Juventus did not expect to reach the Champions League final and despite being underdogs today against Barcelona (kick-off: 8.45pm) the Italian champions are hopeful of causing an upset, captain Gianluigi Buffon said.
One match away from winning their first ever treble after their domestic league and Coppa Italia double, Juventus face their biggest challenge this season when they take on the in-form Spaniards, who are chasing their second trio of titles after 2009.
“Probably we did not think that this year would be a good year or ideal year to reach the final,” goalkeeper Buffon told reporters yesterday.
“We thought it would take two or three so it was an unexpected surprise, a nice surprise.”
“I think it would be fair to say objectively Barca are the favourites to win because they have great players with great skills,” Buffon added.
“It’s only fair that a team with Messi, Suarez and Neymar are favourites,” said the former World Cup winner, chasing his first European crown at the age of 37.
Juve, who have lifted the European title twice, won three consecutive league titles under previous coach Antonio Conte but failed to have any major impact in Europe before Massimiliano Allegri took over this season.
Allegri said Juventus had set out to reach the quarter-finals as the Turin outfit adapted to his 4-4-2 system from a more aggressive line-up under Conte.
“I tried to improve a team that was already at a high level.
“We started the season with an important objective that we wanted to get to the top eight and we now got to the final. So now we have to be first,” Allegri said.
“How do we stop Messi, Suarez and Neymar, that’s the usual question. We have to be very skilled but we also need to accept that we just cannot draw. We need to score,” said the coach.
Barcelona’s South American trio have been sensational this season, netting 120 times between them in all competitions.
Allegri will be without injured defender Giorgio Chiellini but said Andrea Barzagli was fit to play.
“We are sorry about Chiellini. We lost a player who accompanied us from the very beginning of a great season,” Allegri said.
Neymar can hardly wait to play in his first ever Champions League final today.
He has followed in a rich tradition of Brazilian players to wear the Barca jersey but not all of them have lifted the Champions League trophy while at the club.
“To play in the final is a dream that I’ve had as a boy and I’m very close to it,” Neymar said.
“We hope we play a great game and we win.”
The La Liga champions last won the competition in 2011 and were eliminated last season by Atletico Madrid in the quarter-finals in Neymar’s first year at the club.
Barca, under first-year coach Luis Enrique, have enjoyed a successful campaign already.
They won the Spanish title and claimed a record 27th Copa del Rey – Neymar’s first with the team since arriving two years ago.
Juve, who eliminated Barca’s arch-rivals Real Madrid in the semi-finals, lost just three of their 38 Serie A games overall.
Beating them will be no easy task, according to Neymar.
“Juventus are a dangerous side at the back, in the middle and up front,” he said.
“It’s no fluke that they are in the final.”
Barcelona can welcome back midfielder Andres Iniesta, who is expected to start.
Iniesta, who missed his team’s training sessions this week after sustaining a calf injury in last weekend’s Copa del Rey final against Athletic Bilbao, returned to training on Thursday.
The last 10 finals
| Year | Winners | Score | Losers | Venue |
| 2004-05 | Liverpool | 3-3 | Milan | Istanbul |
| (Liverpool win 3-2 on penalties) | ||||
| 2005-06 | Barcelona | 2-1 | Arsenal | Paris |
| 2006-07 | Milan | 2-1 | Liverpool | Athens |
| 2007-08 | Man. United | 1-1 | Chelsea | Moscow |
| (Man. United win 6-5 on penalties) | ||||
| 2008-09 | Barcelona | 2-0 | Man. United | Rome |
| 2009-10 | Inter | 2-0 | Bayern Munich | Madrid |
| 2010-11 | Barcelona | 3-1 | Man. United | London |
| 2011-12 | Chelsea | 1-1 | Bayern Munich | Munich |
| (Chelsea win 4-3 on penalties) | ||||
| 2012-13 | Bayern Munich | 2-1 | Bor. Dortmund | London |
| 2013-14 | Real Madrid | 4-1 aet | Atletico Madrid | Lisbon |
Juventus vs Barcelona cup final... facts and figures
• This will be the 60th final of the competition since it started as the European Champions Cup in the 1955-56 season and the first final in history to be staged in Berlin.
• The final was never held in the former East Germany but it has been staged in West Germany or the unified Germany seven times: in Stuttgart (1959 and 1988), Munich (1979, 1993, 1997 and 2012), and Gelsenkirchen (2004).
• Borussia Dortmund are the only German team to lift the European Cup on German soil, winning the 1997 final in Munich when they beat Juventus 3-1.
• That was one of Juve’s five defeats in the final along with their losses in 1973, 1983, 1998 and 2003. They have lifted the cup twice beating Liverpool on the night of the Heysel Stadium disaster in Brussels in 1985 and Ajax on penalties in Rome in 1996.
• Italian clubs have won the European Cup a total of 12 times with Milan’s seven wins, Inter’s three and Juve’s two.
• Spanish clubs have lifted the trophy 14 times with Real Madrid winning it last year for a record 10th time and Barcelona winning it four times.
• Barcelona’s first win was over the Italians from Sampdoria in 1992 and their three other wins in the last decade have been against English clubs, beating Arsenal in 2006 and Manchester United in both 2009 and 2011.
• Both Juve and Barca will complete the treble if they win today having both won the League and Cup doubles domestically.
• They would join Celtic (1967), Ajax (1972), PSV (1988), Manchester United (1999), Inter (2010) and Bayern Munich (2013) as treble winners.
• Barcelona would become the first club to achieve the treble twice having first done it in 2009.
• Both managers, Massimiliano Allegri of Juventus and Luis Enrique of Barcelona are looking to win the trophy in their first seasons in their current jobs.
• Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, who shares the all-time record with Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo of 77 Champions League goals, would become the first player to score in three Champions League finals if he finds the net today. He also scored in the 2009 and 2011 finals.
• Andrea Pirlo could complete a rare double of playing for and against the same team in the final – and winning two winners medals. He was in the Milan team that beat Juventus on penalties at Old Trafford in 2003 and should be in Juve’s starting line-up today. He also won the title with Milan in 2007.
• Goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon is the last survivor of that 2003 Juventus team still playing at the club. Eight Barca players who won the Cup in 2011 are still playing at the Nou Camp.
• The two clubs have met in four previous two-legged ties in Europe since the 1970-71 season when Juventus won an Inter Cities Fairs Cup tie 4-2 on aggregate.
• Since then Barcelona beat holders Juventus 2-1 on aggregate in the quarter-finals of the 1985-86 European Cup tournament, and then beat them 3-2 on aggregate in the semi-finals of the 1990-91 European Cup Winners’ Cup.
• Their last meeting was in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League in 2002-03 when Juventus won 3-2 on aggregate. Current Barcelona coach Luis Enrique captained the Catalans at home in the second leg which Juventus, with the experienced Gianluigi Buffon in goal, won 2-1.