No Barca belief for second miracle
Print Edition
THIS time the feeling surrounding Barcelona was despair, not anger.
The Catalans are on the verge of UEFA Champions League elimination after being thrashed 0-3 by Juventus in Turin on Tuesday, and few believe lightning can strike twice.
Having pulled off the largest comeback in the competition against Paris-Saint Germain in the last 16, overturning a 0-4 first-leg deficit to progress 6-5 on aggregate, Barcelona must produce a similar result at home against Juventus next week if it is to reach the semifinals.
Against the Parisians Barcelona always believed it had a chance of going through, with its wealth of experience against PSG’s relative naivety, its top-level stars against a young, promising, but erratic crop of players.
But Massimiliano Allegri’s Juventus is a different proposition. Wily and hardened, the Old Lady refused to allow Barcelona room to breathe at the Juventus Stadium. While in La Liga opponents sometimes sit back and watch Barcelona put on a show, partly out of respect and partly out of fear, Juventus displayed neither tendency.
Sami Khedira and Miralem Pjanic never allowed Andres Iniesta to get comfortable on the ball and Paulo Dybala made Javier Mascherano’s life a nightmare.
Filling in for the suspended Sergio Busquets, Mascherano looked all of his 32 years against fellow Argentine 23-year-old, who scored twice in the first 22 minutes to rock the visitors.
Meanwhile at the back Juventus’ old hands Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci refused to give Luis Suarez an inch of space and when the Uruguayan finally did get away from them, he dragged his only chance of the game wide of the far post.
Coach Luis Enrique seemed devastated after the match, with his chances of a final European hurrah before he leaves in the summer left in tatters.
“It doesn’t matter if I consider the result fair or not, the first half was a shipwreck,” he said. “It was almost like the third half of the PSG game — which is serious, really serious ... I find it difficult to believe in the comeback today, more difficult than in Paris.”
The fact Barcelona played better against Juventus than it did against PSG is not something it can take comfort from.
The Catalans knew they had a lot of room to improve after that defeat, but here they were not only outplayed and outfought, but also out-thought.
Allegri took advantage of the visitors’ 3-4-3 formation and deployed Juan Cuadrado in an ocean of space on the right wing, with the Colombian setting up Dybala’s opening goal.
After its triumphant 6-1 mauling of PSG, fans will still come to Camp Nou in their droves next Wednesday, believing in their team. But after its comprehensive destruction in Italy, it seems Barcelona itself doesn’t have faith in another “remontada”.
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