Real Madrid and Juventus will face off in the Final of the 2016-17 UEFA Champions League this Sunday morning. After a long season which included domestic title wins for both teams, their campaigns will culminate in the final kicking off at 4.45am Sunday.
Real Madrid secured the La Liga title in the final round of play with a 2-0 away win over Malaga a few weeks ago. They were three points clear of rivals Barcelona in the final round and needed just a draw to collect their record 33rd Spanish title.
Zinedine Zidane and his men will also be hunting their record 12th European Championship title and aiming to become the first team ever to successfully defend the title after their win over Atletico Madrid last year.
Mega-star Cristiano Ronaldo has dominated throughout this season’s Champions League, already netting 10 goals. One more in the final will bring him level with Lionel Messi and win him his 6th top goal scorer honour. The forward already holds the record for the most goals in Champions League history with a ridiculous 103 from 139 appearances for Manchester United and Real Madrid.
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He’ll be backed up by all-star forward Karim Benzema and a host of world class midfielders in the lies of Tony Kroos, Luka Modric and Isco. With all of their talent going forward, Real’s offence has definitely been their strength throughout the season, netting a ridiculous 106 goals in the domestic competition.
If there’s one team in the world that can stop Real’s attack, however, it’s Juventus. Juve have boasted arguably the best defence in Europe this season, allowing just 27 goals throughout their 38 game Serie A season. Even more amazingly, they have allowed just 1 goal through their last 7 Champions League games which included two games against Barcelona and two against Monaco, who netted 116 and 107 goals in their domestic competitions respectively.
The experience and fortitude of the back three in Giorgio Chiellini, Lenardo Bonucci and Andrea Barzagli backed up by defensive midfielders in Sami Khedira and Miralem Pjanic gives them a ridiculous defence, not to mention one of the best goal keepers of all time in Gianluigi Buffon.
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A Juventus win would be a fitting result for the experienced goalkeeper, who throughout his career has won a ridiculous 10 league titles, a World Cup and 3 Coppa Italia’s but has failed to pick up a Champions League trophy, with two runners up medals in 03 and 15 marking his closest efforts.
The final will be played in the Wales capital city, Cardiff. However, Real Madrid and Welsh star Gareth Bale looks set to miss the clash after falling out of favour with the Spaniard teams new manager Zidane. It should be a fairly neutral ground, with maybe the majority of the support going to the Italians for sheer spite of Real Madrid and love of Buffon.
It’s an extremely hard match to try to pick a winner. Real Madrid will be their aggressive self but Juventus are arguably the most equppied team in the world to withstand that offensive pressure and break on the counter with the likes of Paulo Dybala and Gonzalo Higauin. I think a low scoring 1-1 or 0-0 draw could be on the cards before extra time or a penalty shootout decides the winner.
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