No shame to brave juventus

COMMENT: Juve may have fallen short of a record-
breaking treble in Berlin, but they have nothing to
be ashamed of after another gallant display at the
end of a superb season
By Kris Voakes | International Football
Correspondent
It was a gallant effort, but in the end Barcelona
were just too good.
Since Juventus turned around their fortunes four
years ago and
began collecting Serie A titles for
fun again, the lack of progress in the Champions
League had been the only stick left with which to
beat them. This season they finally returned to the
very top level of European football, it was just a
shame that Luis Enrique’s side have worked their
way into a whole new stratosphere.
The 3-1 defeat in the Berlin final will not go down
as one of their better performances. Too many of
their players took too long to get started. At
crucial moments, they too often arrowed shots
straight at the palms of Marc-Andre ter Stegen
rather than truly testing the German. A normally
durable defence was at sixes and sevens for long
stretches too.
But the wider picture is a brighter one. The
Bianconeri have given their all this season under
Massimiliano Allegri and it took a brilliant
Barcelona side to prevent them from walking off
with an otherwise-deserved treble. As was the
case for Manchester United in 2011 when the
Blaugrana last lifted the Champions League trophy,
they can have few regrets.
For the 13 minutes between their equaliser and the
killer second goal by Luis Suarez, Juve were not
just level, they were in control of proceedings.
They had Barcelona scrambling, they were showing
that when the Catalans don’t have the ball they
can be left chasing shadows. But nobody keeps
the ball off Barcelona forever.
Allegri has confounded critics, not least amongst
the Juventus fanbase, to lead his side to the
biggest stage. Alvaro Morata, who netted the
Italians’ equaliser, has developed from a
dangerous substitute to a European star. Players
like Carlos Tevez, Arturo Vidal, Leonardo Bonucci,
Claudio Marchisio and Paul Pogba might not have
covered themselves in glory in Berlin, but they will
look back on 2014-15 as huge moments in their
careers.
There were tears shed by Juventus players young
and old at the end, but they can be dried quickly
enough. Nobody gave them a hope at the season’s
start, and a return of two domestic trophies and a
major European final is a success rather than a
failure.
"In football there are moments of great joy and
others of great disappointment," Gianluigi Buffon
told Sky Italia following the match. "We had so
many great joys before this defeat, and we are
sorry not to be able to get to the end as we
wanted and deserved. Tonight, for a moment, I
almost believed."
Questions will be asked as to whether this marks
the end of the cycle for this Juventus after they
selected the second-oldest line-up ever to
compete in a Champions League final. But there
are plenty of reasons to be hopeful, not least the
fact that silencing critics has fast become par for
the course on the road to Berlin.
Juventus came so near, and it took a magnificent
Lionel Messi and a wonderful Barcelona to beat
them. There is certainly no shame in that.