How Barca and Juve have fared defensively in the league
With the MSN stealing the show for Barcelona and the likes of Tevez , Morata and Pogba grabbing all the headlines as far as Juventus is concerned, the defenders from both teams have not been under the limelight at all.
Barcelona and Juventus - Defensive record in the league this season.png?q=75&w=634)
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However it must be stressed that there were significant defensive improvements in both the sides which played a big part in their respective league triumphs as well as their progression to the Champions League final.
Both teams had the best defences in their respective leagues, with Juventus conceding just 24 goals in 38 games and Barcelona with an even better record of being scored against just on 21 occasions during the length of the season.
When keeping in mind the opposition Barcelona and Juventus had in Spain and Italy respectively, this stands out to be an even more remarkable achievement and on Saturday it will not come as a surprise if the better defensive team wins the match.
Barca's improvement at the back
Defensive vulnerabilities in the past had been the Catalans' achilles heel and it was the most obvious flaw in the Barcelona squad. However the Blaugrana have recognized their shortcomings and have emerged as a much better team defensively this season.
Their tally of goals conceded this season (21) is almost twice as better as to what it was back in the 2012/2013 season (40) and much better than last season (33). Obviously the improvements are down to some of the changes which have been made in the squad. The arrivals of Jeremy Mathieu has been one and the Frenchman has quickly established himself as one of the most important players in the squad.
In addition to this, in contrast to yesteryears Barcelona now don't have just one but two world class goalkeepers and competition has seemingly brought the best out of both. Gerard Pique on the other hand who had a few disappointing campaigns in recent years has been absolutely rock solid this season and has looked like the world class defender he once was.
Juventus' experienced personnel
Juventus have been so good defensively this season, that Leonardo Bonucci had no hesitation in proudly acclaiming the Juventus defence as the best in the world
"I don't want to sound boastful but Gianluigi Buffon, Giorgio Chiellini, Andrea Barzagli and myself are the best defence in the world. The numbers don’t lie," he said.
The 27 year old said this referring to Juve's impeccable defensive record which has seen them concede the fewest goals on average since the 2011-12 season (0.57) among Europe's major leagues.
One of the reasons the defensive personnel in the Juventus side work so well is because of the experience they have. In addition to this, they have all been working together since a long time now and have a cohesiveness which is difficult to break down.
Juve's defensive supremacy - As of April 13, 2015
Buffon and Chiellini have been teammates for a decade now whereas Barzagli has been international teammates with the two since 2004. Bonucci is now in his fifth season at the club and has established quite an understanding with the players at the back.
The aforementioned players now have over 300 caps among them, 17 Scudetti and two World Cup winners’ medals. At present if there is any team at all in the world which can bring a halt to the brilliance of Messi and co it is Juventus and on Saturday they will be eager to prove their worth.
Stopping Lionel Messi
This is quite a daunting task given the brilliance of the little man especially in recent months. When on song the Argentine can be absolutely catastrophic for the opposition and can win the match single handedly.
It had been thought that appointing a player to shadow the mercurial forward and track all his movements would be a good strategy which will reduce his impact on the game.
However Diego Simeone who's Atletico side did not let Messi score even once in six games against Barcelona last season has said that man marking Messi will not produce the desired results and that Juventus will have to defend as a team instead.
"Man-marking in football is from a time gone by," Simeone told Goal. "Those were different times and in those teams there were no players able to make an impact quite like Messi.
"It doesn’t make sense because when you kick off in midfield, that player is far away. When there is a free-kick and a wall, again a player cannot be close. It’s the same at a corner. So there are many moments when a player has to be far away. Then what do you do? In those moments, you cannot man-mark. You also lose a player and, with him, the stability of your team.
"It’s clearly complicated and that’s why we haven’t seen man-marking on any players in recent times. You try to control Messi with spaces, looking at where he can get to and where he is dangerous.
"But he moves inside and outside, down the wing, on the left… It’s very difficult to think about controlling a player who is uncontrollable. It’s ridiculous – there’s no way."
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