Barcelona are crowned kings of Europe for a fifth time after beating Juventus 3-1 in the Champions League final at Berlin’s Olympiastadion on Saturday.
Both teams were dealt contrasting pieces of team news before kick-off as Andres Iniesta shook off fitness concerns to appear in the heart of La Blaugrana’s midfield, while the Old Lady had to swallow the loss of defensive stalwart Giorgio Chiellini. His replacement Andrea Barzagli had also struggled with injury problems of late.
Inside just four minutes, Barca took control of the final as Juve were made to pay for a narrow midfield shape. Lionel Messi squared the ball to Jordi Alba, who in turned laid off Neymar down the left. The Brazilian then pulled Barzagli out of position and played in Ivan Rakitic for an easy tap-in.
For a moment, it appeared that the Catalans would go from strength to strength and put Juve out of sight with plenty of the match still to be fulfilled, Luis Suarez coming close from two snapshots, the latter of which needed Gianluigi Buffon to make a vital save.
Buffon made another important stop to deny Neymar with a similar drive from range, but he almost threw all of his side’s good work in eventually settling Barca down, when he gifted possession to the designated visitors with a sloppy pass. Suarez, however, couldn’t meet the resulting cross.
Juve, meanwhile, came closest through former Real Madrid starlet and Los Blancos’ nemesis in the semi-finals Alvaro Morata, whose effort from outside the box bounced just wide of Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s goal.
Juve flew off the traps for the second half, showing fantastic character to respond to Barca’s domination, and they were rewarded with the equalising goal, Claudio Marchisio’s deft back-heel finding an overlapping Stephan Lichtsteiner, who in turn drilled a cross for Tevez’s shot and Morata to net the rebound.
However, they were on level terms for just 15 minutes as Suarez was on hand to mop up Buffon’s failed save from Messi’s low drive after the Argentine had left Barzagli for dead, and La Blaugrana should have gone 3-1 up, only for the linesman to chalk off Neymar’s header, which flew past Buffon but bobbled off his arm.
Nonetheless, Barca would eventually emerge with a third and final finish deep in injury time as a quick-fire break from Pirlo’s misplaced pass ended with the Brazilian firing the ball into Buffon’s net with aplomb.
Paul Pogba was adamant he should have been awarded a penalty after Dani Alves appeared to topple him in the box, but the referee ignored the midfielder’s wishes, leaving the Catalans free to secure their second treble.
Juventus 1-3 Barcelona
Morata 55 (J) Rakitic 4, Suarez 68, Neymar 90 (B)
Juventus: Buffon; Lichtsteiner, Barzagli, Bonucci, Evra (Coman 89); Marchisio, Pirlo, Pogba; Vidal (Pereyra 79); Tevez, Morata (Llorente 85)
Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Alves, Pique, Mascherano, Alba; Busquets, Rakitic (Mathieu 90), Iniesta (Xavi 78); Messi, Suarez (Pedro 90), Neymar
Referee: Cakir [TUR]
