Juventus-Real Madrid: a duel with history
There won’t be much debate about the rivals of the Real Madrid in the draw of the UEFA Champions League because its latest opponents have been all very strong teams. After facing the mighty PSG, now the team must face the Juventus from Turin, an old rival that has bothered them for years and which they have beaten twice in the most prestigious clubs’ competition of the world.
Now the team from Madrid and the Juventus find themselves in altogether different situations than when they played last season. The Real Madrid has not shown its power and the Italians are far from the domain they showed last season. In spite of the Napoli’s resistance, the Juventus leads the Italian League and it is again among the best eight teams of Europa after eliminating the Tottenham in Wembley, where the Real Madrid was defeated 3-1. Higuain’s effectiveness, Pablo Dybala’s magic touch and the return of the Colombian Juan Guillermo Cuadrado are factors that play in favor of the Italians, still consistent in the defence, although without last year’s performance. Against them is the fact that they will not be able to count with Pjanić and Benatia, which are going to miss their next match after being suspended. This is not good for the Juventus because precisely these two men have become indispensable in Massimiliano Allegri’s formations.
On the other hand, the Madrid has kept its good results in the Champions while still having very bad results both in the BBVA and being eliminated from the Copa del Rey. These failures have left the European Club Championship as the only choice of winning a title. When facing the PSG they demonstrated not only that they are a very hard team to beat but also that they will defend their crown.
Zidane has maintained some players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Modrić, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo, Kroos, Casemiro but some other ones have lost some of their protagonist role in former times. That is the case of Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema, both marked by the audience due to their poor performances. The Spanish Lucas Vazquez and Marco Asensio are emerging as key players in a team that is very much in need.
Anyways, the team seems very paired up and it will be defined by small details. The Real Madrid will be trying to maintain their victorious path against the Italians, who, on the other hand, will be trying to get even for the last failures. Statistically speaking and according to Mister Chips, the highest probabilities are that the Real Madrid wins because every time the finalists of the Champions have faced each other in the knockout phase, the champion of the former edition has always won that game.
It happened in 1977-78, when the Liverpool won against the Borussia Monchengladbach, in 1996-97 when the Juventus defeated the Ajax and in 2010-11 when the Inter de Milan did the same with the Bayern Munich. The last two examples have to do with the Real Madrid and the Atletico de Madrid, with the firsts winning both in the 2014-15 season and the 2016-17 one.
