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Andrea Pirlo, the Juventus coach, coincided with rival Ronald Koeman, the Barcelona coach, taking on stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in the two teams’ meeting on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the Group G summit victory between Barcelona and Juventus will witness the summit of the last day of the Champions League groups, in a renewed confrontation between Ronaldo and Messi.
Pirlo said in the comments, especially on his club’s website: “Koeman is right. It is wrong to say that he is better between Ronaldo and Messi.
“We just have to thank the duo,” he added. “It is a period in which great players suffer, it is normal.”
And he added: “The greats of football have little time to rest, they are busy with the national teams.”
Pirlo believes that “the big stars will be better after the Christmas holidays.”
And he stressed: “If Ronaldo looks good, it means that he was in the right place at the right time and that we were good at giving him the balls.”
He continued: “Messi is living a special moment in his life and not only in his career, because of the problems he had this summer, whether he continues in Barcelona or not, he always shows his value in games.”
“He has a problem in his head, more than football. I don’t want to get into that. It’s none of our business, but Messi is a phenomenon and it always shows.”
This is the first meeting between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, since their first outing for Juventus in the summer of 2018.
Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman declined to compare his captain Lionel Messi to Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo, pointing to the need to enjoy their match on Tuesday night.
“It’s great that the players have been on top of the world for a long time,” Koman said.
“They are the best players in the world in my opinion, in the last 10 to 15 years, they have been successful for so long, which is incredible,” he said.
“They are different, but they have incredible statistics in terms of goals, hat-trick and winning individual and collective titles,” he added.
“It’s not nice to say who is the best between them because they are both great,” added the Dutch coach.
“I like them both because they gave us many wonderful evenings full of goals and titles, so we hope we can enjoy their presence in Tuesday’s game.”
Barcelona has 15 points at the top, while Juventus is second with 12 points.
Juventus need to win more than two goals to make up for the loss in the first leg and occupy the top spot in the group.
