Here is our exclusive Barcelona vs Juventus Tactical Review. Barcelona visited Turin on Wednesday to face Juventus in one of the biggest UEFA Champions League fixtures of this week and came out winning the game by 2-0. Neither of the two teams was in good form before this match. Despite humiliating Ferencvaros in their last UCL match, Barca lost 3-1 to their arch-rivals Real Madrid in La Liga. Juventus, on the other hand, also drew 2-2 against Hellas Verona in their last Serie A match. Both of the sides have new managers this season and there is huge pressure on both of them to perform.
Barcelona vs Juventus Tactical Review: Lineups of both teams
Juventus lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation, which often turned to a 4-4-2 without possession. Dybala, despite starting as a central attacking midfielder, often joined Alvaro Morata to initiate the press. With possession, this formation turned into a 3-4-3 shape with Kulusevski joining the attack. Danilo became more central and formed the 3 man backline with Bonucci and Demiral, while Cuadrado pushed forward.
Barcelona, on the other hand, formed a 4-2-3-1 shape. They looked to maintain their shape throughout the match, even in transitions. They used a 4-3-3 formation without possession, with Messi, Griezmann, and Dembele staying upfront.
Barcelona vs Real Madrid Tactical Review: Buildup and Transitions
Barcelona
Barcelona, with possession, looked to build up from the back. Both of their central midfielders dropped in front of the defense. Juventus looked to press high with Rabiot and Bentancur pressing the two central mids. This provided space in the central midfield where either Messi or Pedri moved in. Jordi Alba overlapped to provide the width on the left side of the pitch. Pjanic played well in this match as he absorbed the press and moved the ball centrally. Because of him, Barca controlled the central midfield area and created a 3v2 advantage in that position.
Messi played in a free role. He was often moving to the right side of the pitch when Dembele was moving up which helped Barca to overload the right side of the pitch and make runs in the box. Though most of the Barca attacks came from the left side where Pedri and Alba were combining. They created a 2v1 advantage on the left side, as both Cuadrado and Kulusevski participated in the attack so there was some space on the left side for Barca, which they exploited very well. Griezmann also played well in this match. He helped Messi to play freely by attracting defenders and exchanging the position
Juventus
Juventus put on a horrible performance in this match. Pirlo’s tactics were easily countered by Koeman. Juve also looked to play out from the back. As mentioned earlier, they were creating a 3-man backline with Danilo joining the two center-backs. Their main onus was to play out from the wings. Cuadrado overlapped on the right side of the pitch. This allowed Kulusevski to join Morata on the penalty box. There was practically very little progression through the center for Juventus. The backs tried to play long balls to the wingers or overlapping fullbacks which was easily intercepted.
As Barca was keeping a high line, so Morata created some chances by putting him in between the defensive line of Barca. This created some chances for Juventus, but he was often caught in an offside position while making a run. As there was no central movement, so Dybala didn’t have much of a role to play in this match. He tried to create an overload on the right side of the pitch to attract Barca defenders which opened the left flank for Chiesa to make a run. But this plan failed too, as Roberto and Dembele played very well to stop Juve attacks down the left flank. Juve was not up to the mark in this match and they have a lot of work to do before the reverse fixture.
Conclusion
Barcelona vs Juventus Tactical Review sums it up that this match was mostly a one-sided affair for the Catalans. They were inch-perfect with their approach in every part of the game and carried out their plan very well. Juventus, on the other hand, got a lot of gaps to fill as they were exposed by the passing football of Barcelona.
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