Which is exactly what they have got, dispelling fears it could have been Monaco versus Atletico Madrid instead.
Barcelona would have been ideal candidates, too, of course. Some talked of the prospect of an incredible El Clasico shootout on Welsh soil between Messi’s mob and their archrivals from Spain.
Real are perceived as the biggest club of the lot at the moment and happen to have the Gareth Bale hometown factor as well. So it had to be them. Given Juve are from Italy, not Spain, they were the preferred ideal opponents.
It could not have worked out better as these two giants of the game pitch up in Cardiff and play out a final that will be watched by 400 million TV viewers in 200 countries.
So what about the football itself? It promises to be a truly incredible contest, fought out between the two ultra-special sides.
Juventus may have sneaked under the radar, but football connoisseurs have known for some time just how good the Old Lady are these days.
In Leonardo Bonucci, Giorgio Chiellini and Andrea Barzagli they have the best defenders in the world. Impassable, but also comfortable on the ball. It’s a potent mix.
You don’t blank out Barcelona twice — as Juve did in the quarterfinals — without being quite phenomenal at the back.
At 39 and 34 years of age respectively, Gigi Buffon and Dani Alves have suddenly rolled back the years to the days when they were the best goalkeeper and right-back in the world.
Gonzalo Higuain is a goal machine, but the difference is that they have a genuine match-winner again in young Paulo Dybala.
Everyone talks of Bale or Neymar as the heir apparent to Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo as the next Fifa Ballon d’Or winner, but mercurial Argentine magician Dybala is the heir apparent to Bale and Neymar.
In the Spanish corner, we have the Galacticos. Bale, Ronaldo, Luka Modric. Brazilian Marcelo is the best leftback in the world by a country mile, the new Roberto Carlos.
The battle between Marcelo and fellow countryman Alves down Juventus’ right flank is going to be compelling. Particularly with Bale thrown into the mix, too!
Can the splendid Real centreback pairing of Sergio Ramos and Raphael Varane halt the Higuain-Dybala threat?
Most intriguingly, will goal-getter supreme Ronaldo be able to succeed where Messi, Neymar and Suarez failed in two matches by scoring against Bonucci and Co.
Ronaldo has fond memories of the Millennium Stadium. He has scored here and won trophies in the past for Manchester United.
For Buffon, on the other hand, recollections of Cardiff are different. The last time he played at the stadium, he was beaten twice by Simon Davies and Craig Bellamy as Wales spectacularly overcame Italy in a Euro 2004 qualifier.
Fully 15 years on, will Buffon have Cardiff joy and lift the giant Champions League trophy aloft?
Juventus don’t have a great track record in this final. They have two wins and a record six losses to their name. Real Madrid are the opposite. A record 11 triumphs and three final defeats.
Will the status quo continue, or will Juve buck the trend of history?
And most fascinating of the lot, of course, is the little matter of Bale coming home. It was kind of meant to be that the moment Cardiff was announced as the 2017 final venue, Real Madrid would get there — and Bale would bag the winner.
We will see whether that last bit pans out, indeed if Bale is even fit for the game after missing recent matches through injury.
We’ve had some tumultuous final showdowns in recent times. Barcelona v Juventus, two Madrid derbies. Barca v Man Utd, Inter Milan v Bayern Munich, AC Milan v Liverpool. This Cardiff showpiece is every bit as big, Wales Online concluded.