A monstrous feat. Signed by a great Juve and, indeed, by a monster with the number 7 shirt. Juventus were looking for the perfect match and found it on the most important night, the one that could decide an entire season, in one sense or the other. other. It went in the right direction and here, in addition to a sensational Cristiano Ronaldo, credit must be given to Massimiliano Allegri: the great protagonist of the evening, together with the Portuguese phenomenon, is certainly him.
Three weeks of giving him the funeral, questioning his tactical skills, already talking about his successors and he responds by overturning Atletico Madrid with a crazy match, so perfect that it almost seems fake. Simeone's colchoneros, praised excessively after the first leg, return from Turin with broken bones: they not only conceded 3 goals in 90 minutes, they were simply destroyed by a superior Juve in all respects, from start to finish. end.
The merit, as often happens in these cases, must be divided equally between the coach and the players, but it is clear that the merits of the former weigh heavily on those of the latter. Never, not even for a minute, did Atletico Madrid give the feeling that they could be dangerous, and if he stayed in the game until the 86th minute it was only because of the lead in the first leg, which seemed like an almost insurmountable mountain.
But the initial black and white 3-5-2, disguised as a 4-3-3 only for card lovers (Emre Can climbed into the defensive line to set up), literally sent Simeone into a tailspin, unable to react to Max's moves and evening of grace for all the bianconeri. Because then, beyond the tactical merits, games are won technically and here Allegri's 13 (substitutions included) were simply perfect.
Inevitable to start from Ronaldo, author of the best performance since he was in Italy and a hat-trick that will further aggravate, we can bet, Florentino Perez's stomach ache after selling him for "only" 100 million: everyone expected, or better they expected, an extraterrestrial game and he, as always in recent years, answered present.
His hat-trick (27' and 48' with two superhuman headers, 86' from a penalty) literally brought Athletic down, confirming that the Portuguese is still at the top of the world rankings of top players, even if the scattered "bigwigs" to the world they seemed to have forgotten about it. But since football is not an individual but a team sport, we must mention all the other great protagonists of the match, none excluded.
From the monumental Chiellini and Bonucci to the elusive wingers Spinazzola (by the way: if Alex Sandro plays like this he can easily remain on the bench) and Cancelo, to the enormous Emre Can and Bernardeschi (the best on the pitch, CR7 excluded), passing through Matuidi, Mandzukic, Pjanic and the substitutes Dybala and Kean. Szczesny remains out of the list but this, ça va sans dire, depends on the total inconsistency of Atletico, unable to get his gloves dirty even just once. In short, a well-deserved qualification, because it is true that the Champions League is played between two legs but such domination inevitably takes over".
“We got a great satisfaction – commented Allegri – The boys played the game at their best by playing with speed, aggression and breadth. I also wanted to do this on the first leg, then I thought about it. We were lucid and cold, the risk was to play a hysterical game, instead I asked the guys for peace of mind because we had time to take her home, but with great balance. I tried to find the right situations to open the game. Everyone had a great game and showed maturity, with a great performance. Now we will see who touches us…”.
The declarations of Simeone, the real great loser of the evening, are of a completely different profile: an elimination against Juve can also be considered, losing so definitely not. “Juve were very similar to Atletico in the first leg – his bitter analysis. – We have suffered, as had happened to them in the first leg: they pass and that's right: they deserved. They were better than us and deserved the victory. Ronaldo? He is the best in the world… ”.
Thus ends one of the most balanced challenges of the entire Champions League, with Juventus now, more than ever, increasing their legitimate aspirations for final victory. Sure, the road to the Cup is still quite long but still being in the running, in the light of past (and overcome) troubles, is already something important. And who knows if tomorrow, at the end of everything, this match won't take on an even greater value than today, when the whole world celebrates the resurrection of Juventus.
The celebrations also continue on the Stock Exchange where the Old Lady's stock gains over 16% placing itself at the top of the Ftse Mib. In reality, investors are uncorking a bottle of champagne not so much for the excellent performance of the Bianconeri at the Allianz Stadium as for the additional revenues that will arrive thanks to the conquest of the quarterfinals. It is estimated that, from participation in the Champions League, Juventus has already collected over 80 million without considering stadium revenues (almost 69 million were indicated in the half-yearly report which did not take into account, however, the bonus linked to participation in the round of 10,5). Advancement to the quarterfinals is worth another 5,5 million in prize money plus box office revenue. Thanks to yesterday's match alone, Juve collected 16 million, so the total revenues come to XNUMX million euros more.
