And Giorgio....
A lot of people will think I'm overreacting but Chiellini is now top five for me. His ONLY mistake, which is what I WARNED of before the game was to keep a close eye on Cristina at all times. Ended up in a G, but apart from that, his defending, sacrifice, blood.....and that tackle, has him as my top five in the world currently...deal with it.
Looking at the match as a whole, it was a very good old-skool Italian performance by Juventus. The football that lead to Morata's goal almost brought tears to my eyes. The passing, movement, creativity and control was what we call football. And all this coming from my previous public enemy number one Allegri, who is rapidly having a second life with how he has taken Juventus up a notch from what Conte did.
Conte's Juventus were great, but always seemed a level below Champions League standard, and that debacle against Galatasaray summed up the blip in Conte's reign at the Juve club. But Allegri just seems to have the team playing a higher level of football and able to match one of the best in Madrid. There is more creativity and better use of the ball and the attack just is much better than it was with Conte...which is surprising as Allegri is a more defensive mind.
The biggest fear was Pirlo. How would he cope with no Pogba and a much younger and fitter Madrid. He lost the ball a few times in key areas, but just like the class that is Andrea, he stroked the ball beautifully and sprayed it around gracefully. Still, you can see how Juventus are missing the dynamism that Pogba has. In the second leg, not having him is something that will give that extra confidence to Madrid.
It's only halftime, and as good as Juventus were, there were yellow cards picked up, Bonnucci is a bit of a liability, and Madrid still have the talent and skill to turn it up and put a lot more pressure on Juventus. And as I believe, Juventus will NOT go to Berlin if they don't score in Madrid. So again, it's about being defensively solid but expecting to concede and using the combination of Morata and Tevez to try and get the G's needed to give them a chance.
On a closing thought, it was nice to see a semi-final with an Italian team. The atmosphere and the sound, is what has been missing from the Champions League. It really felt I had been transported back to the good old days when you had San Siro, Delle Alpi and Olimpico matches. Say what you want, but any of us would LOVE to play in a stadium that big with those massive flags waving. It's just more special and different to anything you would get in any of the other stadiums.
It's halftime....this tie is FAR from over, and let us hope as football fans, the second leg can give us even more joy and drama.
Long Live Football!
HH
Sent from the Hut
