Manchester City Tidak Pantas Kalah, Juventus Hanya Beruntung?

Manchester City have Already Qualified for the Last 16?

Editor : Ismail Gani
Translator : Novita Cahyadi


Manchester City Tidak Pantas Kalah, Juventus Hanya Beruntung?
Foto2: MailOnline

TENTU tidak adil apabila terlalu mengritik klub asal Italia ini. Bagaimana pun, Juventus adalah tim yang baik sekali lagi hari ini - mereka finalis Liga Champions finalis tahun lalu, ingat itu - dan hanya kalah sekali di laga kandang di semua kompetisi.

Namun demikian, jika Manchester City benar-benar akan membuat langkah besar di Eropa yang tampak begitu menjengkelkan di luar mereka, maka entah bagaimana caranya harus mencari lawan tanding yang lebih besar dari ini pada kesempatan yang benar-benar penting.

Di sini, di Stadion Juventus, City memiliki banyak pemain berbakat yang trengginas di lapangan untuk menghentikan lawan mereka. Setelah melampaui tahap berikutnya dan dengan dua kemenangan laga tandang di Grup D menghadapi dua klub pesaing disatu grup, City bermain relatif tanpa tekanan.

Sekali lagi, meskipun, para pemain seperti Yaya Toure, pemain sayap menjengkelkan yang tidak konsisten Jesus Navas dan duo gelandang tengah Brasil yakni Fernando dan Fernandinho membuat City tidak lagi tampil menakutkan. City tidak pantas kalah. Mereka hanya kurang beruntung.

Dengan demikian, playmaker Juventus seperti Paul Pogba yang dibebaskan berkeliaran selama laga berlangsung tidaklah merepotkan City. Permainan Pogba tidak berkembang maksimal menghadapi City.

Para pemain depan Juventus Mario Mandzukic dan Paulo Dybala, sementara itu, ternyata hanya sekadar nama besar. Masuknya pemain pengganti Alvaro Morata, ketika laga tersisa setengah jam, ternyata tidak mengecewakan, seperti dilansir MailOnline.

IT WOULD be unfair to be too critical. Juventus are a good side once again these days – they were last year’s Champions League finalists, remember – and have only lost once at home in all competitions this season. City were missing key players here as well.

Nevertheless, if City really are going to make those big steps in Europe that seem so maddeningly beyond them then they are somehow going to have to find bigger performances than this on the really important occasions. 

Here in the Juventus Stadium, they had enough talent on the field to give this a go. Already through to the next stage and with two away wins in Group D behind them, they were playing relatively without pressure too.

Once again, though, the likes of Yaya Toure, the maddeningly inconsistent winger Jesus Navas and the Brazilian central midfield duo of Fernando and Fernandinho just didn’t really deliver. City weren’t terrible. They just weren’t good enough.

As such, Juventus playmakers like the colossal Paul Pogba were allowed to stroll through the game relatively untroubled. Pogba dictated the play while City chased it. 

The Juventus forward players Mario Mandzukic and Paulo Dybala, meanwhile, were simply magnificent. Substitute Alvaro Morata, coming on with half an hour left, was excellent too.