Luis Enrique's plan to surprise Juventus at Camp Nou
The Barcelona coach will press high up and try to win the ball back in transition periods
Lucho's men have to come back from three goals down after defeat in Turin
Juventus have a great team. Massimiliano Allegri has a side of elite soldiers ready to compete and to win.
It’s not just their 3-0 win over Barcelona in Turin, and their fine performances to date this season, but their set-up which appears unbreakable, with no cracks to exploit. They are compact, well designed and structured to not just rule Italy, but conquer Europe.
Juve choked the Catalans in the first leg, with the only good news being that they arrived back in Barcelona still breathing.
Luis Enrique and his assistants have studied Juventus with the aim of finding a breach in their system. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack because the weaknesses are so few. The coach has arrived at the conclusion that the only way of doing damage to the Italian champions is robbing the ball from them in the transition phase.
It was actually like this in Turin, when Barcelona had a couple of chances, although Iniesta and Luis Suarez were not able to beat Buffon, the immortal goalkeeper. The hope is that this time the fractional plays that depend on millimetres and fractions of seconds fall on Barcelona’s side.
The plan is to go out and press Juventus high, although with their static defence it will be hard to create clear chances. Not even from set pieces, which they are used to sorting out without much fuss.
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