Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets says Juventus don’t play ‘great football’ but they still deserve the Champions League final.
The Bianconeri face Busquets and his team on Saturday in Berlin, and the Spanish international has given his thoughts on Max Allegri’s men.
“Until December, they were in trouble in the group,” the World Cup winner told Gazzetta dello Sport.
“Then over time they showed that they were well-prepared to go all the way.
Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets says Juventus don’t play ‘great football’ but they still deserve the Champions League final.
The Bianconeri face Busquets and his team on Saturday in Berlin, and the Spanish international has given his thoughts on Max Allegri’s men.
“Until December, they were in trouble in the group,” the World Cup winner told Gazzetta dello Sport.
“Then over time they showed that they were well-prepared to go all the way.
“When they beat [Real] Madrid, I thought they were favourites and when Madrid didn’t take their opportunities in the return I had no doubts.
“It’s always like that with Italian teams, they’re competitive, they know what they want and they know how to get it.
“Juve have not reached the final playing great football, or scoring a lot, but they deserve to be here, they’re a compact team and very difficult to beat.
“In a final it’s winning that counts, it’s not the style of play that people remember. It’s normal for us to dream, after we didn’t win anything last year.
“We know how difficult it is, and it would be nice to win, which is what counts.
“Under Luis Enrique we’ve worked a lot, and we’ve improved defensively. The addition of [Luis] Suarez has helped us a lot, and with [Ivan] Rakitic and [Andres] Iniesta we move well and keep it tight.
“Then we have a good defence and two great goalkeepers [Marc-Andre Ter Stegen and Claudio Bravo]. In general, compared to a year ago the difference is physical, we’re much better in that respect and you can see that, the impact of Luis Enrique has been very positive.
“He has very clear ideas about football and we’ve absorbed them. We’ve had more variation, and it’s helped us so much with Leo [Messi] being on the wing.
“He’s even more devastating when he drift into the centre, pull people out of position and make combinations. Then Suarez is there as a point of reference, which is good for us.”
Busquets also revealed his admiration for Bianconeri midfielder Andrea Pirlo.
“I know how hard it is to play there [at the base of midfield], and the other day I saw a statistic from Madrid-Juventus: Pirlo was one of those who had covered the most kilometres.
“He can run in addition to his great qualities – he’s organised, he can use both feet and he plays the game at his own pace.
“He’s a very complete player.”
One player with whom Busquets will already be familiar is Alvaro Morata, and he singled out his international teammate for praise.
“Morata has had a great season,” the 26-year-old said.
“It was difficult to think he’d become so important to a team like Juve. He came from Madrid where he didn’t play a lot, he’s adapted to the system and has been decisive in the final part of the season.
“He came to the national team with great respect, even shyness, but he’s progressing. If he continues as he has been with Juve, he’ll be our number 9, a fixture in the national team.”