Steve Nicol says Gonzalo Higuain didn't receive enough support from his teammates to be effective against Barcelona on Tuesday. The ESPN FC crew join SportsCenter to delve into Barcelona's 3-0 defeat over Juventus in UEFA Champions League Group D action. After their opening-round loss to Barca, the FC panel place part of the blame on Dybala's lacklustre showing for Juventus. Barcelona and Lionel Messi dealt swift justice to the team that knocked them out of last year's competition.
Fabio Capello tells a story about a conversation he had with Frank Rijkaard at the Camp Nou in 2005. Capello was in charge of Juventus at the time and they were in Catalunya at Barcelona's invitation to play the annual Gamper Trophy match. A teenage Lionel Messi had given Juventus the runaround and made a big impression on "Don Fabio".
"During the game I asked Frank if I could take him on loan. I had seen Messi play for Argentina at youth level and he looked to me like a promising player. But seeing him at the Camp Nou in a Barcelona shirt in front of a crowd like that, I realised I had never seen a player in all my life with his ability. He was able to do things other players weren't even capable of thinking of." Rijkaard and Capello went way back. The Dutchman played under him at Milan. But he couldn't do his old boss this favour. "I can't," he said.
Thirteen years on from that breakout display, Messi put on an even better one against the same opponent and it didn't come as much of a surprise to Massimiliano Allegri. "It's not like we found out about Messi for the first time tonight. He had three shots, scored twice and hit the post." Allegri knew that, for all the pre-match talk about Messi never putting one past Gianluigi Buffon, play against him enough and it's only a matter of time. That's called being realistic. Just watch Barcelona's opening goal.
Juventus actually got seven men back to deal with Messi and Luis Suarez but the speed of the combination and the Argentine's frightening ability in tight spaces, not to mention his sniper-precise finish made all of them miss. La Stampa's headline SottoMessi -- a play on the word "submit" -- was spot on. Juventus had been pretty good up until that point. You might even say they were unlucky to go in at half-time behind. After all, they'd hit six shots at the target, four of which came from inside the box.
Source: espn.co.uk