Lionel Messi's Genius Should Decide Barcelona and Juventus' Duel for Perfection

OLYMPIASTADION, Berlin — With four trophies split between them already this season, there is no shortage of confidence among either team ahead of Saturday’s Champions League final.

Having swept all before them in league and cups at domestic level this season, Barcelona and Juventus both arrived in Berlin this week looking to add the continental crown to their collection.

For Barcelona, it would be a fourth Champions League title in the last decade; for Juventus, a first trip to the European summit since 1996. Either way, come Saturday’s end, one of the two sides will become just the eighth team in history to do the treble.

“Perfection,” Barcelona defender Gerard Pique reflected.

If Saturday will see the decisive battle, then Friday was simply the phoney war, with players and coaches from both sides attempting to give away as little as possible ahead of the decisive match. After all, both teams are on the verge of making history, the sort of success that is not usually achieved by endlessly pontificating in front of the world’s assembled media.

“Yes, I have played many finals, but I think this is the most important one in my career to date,” Barcelona forward Neymar, whose answers rarely strayed from the head-slappingly obvious, said at one point. “It is the biggest match of my life.

“I hope we can finish our season tomorrow coming out of the stadium very happy. I am quite confident we can be victorious tomorrow.”

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As they arrived for a closer look at the Olympiastadion on Friday, Juventus were happy to play up to the narrative that has already built around them. The popular perception has cast them as significant underdogs in Berlin—despite them having knocked out Real Madrid in the semi-finals in similarly unfavoured circumstances—a dynamic that goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon was only too happy to cultivate further.

"Objectively Barcelona are the favourites because they have great individuals with great ability,” he said. “It's only fair to say a team with [Lionel] Messi, [Luis] Suarez and Neymar, and [Andres] Iniesta in midfield, are the favourites—of course they are when they're lucky enough to have players like that.”

The loss of Giorgio Chiellini to injury is another significant blow to the Italians’ chances, robbing the Turin side of one of the linchpins of their defence. It is the one significant injury affecting both teams—Iniesta, doubtful for Barcelona, should ultimately be fit to play—who will otherwise be at full strength.

In Chiellini’s place comes Andrea Barzagli, another experienced and combative centre-back, albeit one coming off a slight injury and, at 34, on the downswing of his career.

“It is true that losing Giorgio Chiellini is important, not just on the pitch but also in the dressing room,” the other centre-back, Leonardo Bonucci, acknowledged. “His character and determination would have been an important part of game preparation for us. It would have helped us.

“[But] Italian teams traditionally make the best of difficult situations. We have come here with the awareness that we are a great team...and we are going to try and give a dream to Giorgio and all the Juventus fans.”

Few expected Juventus to reach this stage, with even Buffon admitting he had envisaged it taking “two or three” more seasons before the squad was in a position to reach a major European final once again. Victory on Saturday is still the overriding ambition, but for the man who has steered them there, Massimiliano Allegri, the eve of such a huge game was a fine opportunity to reflect on the advances his side have already made this term.

“Irrespective of the outcome [on Saturday], I have to say Juventus have had an extraordinary season,” the Italian offered. “We have to consider the consolidation of the team. This is important to move forward in future and position ourselves in the top eight in Europe. This season is important for momentum in that sense.”

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It might suit their own selfish needs to encourage the perception that they are outsiders, but within the camp, Juventus—whose business-like, disciplined training session was in some contrast to Barcelona’s more relaxed, joyful affair—clearly feel they have a great chance to come away with a victory in the end.

Bonucci pinpointed the midfield battle as an area where Juventus can make their power felt, perhaps setting the tone for the overall contest.

“I think where the game is going to be won and lost is in midfield,” Bonucci noted, “because that is where you are going to see different qualities. Especially physical skills.”

Barcelona boss Luis Enrique demurred on that thought—“that is where the game gets going...but I don’t know if it will be decisive”—but Barcelona are certainly respectful of the qualities Paul Pogba, Arturo Vidal and Andrea Pirlo bring to the table. It's the one area where the Italian champions perhaps arrive with a greater array of attributes and variations than Barcelona’s sleek and refined unit.

“They have a lot of power up front and good midfielders who are really strong and can go box-to-box,” Pique reflected. “We will have to be really concentrated in the defensive part and then through possession of the ball work hard to create chances.”

Barcelona expect to dominate possession but will once again press from the front defensively, with Pique eager to cite the work rate of his side’s vaunted attacking trio as a key reason why the team had far and away the best defensive record in La Liga this season.

“When you talk about defending, people think just about the defenders,” Pique said. “I think it is about the whole team, the mentality of the team. The first defenders are the forwards: If they don’t run, if they don’t press, then it is impossible for us [at the back]. And this season we have had that.”

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Such a focus on team ethic was echoed by both teams, the default theme to return to every time there was an unfocused question or one they did not particularly want to respond to more insightfully. Every time the importance of team cohesion and unity was mentioned, in either camp, it only heightened the feeling that perhaps it will end up being a moment (or moments) of individual brilliance that decides this final.

And no player is more brilliant than Barcelona’s Lionel Messi—“the best player in the world,” as Luis Enrique described him.

Having dazzled so thoroughly in the Copa del Rey final against Athletic Bilbao and having played at an exquisite level seemingly for months prior to that, in the diminutive Argentine, Barca possess something Juventus perhaps lack in this game—an individual capable of taking the game away from an opponent with the right application of his outrageous talent.

“We know he’s the best,” Luis Enrique added. “The players are aware we need to have a compact bloc that defends and attacks. We would not have been able to get so far with just three strikers, or with eight defenders, all the players have played the part.”

Even so, the coach could not resist acknowledging how important Messi could be: “We will have to work as a team, but of course we want individuals to show the best versions of themselves.”

If Messi were to define Saturday’s events, it would perhaps be a fitting end to a season that has seen him regain his place as the undisputed best player in the game.

If Juventus have the organisation and physical power in midfield, and Barcelona have the attacking threat and experience of playing this sort of game (but also the pressure of being expected to emerge victorious), then perhaps all those factors will cancel each other out and leave singular individual genius to decide the destination of the cup.

“You can do as many interpretations as you like,” Enrique, who is not exactly one to waste words, shrugged. “Each team has its own identity, its strengths and weak points. I think it is going to be one of the best matches you could possibly watch. The champions of Spain and Italy, it is going to be a spectacular occasion.”

Up for grabs: a slice of sporting immortality.

“We have this one last match to win,” Pique concluded. “We are 90 minutes away from perfection. That is what we are going to try to do.”

All quotes obtained firsthand.