To celebrate against your old team or not? That was the problem facing Alvaro Morata when he scored a crucial goal against Real Madrid on Wednesday, which sent his team into the Uefa Champions League final.
He did not celebrate but I don’t see a problem if he did. It’s his job to score, his right if he wants to celebrate against a team who were prepared to sell him.
It’s fine to celebrate as a striker, it’s a release for your efforts.
I scored for Atletico Madrid against Villarreal and didn’t feel in the slightest bit disrespectful to my former club, nor that I was gaining revenge on them.
I had already done more damage to the team by scoring the goal. A celebration with my teammates who had contributed to the goal didn’t hurt them. Why should someone hide happiness?
Juventus surprised me. I thought Madrid would come from behind and win with all those great players and the huge crowd behind them. I was wrong.
Morata got the headlines in Spain and I’ve seen him score some decent goals. He has quality but so do the whole of the Juventus team.
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I don’t see Juventus as individuals, but as a really impressive team who’ve been intelligent in the transfer market either by buying emerging players such as Paul Pogba, players who had a bad reputation such as Carlos Tevez — and unfairly so, I know Tevez and he’s a good guy — or players who were not happy at their former clubs such as Andrea Pirlo. They have knitted all of that together to make a team.
The Juve strikers complement each other. Tevez runs for everything and in and around one of the big reference strikers, Morata or Fernando Llorente.
Tevez covers a lot of ground, always tries to make space and scores a lot of goals. He’s a great player and one who wins titles wherever he goes.
Now he is going to play in another Champions League final.
He is also going back to Boca Juniors, the club he loves, and he has told the people he wants to enjoy giving them everything to repay what they gave him when he was younger.
I’ve played against Llorente a lot in Spain. Top player and a really nice guy. He’s strong in the air, which you’d expect for a big guy, but skilful with his feet and has fine technique, too.
He deserves to be in a great team and this Juventus team has a feeling of greatness about it.
Pirlo, Arturo Vidal and Pogba all get into the box and contribute to an excellent attack, but the most important thing for them is that they have a really solid defence.
They defended superbly in Madrid and denied Cristiano Ronaldo the clear chances and spaces that he needs. I thought Madrid would have more chances, but Juventus stopped that. I think Lionel Messi would have been harder to stop.
Ronaldo is brilliant, he deserved the Ballon d’Or, but I think Messi is the best player in the world and he will need to show that in the final.
Juventus are going to try to defend against Barcelona in Berlin, but Messi performs magic in those tight spaces.
When he has two or three players on him, he can get past them and that’s why he’s the best. As Pep Guardiola said, it is impossible to stop him.
Ronaldo has pace and strength, Messi has pure talent that gets him in between any opponent.
I am surprised at the reaction in Madrid to them not reaching the final but I shouldn’t be because I used to live there.
I can’t believe that they were asking if Carlo Ancelotti is the right man for them after they won the decima and were world champions last season.
They didn’t win anything this year but this happens in football around the world.
Just because you have the most expensive players doesn’t mean that magic is going to happen.
Sometimes football defies this logic and footballers are not robots, they make mistakes, but one reason we love football is because it’s unpredictable.
We’re all expecting Barca, with my good friend Luis Suarez, to beat Juventus but there’s always the big element of doubt, that’s a reason we watch football.
In Madrid, the media are influential. There are always people pushing their agendas on radio, television or in the newspapers — prospective presidents looking for power, friends of players, it’s that kind of club.
I have some sympathy for the players there because it’s not always fair and it’s non-stop, but that’s life as a Real Madrid player. If you can’t stand the heat then get out the kitchen.
There’s a real lack of patience, though. There’s no way that Radamel Falcao, for example, would get the same level of support that he’s had in Manchester this season if he was struggling in Madrid.
They get mad in England, but they have more tolerance too, especially if they can see a player trying, and I can speak from experience.
Madrid didn’t go beyond the last eight in the Champions League for years when I lived in Spain. This year, they reached the semi-finals. That’s not failure, but it is considered failure in Madrid.
It is unlikely, but they could still win the Spanish league. They will likely finish second and at Real Madrid, second place is no place.
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