Champions League 2012-13: The second leg of the quarterfinals, Part II

Bayern-Juventus 2-0

The match advertised as the most intriguing quarterfinal tie didn’t justify the expectations. The main problem of this was the visiting side. Juventus played the worst football ever under Antonio Conte’s management. The team made so many mistakes in simple passing, that Antonio Conte will probably send half of the team back to school to learn the basics.

Everything was meant to go wrong for the Italian champions and it was already clear after 25 seconds, when Juventus lost the ball stupidly and David Alaba’s warm-up shot was got deflected by Arturo Vidal and appeared in the back of the net. Juventus, believed to be a mentally strong team, tried to calm the match down, but never recovered from this blow. The score could have become much worse already in the first half, but the break came earlier than another goal. Juve’s brain Andrea Pirlo had one of his worst matches. The experienced midfielder didn’t seem to catch the tempo of the match. He was slow and his passes were incorrect.

The second half continued the way it developed in the first 45 minutes. If the defenders were more or less all right, the midfielders, commanded by Andrea Pirlo, failed totally. Finally the bad play got attracted on Gianluigi Buffon, who dropped the ball and brought the second goal in his net. The substitutions of Conte didn’t help and the team will have the toughest task of not conceding and scoring three goals at Juventus Stadium.

As for Bayern, the team organized some unbelievable pressing during 90 minutes of the match, thus making the opponent lose the ball occasionally. Other than this, the team found the weak sides of Juventus and utilized them. Most of the attacks came from the wings, especially from the right. As Kroos had to leave the pitch due to an injury, Robben took Mueller’s right wing and used Peluso’s wing comfortably. When not in the wings, Bayern players were shooting as soon as they were getting the ball in the center. Here is the reason why Mandzukic never got a real chance, but I don’t think the Croatian is too sad about that. He had a fine match being in the center of attention and managed to setup the second goal for Mueller. Jupp Heynckes did a great job, when “sleeping with the Old Lady” the previous night, as he said before the match.

Bayern’s pressing was the key and now the score of 2-0 gives the German team at least 90% chances to advance to the semifinals. The only possibility of beating Bayern is playing quick low football, which is not the main strength of Juventus. Bayern doesn’t even need any special tasks. The only mission is to somehow score a goal. Juventus will not score four for sure. Vidal and Lichtsteiner are going to miss the match due to suspensions. Bayern’s suspension Javi Martinez is going to be back, while Toni Kroos’s injury will not let him travel to Italy. Juventus will have 90 minutes to do what Borussia did in 1 minute last night.

PSG-Barcelona 2-2

The most interesting about the starting lineups was the appearance of David Beckham in the position of a defensive midfielder: the Englishman had to try something new in his 38^th year. But this is the trend in modern football nowadays – clever players with great vision and skillful passing play deep in the midfield. Ancelotti surprised, offering a brave attacking tactics against Barcelona. After boring matches against Valencia in the previous round it was nice to see that the nervousness and cautiousness were gone. It is always better to see a team, spending so much money on acquiring players, show attacking football rather than playing for the result.

Especially the first half of this Champions League quarterfinal was amazing, as PSG was competing with the visitors in creating good chances rather than sitting back and waiting for counterattack possibilities. Being secure of a cemented defense by Thiago Silva, Alex and brilliant passes from Beckham, Ibrahimovic was encouraging Pastore, Lavezzi and Lucas to bravely run forward and get the opener. These attacks were sometimes too quick for Barcelona to react, but Valdes, together with the post, made all these chances to come down to nothing in the first half. Things went a bit better on the other side of the pitch, as Lionel Messi managed to score his 8^th goal of the season’s Champions League. It was Daniel Alves who sent a magnificent high ball to the Argentine, cutting the opponent’s defense and letting the striker do his usual business.

As Messi was obliged to stop the play after the first half, Barcelona’s attacks didn’t look too dangerous any more. But PSG got tired, too. The pace they offered in the first half was too much for them. Not to decrease the pressure, Ancelotti introduced three new players instead of the most tired three. A tactical battle led to three scorings in the last 11 minutes of the match, generating a 2-2 draw and leaving the semifinalist’s question open before the match at Nou Camp.

PSG has to score to hope for an advancement. But it is difficult to guess the tactics Ancelotti will offer. Everyone knows how dangerous the Blaugrana are at home, so they would rather be watched out closely. A favorite counterattack strategy is not too bad to choose though, especially after the first match proved the superiority of PSG’s attacking pace over Barca’s defense. Important to notice, that one of the central defenders is going to be Bartra, an unexperienced defender, who helped the ball deflect before appearing in Valdes’s net on the last minute of the first leg match. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, despite making the day for PSG in that match, will still have his say at Nou Camp, if he wants his revenge to be complete. Tito Vilanova will have to think further how to beat the Brazilian defensive duo. A possibility is moving Villa closer to the offside trap exactly as in the home match against Milan. Anyway, this is going to be an epic match, where Barcelona is in a threat of being outplayed and eliminated. There are going to be big problems in Barcelona defense with Macherano and Puyol absent. Messi’s participation is still a question. PSG will have nothing to lose, as no one is going to blame them for a loss, of course if that loss is not a 0-4.

After the incredible support the home sides received on Tuesday, it is now the turn of Italian and Spanish fans to assist their favorite teams in reaching the semifinals.