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Barcelona – Juventus, Group G match of the Champions League, Camp Nou Stadium, 22:00 Bulgarian time.
Gol.bg’s forecast:
Barcelona face Juventus on the final day of the Champions League group stage, but the match will be completely overshadowed by the clash between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Probably one of the last.
Both teams qualified for the next phase, with the Catalans with a total of 15 points after beating their rival 2-0 in Turin. This is the only loss of the “Old Lady” so far. So tonight both teams play for the first place in the group. Juve’s chances for this are a victory with more than 3 goals difference or resulting matches like 3: 1, 4: 2 and 5: 3, etc.
For Barça is Usman Dembele, who scored the first goal in Turin. The Frenchman has a stage and together with Ansu Fati, Gerard Piqué and Serge Roberto they will not be available for Ronald Coeman. Samuel Yumtiti is in question.
“Our task is to play well and win. We want to finish first in the group, we have an advantage and a good opportunity to do so. We have made a lot of mistakes lately, which have cost us points in the championship, so we need to find the right balance and improve our efficiency.
We do not pay attention only to Cristiano Ronaldo, who is a great champion and always enters the battle and scores goals. We have a great game ahead in which we have to defend ourselves well. It will be great to witness the duel between two great champions like Messi and Cristiano, the best of the last 15 years. It is not pleasant to say who is better, because I admire both They are incredible and I hope they give us a great evening, “said Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman.
Juventus will not have Merich Demiral and Giorgio Chiellini, but Andrea Pirlo has confirmed that Gianluigi Buffon has recovered and can play. Álvaro Morata has served his sentence and will be at the disposal of his coach.
“This match is especially important for our development and self-confidence. We need to improve our game without the ball, the lines of our midfield and defense should not be so far apart. Kuman is right, it is wrong to say which of Messi and Cristiano is better. Both are phenomena and we can only thank them, ”said Pirlo.
Messi vs Ronaldo
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will meet for the first time since the Portuguese left Real Madrid and La Liga. In the first match between the two teams, Cristiano did not play because he was isolated by the coronavirus.
The two have met a total of 35 times: 33 with their clubs and 2 with their national teams. Like the two matches between Argentina and Portugal, they were friendly: 2: 1 for Argentina in February 2011, when both Messi and Ronaldo scored 1: 0 for Portugal in November 2014.
Naturally, the most frequent confrontations between the two are in “El Clásico”, and in only 3 of these 33 games, Ronaldo was not at Real, but at Manchester United.
Messi has 16 victories in matches against Cristiano, the Portuguese has 10 and 9 of the matches ended in a draw. Unsurprisingly, the two are top scorers for their clubs in “El Clásico”: Messi has 26 goals against Real and Ronaldo 18 against Barcelona. So is the legend Alfredo Di Stefano.
Messi and Ronaldo have met a total of 5 times in the Champions League. In three of these matches, Cristiano defended the colors of Manchester United and in 2 those of Real. The two did not have a direct clash from the semi-final clash “El Clásico” in the 2010/2011 season.
In Champions League matches, Messi has an advantage – in wins and 2 draws, and Cristiano’s only success was the victory of “Old Trafford” in the semifinals of the 2007/2008 season. A curious fact is that Cristiano has never scored a goal for Leo Messi’s team in the Champions League.
By contrast, Messi has three goals against Ronaldo’s teams in the tournament, including the final in Rome in 2009.
Result: 1: 1
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