Barcelona are champions of Europe for the fifth time after defeating Juventus 3-1 in the Champions League final on Saturday evening in Berlin.
Ivan Rakitic scored early in the first half, while Luis Suárez tallied the go-ahead goal in the second half before Neymar added a third in the final seconds to earn Barcelona the victory.
There were no surprises in the Barcelona starting XUI, with the lethal South American trio of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Suárez up front in attack. Andrés Iniesta, Sergio Busquets and Rakitic composed the midfield, while in defense goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen was shielded by a abck four of Dani Alves, Gerard Piqué, Javier Mascherano and Jordi Alba.
It took barely any time at all for Barcelona to display their sublime football and open the scoring in just the fourth minute. It was classic Barcelona, with Messi feeding Alba, who passed to Neymar, who then slipped a pass into Iniesta and a simple side-footed nod from Iniesta found Rakitic, who swept a past Juventus goalkeeper Gigi Buffon to hand the Catalonians an early 1-0 lead.
There was no let up from the Spanish champions who continued to press for a second, and it looked like Alves was about to make it 2-0 in the 13th minute when he fired at goal after a cutback pass from Suárez, but a wrong way-leaning Buffon managed to get his hand on it and bat it away.
Juventus hung tough despite conceding the early opener and carved out their own chances through Vidal, Morata and Marchisio. The nerves of the Italians settled and soon it was Barcelona who were stuck in their own half with Juventus pressuring Luis Enrique’s men every time they tried to play out of the back.
Suárez started to find his groove toward the end of the first half, and twice the Uruguayan came close to scoring, once in the 39th minute with a shot that rolled just wide of the far post and another just a minute later that went screaming above the crossbar.
Buffon was called on to make another big save just three minutes into the second half, blocking a Suárez toe-poke at the near post. The stop from Buffon would prove pivotal, as Juve pulled level in the 55th minute. It all started with a genius back heel from
Marchisio to a running Stephan Lichtsteiner, who crossed for Tevez. The Argentine’s shot was blocked by Ter Stegen but there to pounce was former Real Madrid man Álvaro Morata, who fired in to make it a 1-1 contest.
The goal furthered Juve’s belief in victory, and a well-worked build-up in the 63rd minute saw the Old Lady almost score their second, but Tevez’s right-footer curled over the crossbar. Right when Juventus were at their best, Barcelona struck back and regained the lead in the 68th minute. Messi captained a counterattack that ended with La Pulga firing on goal. Buffon could only block the shot and the ball fell right to Suárez who slammed his effort into the back of the net to make it 2-1 to Barcelona.
Three minutes later Neymar thought that he had increased the Barcelona lead to 3-1 when he headed in off a cross from Alba, but the official ruled that the ball struck the arm of the Brazilian before going in. Replays showed that Neymar’s header had in fact struck the top of his hand before beating Buffon.
With 13 minutes remaining, Xavi came on to replace Iniesta in what was the legendary midfielder’s final game in a Barcelona jersey. Piqué had a golden opportunity to ice the game in the 82nd minute after receiving a beautifully lofted pass from Rakitic, but the defender missed the target to keep Juventus in the match.
Juventus threw numbers forward in hopes of tallying the late equalizer, but only a meek effort from Tevez in the 92nd minute would pose as a threat to Ter Stegen in the Barcelona goal.
In the end, Barcelona were able to close out what was a hard-fought final and Neymar sealed the triumph with a goal in the final seconds to make the final score 3-1 and give Barcelona their second treble, a first for any European club.
