'An appointment with history' beckons for both Real Madrid and Juventus as they eye Champions League glory
As elevated a fixture as this always is, there is so much more at stake to this year's Champions League final with both sides looking to book their place in history on Saturday night
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Your support makes all the difference.Within both squads in Cardiff this weekend, there is that rare ‘sense of destiny’ that actually goes beyond the usual feeling when sides reach this vaunted stage, the glorious natural peak at the end of a season.
That is because, as elevated a fixture as this always is, this also feels like a Champions League final above so many others, maybe with the most at stake since 2009 and the closest and highest-quality match-up since that meeting too.
Just like for that match in Rome between Manchester United and Barcelona, the most prestigious trophy in club football is not the end in itself, but merely the final part in what would be two greater feats. Juventus are looking to win their first ever treble and first European Cup in 21 years, while Real Madrid are looking to become the first in 27 years to retain the trophy and thereby claim their 12th, while also winning their first league and cup double in 59 years.
It is, as Sergio Ramos put it, “an appointment with history”.
Such stakes reflect the rarity of how both teams come to Wales in rousingly good form, fully believing they can crown their seasons, rather than just save them or claim the trophy while finishing third in the league.
It is an evocative throwback in that sense, the type of match this showpiece used to always be about, making it all the more fitting that it is two of the most grandiose clubs in football involved.
Such stakes have also fostered that sense of destiny within the squads and a lot of talk of “will”, of “conviction”, of a complete absence of doubt or hesitation. Both are ready to set records and make history.
Dani Alves put that in his own inimitable way. “We have that ambition, we have that will to win,” the Brazilian said of Juventus. “We're hungry and we have that plate of food in front of us. We want it.”
Cristiano Ronaldo put it far more bluntly. “Too much humility is a bad thing. We’re better than them.”
Juve manager Max Allegri agreed Real were favourites, and it’s obvious that the defending champions have so many more individual stars, but a better team? That is highly debatable.
There is a strong argument that Juve are a much better collective, work better together, and are well capable of applying that cohesion to frustrate Real and eventually pull them apart. That togetherness can best be seen in their cast-iron backline which has proved to be impenetrable this season.
Indeed, the meeting of the finest defence in Europe against one of the fiercest frontlines is just another strand that only further enriches this fixture.
That is the other enthralling element about this showpiece. It doesn’t just have more at stake than most Champions League finals, but feels like it has so many more storylines, too.
Beyond that battle of defence and attack, and the quest for a treble against the long wait to retain the trophy and thereby win a double, there is so much more.
Most epically, there is the deeper edge to those stakes. While Real are looking to burnish their history in the competition as the Champions League’s most successful ever side and win their 12 trophy, Juventus are looking to banish their history in it as the club that have lost more finals than anyone else.
Italy’s greatest winners have been the continent’s greatest losers. When they lost to Real in 1998 in their only other meeting in a final - in what is yet another narrative to this match - club legend Alessandro Del Piero lamented that “this cup is starting to feel cursed”.
The psychology surrounding that was brought up with Allegri, as was Gonzalo Higuain’s perceived poor record in finals, now that the Argentine faces the side that essentially sold him for reasons like that.
The Italian boss dismissed it, as he sought to build up his player’s qualities rather than talk about any weakness, but he could well have brought up how Dani Alves is going for the third treble of his career and has won more individual matches against Real than any other player.
Zinedine Zidane himself could point to his own record, as well as that of Ramos and Ronaldo, who are both looking to set a modern Champions League record and each score in their third final. If they do that, and given how tight this game is going to be, it will likel give Zidane the third European Cup of his career and second as a manager – bringing him level with Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola and matching Arrigo Sacchi in retaining it.
Despite that prospect, the Real manager still isn’t really talked of as a managerial great alongside them, partially because of the sense that he is merely facilitating a ludicrously talented squad with his “aura” and the knowledge that he has been there and done it too.
If he is to win this and really make history, though, it will likely require some properly elevated managerial insight; something different.
That is because of the tenacious tactical challenge that Juventus represent. Real may have faced a backline similar in quality to Allegri’s in Atletico Madrid, but that was an Atletico side who so clearly have a psychological complex about their more successful neighbours and thereby crumbled in the semi-final.
It doesn’t feel as likely that Ronaldo - sensational as he is - will suddenly find yards of space in the box to strike the key goal, just as he did in that semi-final as well as the quarter-final against Bayern Munich, because of how supreme the Juventus defenders are at basic defending; because of just how tight centre-halves like Leo Bonucci and Georgio Chiellini get; because of just how much they relish tackling like no other players in Europe.
It means the breaking of this game is likely to come in the middle of the pitch, an area Juventus will surely congest to cut off Real’s supply and then counter, just as they did to Monaco. The space there is likely to be minimal, boiling down how the differences in the team are so slight, and emphasising another reason why the stakes for this match are so high.
A collection of supreme stars against a supreme collective. Destiny may await, but these two teams are so good that both are going to have to fight for their eventual fate, to make that history.
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