How Juventus can stop Lionel Messi in the Champions League final

How can Juventus stop Lionel Messi, especially the way he is playing now?

On Saturday night in Berlin, both Barcelona and Juventus play not only for the right to be Europe’s best in 2014/15, but to complete the Holy Grail of football – The Treble.

If the Old Lady of Italian football do emerge victorious, their first treble is assured. Should Barca take the honours, they will become the first team in football history to achieve the feat on two separate occasions.

It is still a monumental achievement although we are fast beginning to see the polarization of football. Whoever does come out on top on Saturday will be the winners of the fourth treble in the last seven seasons.

The gap that has been so obvious for a while now is beginning to widen and it will become a yawning chasm if the powers that be at UEFA allow it to be so.

It brings the prospect of a genuine European Super League ever closer because a handful of top teams from each division are now so far ahead of their contemporaries that it’s becoming embarrassing for each federation.

And one player is so far ahead of the rest that it’s hard to believe that Lionel Messi actually exists!

Messi playing at a very high level

Once again, we have borne witness this past weekend to quite an exquisite finish from the Argentine. It was so good that many esteemed luminaries in the world of football are calling it Messi’s best ever goal.

Athletic Club de Bilbao, wary of the danger that Messi possesses in those lethal size eights of his, stationed three men on him and there appeared to be little danger as he received the ball six yards inside Athletic’s half.

As we’ve seen so many times before now, a slaloming run took his closest markers out of the game and as Mikel Rico tried and failed to bring Messi to a halt, a breathtaking body swerve took the highly-rated Aymeric Laporte out of the equation before a low shot to the near post caught keeper Herrerin off-guard.

The Bianconeri’s managerial team will have taken one look at that and realised the task ahead of them. As if they didn’t know already.

But, let’s face it, the Italian champions are no mugs. Four successive Serie A titles and possession of one of the meanest defences in Europe, this isn’t going to be a procession for Messi and co. Far from it.

Massimiliano Allegri is going to have to look right into his box of tricks because the age-old Italian defensive style will not work in Germany. One of Luis Enrique’s biggest successes in 2014/15 is to have his team playing a number of ways, often switching in-play to counter the thrust of the opposition.

Bayern Munich only conceded 18 goals in the Bundesliga and three in the group stages of the Champions League. Yet, Barcelona put five past them over two legs and Pep Guardiola’s Bayern were huge favourites for the crown at one time.

Allegri could well have sleepless nights wondering whether to go with a zonal marking system or to go man-for-man. And the truth is, in this form, Messi is likely to destroy either tactical set-up. The best the Italians can hope for is that Messi has an off night. One of those 90 minutes where things just aren’t happening. When he tries just a little too hard.

And for anyone who genuinely believes that this is Messi’s destiny, cast your mind back a year or so to Rio de Janiero. Yes, that was supposed to be his crowning glory wasn’t it. But sometimes things just don’t work out the way one envisages.

It’s true, however, that he is playing somewhere approaching his best, which many thought, was beyond him at this point last year. He only ran a mile more than Jose Manuel Pinto against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals, prompting suggestions that Messi was “past it”.

Paul Pogba in principle, and his combination with Evra will be tasked with stopping Messi

Paul Pogba best available solution to counter Messi’s threat

Past it he certainly is not and Paul Pogba is likely to be charged with ensuring that Allegri’s plans come to fruition. Ostensibly an attack-minded midfielder and playing on the left side, he will be in direct combat with Messi on Barca’s right. That long, gangly stride of Pogba’s will be more than a match for Messi who will probably need to run two steps to every one of Pogba’s.

The physical side of the game has never really been an issue for Messi who invariably just gets up and gets on with it. But that is precisely where Pogba wins this duel. By consistently and fairly knocking Messi out of his stride throughout the game. Even if that means he has to rein in his own attacking instincts.

Eventually, the Argentine will crack, as he often does if he is unsuccessful in either creating or scoring himself because Lionel Messi doesn’t do football on the periphery.

Pogba’s presence is such that he should be able to contain Messi on his own, but we can assume that Barca’s main man will get the better of him on occasion. This is where left-back Patrice Evra has to use all of his intelligence.

He was made to look silly at Wembley in 2011, but at least the ex-Manchester United man has the knowledge of exactly what will be required this time to dilute Messi’s excellence.

Evra and Giorgio Chiellini can’t let their beef with Luis Suarez detract them from their main aim either, which will be to stop Messi. Suarez and Neymar can also be decisive, yes, but the pair aren’t anywhere near as dangerous as the triplet. Stop Messi and you effectively stop Barcelona.

Wouldn’t the hand of fate decree that Pogba, Barcelona’s next “Galactico” summer transfer target, is the man to kill off the dreams of his new employers...