Battle of flair versus stubbornness
London: Only Zinedine Zidane’s former club Juventus stand between the Real Madrid coach and football history in Saturday’s star-studded Champions League final in Cardiff.
A head coach for only 17 months, the former France playmaker can become the first manager to win back-to-back European Cups in the post-1992 Champions League era.
Zidane had a hand in Real Madrid’s ninth, 10th and 11th European triumphs – as a player, assistant coach and head coach – and the quest for the ‘Duodecima’ (12th) brings him up against an old flame also called ‘Old Lady’.
“I played at Juventus for five years and I’ve got good memories of that time. It’s a special final,” said the Frenchman, Friday.
“We’re very close to doing it (winning successive finals) and we’re the first to be so close to doing it for so many years. But we haven’t won anything yet,” he added.
While Zidane, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale hope their good fortune in the competition continues, Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon is praying for a turning of the tide.
A beaten finalist in 2003 and 2015, the 39-year-old Italy great dreams of adding the ultimate club honour to the World Cup winner’s medal he collected in 2006.
“For the past three or four months, Real Madrid have been playing top-level football,” Buffon said. “But we’re also in top form and that’s enough for me.”
While Madrid possess the competition’s sharpest attack, Juve boast the meanest of defence, having successively shut down the sparkling attacks of Barcelona and Monaco en route to Cardiff.
It is this defence that has given manager Massimiliano Allegri the conviction that his team are better equipped to handle Real Madrid.
“Madrid have a lot of strengths. They’re an extraordinary side with great technique and pace,” Allegri told UEFA.com Thursday.
“We should be very pleased that we’ve made it this far, but we’re going into this year with a completely different level of belief than in 2015. Compared with the 2015 final in Berlin, our squad have changed in almost every position.
Our confidence has increased, our awareness of our own ability has gone up, the atmosphere has improved. This time we have to lay our hands on the trophy,” the coach added.
Agencies
