"Juve defends and then kills you"
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Juve is still Juve. Pep Guardiola is not satisfied with the objective luck of being able to meet the Bianconeri in the return leg of the round of 16 of the Champions without two key pawns like Dybala and Marchisio, as well as without Chiellini.
The 2-2 draw in the first leg and the historic temperament of the Old Lady warned the Bayern Munich coach, who in the eve conference urged not to underestimate the opponent, capable of putting back on its feet in the final 30′ of the first leg a double-header that seemed already closed:
“Juventus is always fearsome, even with so many absences. What we will play tomorrow will be a final. We will face a team that has not conceded a single goal in the last 10 league games: to win it we will have to attack well and defend well, trying to understand how and where we can hurt while conceding as little as possible.”
“The thing I admire most about Juve is that despite being a big team, they know how to defend like the smallest team in the world, standing eight or nine behind the ball line,” Guardiola continued, “I don’t like it, but I admire it. And yet they also know how to attack and show a possession game. It takes little for them to kill you off, and that is something I respect about Italian soccer.”
Pep, however, does not get into the querelle between Allegri and Sacchi: “I have great esteem for both of them, but after the first leg game my respect for Juve if possible has grown even more.”
But the rest of the conference did not talk about Juve, but rather about the danger that Wednesday’s match will be Guardiola’s last game on Bayern’s bench at the international level, in light of his already announced farewell, heading for Manchester City: “I was and am very happy in Munich, I will always remember this experience and I will always have a special bond with this city and this club.”
The Catalan coach then recalled Gino Corioni, his former president at Brescia: “Getting to know him and his family was a pleasure, I hug his wife and children tightly. I do not forget that he gave me the opportunity to introduce me to the Italian reality. When no one wanted me they wanted me.”
Word also goes to Franck Ribery and Robert Lewandowski, who seem to fear Juve’s defensive strength in particular:
“Juventus will play as they always do, they will wait in defense and try to restart. We will never have to lose concentration, we will attack from the first minute to try to score, but we will need a lot of attention,” said the Frenchman, who could play as a starter in place of the injured Robben.
“When you play against Italian teams, the matches are never over,” Lewandowski, on the other hand, mused. “Juve are in good shape and have great players even though they will have a few absences. In the first leg we were perfect for 60′, then we had a blackout. But we understood where we went wrong. Tomorrow we will also have to know how to defend.”
