We take a look at Barcelona’s and Juventus’ progression to Berlin
It was confirmed this week that the 2015 Champions League final will see La Liga giants FC Barcelona take on Serie A champions Juventus in Berlin.
The two clubs will take centre stage on June 6th as they look to be crowned champions of Europe, but how did the two teams get to Berlin?
SillySeason will now take a look at the path both Barcelona and Juventus took to get to the biggest final in club football.
Barcelona’s Route to Berlin
The Catalan side started their Champions League venture in Group F and were drawn alongside two rather respectable clubs.
Paris Saint-Germain and Ajax joined Barca in Group F, whilst APOEL FC completed the group. Despite some tricky games on paper, Barca topped the group with 15 points, after winning five and losing just one.
During the six group games, Barcelona scored 15 goals and conceded a mere five, with three of those five coming in their loss to PSG in France.
After successfully topping the group, Barca were drawn against English champions Manchester City in the last-16.
After beating City 2-1 at the Etihad Stadium in the first-leg, it looked all-but tie over ahead of the second-leg in Spain and thanks to an Ivan Rakitic goal on the half hour mark, Barca went through 3-1 on aggregate.
Barca then were drawn against a familiar side as they had to go up against PSG, the team they have in their group stage. Once again however, Barca did the damage in the first leg, winning 3-1 in France and then securing qualification with a 2-0 win in Spain.
Onto the Semi-Finals and it was another first-leg performance that sealed the deal for Luis Enrique’s men as they triumphed 3-0 at the Nou Camp against Bayern Munich.
A 3-2 loss in Germany in the second-leg was enough to see them advance 5-3 on aggregate.
So that is how Barca sealed their spot in Berlin, now lets look at the process Juventus had to go through to reach the Final.
Juventus’ Route to Berlin
In their six group games, The Old Lady secured 10 points and finished second behind last year’s finalists Atletico Madrid.
Drawn alongside Atletico, Olympiacos and Malmo FF, Juve won three, drew one and lost the remaining two. Amazingly in the six games, Juventus only managed seven goals and conceded four.
After finishing second in their group, Juve were likely to have a tricky last-16 tie and were drawn against Jurgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund, who have had a woeful campaign but have still performed in Europe.
Juve won the first-leg in Turin 2-1, but with Dortmund having an away goal, it looked likely that the German side would progress. However, a thumping 3-0 win in Germany saw Juve progress to the Quarter-Finals 5-1 on aggregate.
AS Monaco were awaiting Juve after the French side stunned Arsenal and it was a classic ‘score one, shut up shop’ kind of performance from the Italian side.
After winning the first leg 1-0 at home, Juve then went to France and held on to a 0-0 draw which booked their place in the last-four where Real Madrid were waiting.
The last time Juve reached a final, they had to beat the Spanish giants in the Semi-Final and lightning struck twice this year as a 2-1 home win and a 1-1 draw at the Bernabeu was enough to give Juve a pass to the final.
So that is how the two teams got there, but who is going to take home the trophy?
Barca will be favourites, but if Juve can go 1-0 up, you just never know.
Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt – @AlexsArticles
