Dybala and Chiellini Killed the Barca!

It's finally time for the amazing match between Juventus and Barcelona for the Champions League Quarter Final first leg. The evening starts weirdly when the news announced that the Borussia Dortmund bus got stopped by an explosion and apparently a player got to the hospital too. The match against Monaco will be played tomorrow. More info about the event will surely come soon.

Let's talk about the match now. Juventus started very well and very aggressive and already have a great chance at 2' but the powerful header by Higuain got stopped by the goalkeeper Ter Stegen that didn't seem very concentrated especially when 2 minutes after he was almost making a huge mistake under the Juventus's high pressing but he cleared the ball on time.

Dybala (Picture taken from Goal.com)

At 7' the zebras already got the lead!! Dybala receive the ball in the box giving his shoulder to the goalkeeper and surprisingly turning around and realizing a fine goal with a precise shot! 1-0 !

The match goes on very aggressive and many fouls and nothing much happened till the 20' when Messi put in the area a superb assist for Iniesta that shoot but finds a miracle by Buffon that saves in corner. At 22' incredibly is again Dybala to put the second mark on the match with a great first intention strike right outside the box and maybe some faults of the goalkeeper but whatever it's 2-0!

The Juventus seemed to be losing some focus making some basic mistakes but nothing much happened till the 33' when Messi and Mandzukic almost started a little fight over a run body against body. The referee brought quickly quietness. Barcelona can't find space until the 39' when they conquer a corner kick that Buffon controls perfectly.

At 44' Higuain shoots without thinking much and Ter Stegen saves in a very bad way but luckily for him no zebras are around to put the ball in. The first half ended 2-0 ! A fantastic match by Juventus till now. Barcelona absolutely poor.

The second half started with a shoot by Messi at 46' but Buffon easily saved it and also the same on Suarez at 49'. Barcelona is pushing forward much more and its now dominating the match but without making much problems to Juventus. At 52' Higuain tried the precise shot from 18 meters but Ter Stegen is well placed this time. One minute after Higuain is face to face with Ter Stegen but he missed to score incredibly. On the corner kick action at 55' something unbelievable happened : the   3-0 arrives thanks to a header by Chiellini! The ghost of PSG comes back for Barcelona.

Chiellini (Picture taken from FourFourTwo) 

At 62' bad foul by Mandzukic over Sergi Roberto and the Juventus' player got booked. At 66' great pass by Messi to Suarez that incredibly missed the goal also thanks to Buffon. At 68' Chiellini touched the ball in the area with this full hand and incredibly the referee didn't whistle the penalty. Very chaotic phase of the match that is getting very aggressive at this point and it's 71'. Many fouls and the match proceed very slowly. Hot moment in the match. We must say that Messi is the only one who's doing something for Barca because Neymar and Suarez are completely out of the match till now. Barcelona very nervous but it's attacking with a very big intensity and Allegri seemed a bit worried because one goal for the Spanish team could change everything. But at 79' the result doesn't change. Only few corner kick for the blaugrana with no dangerous effect. Juventus seems tired.

At 41' dangerous position for a free kick that Messi didn't shoot well and after another try of Neymar the ball goes in corner kick. No danger here. 4 minutes extra-time given by the referee.

Congratulations to Dybala because it seems like is growing up like a real champion and applause as well to the perfect team and tactics used by Allegri. The Juventus was almost practically perfect. All wrong for Luis Enrique and his Barcelona team that really wasn't in the match and the Juventus made this 3-0 result looking kind of easy. Fantastic we simply have no words to describe their match tonight. Juventus seems to have secured already a space in the Semi-Final but remembering what happened to PSG we better wait till the second leg! Great Juventus !!

JUVENTUS-BARCELONA MAKING OFF!

It's almost time for a great event for the European soccer. The Champions League Quarter Final first leg between Juventus and Barcelona is coming ! It's 32 matches that the zebras win while playing at its stadium and this is something that Luis Enrique and his players know very well and think about it.

Buffon (Picture taken from SkySport) 

Listening to their press conferences We think that Allegri and Buffon showed a bit of worries but also a great concentration and focus on this match and these are 2 very important characteristic in this kind of situation. Obviously the most feared are the magic trio Neymar, Messi and Suarez but on the other hands the Italians know that Barcelona might lack of some defensive skills pointed out as their biggest weakness and it's on this point that Juventus will have to insist in order to win over their opponents. Buffon never got a goal by Messi so definitely Lionel will be even more " hungry " of goals if that is even possible. The 2 teams faced each other few times especially in the recent stories but there are only 2 players that played example the Berlin's final match and also the tactical assets are pretty different now so it's gonna be a complete new match. Dybala and Higuain are the biggest fear for Barcelona plus the amazing defensive abilities of Juventus.

We believe that Juventus can make a positive result in this home match but they must take a lead if they want to have some chances. Being completely honest and also after watching very well the Italian Serie A and Italian cup matches against Napoli and Chievo WE think that Juventus will not make it this time unless they get a good lead in the first match because the bianconeri are very good in organizing an strong defensive line and that is what they could do in the 2nd leg in case.

We will definitely support Juventus as Italian team but we won't be much money on them.
It's also true that Barcelona will face this match right after an awful defeat in the Liga for 2-0 against Malaga but that was probably just an accident. Barcelona is also missing Busquets, Vidal, Rafinha and Turan. Juventus got back Mandzukic and the only doubts are about Pjanic and Dani Alves (that would be a big EX in this match).

Dani Alves (Picture taken from BleacherReport)

It's also true that Barcelona doesn't seem in a great shape but in Champions League the team plays in a complete different way plus they are full of the last european match won against PSG for 6-1. Only even thinking of winning with this result against a team that has players like Cavani, Verratti, Di Maria, Drexler, Marquinhos, Thiago Silva, Pastore, etc.and especially after losing the first leg for 4-0 it was considered as a crazy thing.

This competition is something very hard to make predictions on because it's a completely different kind of motivations that you must put and show here.
Good Luck Juventus !!

How was the Italian Serie A week 31st Begin ?

The first match very important regarding the relegation area was the one between Empoli (17th) and Pescara (20th)  The two team clearly showed their limits even if they played a nice soccer for about 50'. Zeman probably shouted the hell out of his players especially Caprari that even if he scored one goal ( he did actually a lot even to miss that one) the striker missed other chances that a Serie A player shouldn't make. The Empoli got the lead thanks to El Kaddouri which is always the best and positive note of the Empoli team. The match gave both teams only a point, 1-1 that it's only good for Empoli. Pescara missed another chance to hope for a miracle. Still the maths doesn't kill them so they will fight till the end. Still 21 points available!

El Kaddouri (Picture taken from IamNaples.it)

3 points lost for Atalanta (5th) that only made a draw in the home fixture against Sassuolo (15th). The final result was 1-1 and actually for the first half let's say that Sassuolo fully deserved that.  The Di Francesco's team was actually leading for 0-1 for almost the whole match but surety thanks to an awful mistake by Caldara at 36' that practically gave the ball and a huge space to run all alone to Pellegrini that easily past Berisha and scored the goal. We must say that the bergamaschi really had so many chances with Papu Gomez that was a bit unlucky in this match and also got booked so he will miss the next important match against Roma but he also made a great assist over a free kick to Cristante that put the ball in with a nice header. Fantastic match by El Papu anyway. A bit disappointing was Petagna even if he played a strong match for the team but still it is not enough because to be a striker you have to score goals and he's not good at it. Needs to work on this. Well done by Sassuolo that showed us that without many injured people they can be a team too. Berardi is getting back in the great shape we knew him but he still needs some time. We will probably see the real him next year who knows wearing which shirt? We will see!

Pellegrini (Picture taken from CalcioNews24.com)

Juventus (1st) got the 3 points against Chievo (11th) at the Juventus Stadium instead but it wasn't as easy as a 2-0 might sound. It's true that Juventus wasted so many occasions especially with Higuain that still managed to score two goals anyway but he could have score four at least. Everyone is talking high about Dybala but not us. Not really. People seem to be blind about him. he's a very strong player and also got a bar with a nice shot from out of the box and gave a superb assist to Higuain for the first goal plus putting his foot in the second goal action before Lichtsteiner gave the assist to Gonzalo, but still... too many wasted balls, a lot of mistakes in passing and precision, things that a true champion won't at least not so many times in a match. So you be blind but not us. He might end up to be one like Cassano, genius but just a genius not a special one. Well done by Allegri anyway that really wanted these points and didn't do much turnover but we must say that Maran's Chievo did a very positive match and had at least 3 important chances to score wasted by Inglese and Pellissier but always gave us the feeling that they could get back into the match so applause for them! We must say the referee made a lot of small mistakes that surely helped Juventus in some critical situation. Coincidences ? We hope for the sake of soccer that the answer is yes.

Higuain (Picture taken from SkySport)

No surprises at San Paolo! Juventus goes on!

The San Paolo stadium looked like the Hell for Juventus after the "lesson" the zebras got from them in the Italian Serie A fixture ended up with a unfair 1-1 draw. But that was another match. Last night Napoli had to get back on track and recover a 3-1 from the Italian Cup Semi-Final first leg in order to get Roma for the future final. It has been another great match by Napoli but as always not enough.

Again many useless talks about Higuain and bla bla bla even a silly Napoli supporter that got into the field just to bother the start of a great match and quickly kicked out. This time the "fat guy" - talking about Gonzalo and the social media jokes about him  - punished them.

Napoli started very well as always with great coral actions, ball possession and a great feeling between Milk, Insigne, Hamsik and Callejon that have been very spectacular in few occasions but always finding a great Neto on their way at least in the first half.

The Pipita silenced the San Paolo at 32' when he stroke a powerful and precise shoot on the right side of Reina that got surprised by it. 0-1 that already put a black mark on the partenopei's hope especially because this is how the first half was.

HIGUAIN (Picture taken from Thethao ) 

The second half is another story because finally the Napoli's offensive players seemed to getting shoot in targets much more and at the 53' Marek Hamsik put in a great strike from right outside the penalty box and there was nothing to do for Neto , 1-1 and Napoli smiled again. Didn't last much! 5 minutes after that Cuadrado put a fast low ball in the box finding a great coming by Higuain that powerfully scored the 1-2 that secured the Final qualification even if there were still more than 20 minutes to play.

Hamsik (Picture taken from Zimbio)

Napoli did its best to recover the desperate situation and they actually made it. 3 minutes after Higuain's second goal, Sarri put Mertens on the pitch and he practically scored immediately taking advantage of a huge mistake by Neto that slipped the ball from his feet. Fantastic run by Mertens and congrats to him for believing that the keeper could have made a mistake. Great Intuition and it's 2-2.

At this point the home team is attacking like a military tank force over a field of flowers and they even found the 3-2 at 67' with Insigne! It didn't seem impossible to score 2 more goals at that point and incredibly Napoli actually had 2 big occasions both wasted by Pavoletti, the first one again thanks to an almost mistake by Neto - very distracted in the second half - and the second one the unluckly striker shot went over the bar for centimeters! 

Allegri and Sarri (Picture taken from RadioGoal24)

Allegri and company can smile and being happy to have reached the Final against such a powerful team like Napoli. Sarri can still see a lot of positive signs out of the match but still a very sour taste in his mouth. Juventus has been beaten but not completely because they will be the ones who will play the Italian Cup Final against Lazio!