Paul Scholes: Taking on Lionel Messi is daunting but ‘warrior’ Patrice Evra won’t be worried

 
Tough: Patrice Evra
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Paul Scholes5 June 2015

When Manchester United faced Barcelona at Wembley in our second Champions League Final against them in three years, we believed that this time, in our own country, we could over-power them and win on our own terms. We were wrong.

By the time I came on for Michael Carrick with 13 minutes remaining, the 2011 final was well and truly over. We had been out-played. We had tried to take them on at their own game and they had broken us with that second goal from Lionel Messi not too long after half-time.

I don’t see any alternative for Juventus tomorrow. You try to beat this Barcelona at their own game and, over the course of 10 games you lose every time. Defend against them, and counter-attack, and perhaps you win once or twice.

Those are the odds facing Juventus, a side I rate highly. When you have as many attacking, creative players as Juve do, when you have won your own domestic Double, it is not a pleasant reality to have to face but it is one that you must accept if you are to have a chance of winning a final against them.

In 2008, over two semi-final legs, we did that. We matched them all over the pitch and kept our levels of concentration high. I managed to score the goal that won the tie. It can be done, and Juve have the defenders who can focus for 90 minutes.

THE JUVENTUS DEFENCE

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My old team-mate Patrice Evra is playing his fifth Champions League Final tomorrow, a great achievement. Pat is a warrior and a strong character who you want on your side. He never gives up. And while facing Messi in his current form is a daunting task, the one thing you can be sure of with Pat is that he will not be overawed.

Pat would tell us at United that he was from a very big family. He has 24 brothers and sisters, I believe. So he had to learn to hold his own from a young age and he does it very well.

Juve have great experience in that back four, even if Giorgio Chiellini has been ruled out and Andrea Barzagli is a doubt. If they would have been fit, it would not have surprised me if the manager, Massimiliano Allegri, had opted to play three at the back, with Chiellini and Barzagli alongside Leonardo Bonucci, as he did earlier in the season. Pat struggled to get in the team then. He is much better suited to the orthodox four-man defence, and there will be a lot of pressure on Juve’s defence to get it right.

Naturally much will be made of Pat playing against Luis Suarez again. What happened between the two was serious but I don’t see it as an issue for Pat any more. It’s over now. I know that Pat will be desperate to win, having lost in three of his previous four finals. His experience will be crucial. Stephan Lichtsteiner will have to step up, too. There is no greater test for a defence than Messi, Suarez and Neymar.

JUVENTUS' PLAYMAKER

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Sir Alex Ferguson did not pay many opposition players the compliment of assigning them a man-marker, but he was prepared to make an exception for Andrea Pirlo. After we lost over two legs to Milan in 2007, the manager gave Ji-Sung Park the job of marking Pirlo in the second round of the Champions League in 2010.

I could have told Pirlo that he was in for a tough time because occasionally Park man-marked me in training. I hated it. Park was like a rubber man. Everywhere you went, he went, too. He could run all day. I used to think of him as the manager’s loyal soldier. Sir Alex would give him precise instructions and he would follow them to the letter. I’m told Pirlo never forgot being marked by Park.

Pirlo is an interesting challenge for Barcelona. Man-marking is not their thing and yet, if you allow Pirlo time and space he will destroy you. This Barcelona team do not deny opponents possession to quite the same levels Pep Guardiola’s side, so Pirlo will have some of the ball. It depends what he can do when he gets it but there’s no one better at picking out team-mates’ runs.

Pirlo is a cool customer who does things in his own time. He just looks so relaxed, no matter what is going on around him. He is one of those greats who looks like he could run a midfield with a glass of wine in one hand. He needs Arturo Vidal and Carlos Tevez to make the runs for him but once they set off, they will know the ball is coming. Barcelona cannot afford to ignore Pirlo but making allowances for opposing players is not their style.

THE GOALKEEPER

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One of the two trophies, along with a European championship, that Gianluigi Buffon does not have is a European Cup. I am loathe to assign ’keepers too much importance but you have to make an exception for the greats. Buffon is a presence and obviously a big influence on his Juve team-mates. They look up and see someone who has done it all before and that will give them confidence.

Sometimes it is just as simple as the physical presence of a ’keeper. Peter Schmeichel could make the goal look much smaller when you glanced up to hit a shot. Buffon does the same. Barca’s Ter Stegen is a different kind of ’keeper. Much smaller but with great feet — he could probably play as a centre-half in England.

THE STAR OF THE SHOW

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I think about the great players with whom I have shared a pitch: Eric Cantona, Zinedine Zidane, Pirlo, Xavi, Ronaldo and the greatest of them all is Messi. I watched him at the Mestalla against Valencia in November and he looked less than interested. Since then he has been sensational. His scoring record, in terms of goals to games, is a phenomenon. But it is more than the goals, it is the games in which he scores them.

He scores them in the big games against the big teams and he does it season in, season out. He does not go missing even when, as with the World Cup finals, he looked tired or was carrying an injury. There are lots of good footballers who can come up with the goods every now and then. Messi does it every week, under a weight of expectation greater than any other player.

What makes a player like Messi attempt the incredible kind of run and shot that he scored with against Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey Final? Well, first you need to know you can do it. Secondly it is the confidence and belief of an in-form player. I have seen that kind of belief in team-mates and opponents and it is a powerful force. When the truly great players are in that mood, they can be unstoppable.

Champions League Final Combined XI

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Just as a final word on that goal: why on earth did none of those Bilbao players chop him down and take a yellow card? Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed watching it as much as the next person but I am astonished that none of them took emergency action faced with the best player in the world running through them.

Playing Messi, as I have said before, is as tough a test of your concentration as any in football. At any moment of any game, he can take the mickey out of you. Physically it is demanding, but mentally even more so. You cannot switch off for a moment. The second you allow your mind to wander... he is off, gone with the ball at his feet and flitting towards goal while your options are being reduced by the millisecond.

There is no defender in the world who can stop Messi every time. But every now and again a good defence has managed to do it — and Juventus have a good defence. The problem for them is that they also have Suarez and Neymar to think about, too, and that can be overwhelming. For many of these Juventus defenders, this may well be their last chance of winning the Champions League.

Losing a final can be a painful experience but in 2009 and 2011 I rationalised it thus: Barcelona were the best team in the world. You had to accept they were better than us, even at a club like United where the expectation is that you win every game. Juventus will have a plan to beat Barcelona and if that does not work then at least they can always tell themselves that they lost to the best.

THE FAREWELL TO XAVI

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Every footballer dreams of leaving the stage with a trophy. I was lucky enough to do it both times that I retired for United! I know Xavi is not retiring but he is leaving the club of his life after tomorrow for Al-Sadd in Qatar. I hope he gets 20 minutes at the end if Barcelona are home and dry so he can enjoy the moment. Even so, his quality on the ball means that he would be an asset even if the game was still in the balance.

He is a clever player. In games against him I would think ‘right, I’m getting to get close to him for 10 minutes’, but as soon as I got there he would be gone. He sees everything: team-mates, opponents, the shape of the game, and he sees it before anyone else. He will know that Barcelona will miss him but, as with all great clubs, he will also know that no one is indispensable.

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