Allegri’s men go missing to leave that nagging sense of regret
JUVENTUS coach Massimiliano Allegri had promised a better performance than the one that proved insufficient to hold Barcelona at bay two years ago. Ultimately it didn’t come.
In the final in Berlin in 2015 they were a goal down and struggling after five minutes. Here it was two goals in four second-half minutes that did for them.
It is easy to wonder, after this, how this Juventus team will come back again. It is 21 years since they last won this competition. Twentyone years and counting. With each passing failure it is the near misses that begin to linger in the memory. Was this failure? Given the way they started the game, taking the play to Real, and the way they recovered from the remarkable Cristiano Ronaldo’s first goal to equalise then, yes, it probably was.
Juventus looked well set at half-time but returned a different team. By the time the game was effectively gone at 3-1, Allegri’s team of Italian champions had not mustered a second-half shot on goal. A real disappointment.
It was mistakes and carelessness in possession that was characterising them. So Juventus were well beaten in the end, the promise of the opening period evaporating in the smothering atmosphere of a Champions League final played under a closed roof.
So something for the Italians to think about, here, and maybe something for watching English teams, too. It has been too long since the English have competed seriously in this competition and on this evidence it could be a long way back.
Over recent seasons, English clubs have struggled for identity in the Champions League.
Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea were absent this year, Arsenal and Tottenham are simply not good enough yet while Manchester City, despite a dismantling of Barcelona at the Etihad Stadium, could not find consistency under Pep Guardiola.
United used to have it worked out under Sir Alex Ferguson. It took time but Fergie’s United got there in the end, imposing a high press on to opponents years before Guardiola’s Barcelona followed suit. During some golden years at Old Trafford, United had a European identity and it was one that took them places. With that comes confidence and here in Wales last night you could see two teams benefiting from recent years of progress at this elite level.
Juventus had the courage to run in straight lines at the Real Madrid backline early on and could have scored first had two Gonzalo Higuain efforts been directed either side of goalkeeper Keylor Navas.
Equally, Juventus didn’t panic when Real broke fiendishly to score through Ronaldo. The Italians had, at that point at least, enough self-regard and belief to take the blow and respond. Mario Mandzukic’s equalising goal was special but it was not one that surprised anyone who has watched the Italian team over the last couple of years.
The surprise, it turned out, was to come later. A game locked tight at the interval featured only team from that point onwards.
Allegri said his team had come to take the famous trophy home. They had, he said, learned the lessons of Berlin.
Ultimately, the scoreline was one goal worse. The sense of regret will certainly be greater.