Two Argentina strikers will go head-to-head in the biggest game in world football this weekend: Juventus v Napoli, teams who are first and second in the table and teams and goalscoring charts.
In my column a year ago, I wrote: “An excellent young Argentine striker is Paulo Dybala, now playing in Serie A with Palermo. He’s only 21 and more like Sergio Aguero or Ezequiel Lavezzi than a classic No 9, but he has been linked with Juventus, Paris-Saint Germain, Atletico Madrid and Arsenal. I watched him last week and he’s so sharp that he makes a difference. When he gets the ball he likes to go direct to goal, to go past defenders and shoot with the left foot.”
Dybala did go to Juventus, where he had the challenge of replacing Carlos Tevez. So far he has been up to that challenge. He is having a brilliant first season in Turin and putting that deadly left foot to good use. Juventus started the season poorly, but they have not stopped winning since November and have risen from mid-table to second in Serie A. They are eight points clear of Fiorentina in third. Only Napoli are ahead, by two points.
Dybala is the second top scorer in the league. The man above him is another Argentine, Gonzalo Higuain, at Napoli. I cannot wait for Saturday's game because both sides are so attack minded.
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Higuain has been sensational this season. He has scored 24 league goals already – 11 more than Dybala – and already more than any player in Serie A in each of the last two seasons. He is on target to become the first player to score 30 league goals in a season in Serie A since Luca Toni 10 years ago. And Toni was the first to break 30 since 1955 when another great Argentina striker, Antonio Angelillo, did it with Inter Milan. A year later, it was another Argentine, Omar Sivori, who was top scorer.
Argentina has always produced great strikers, look at the current national team and try and work out how to fit them all in. It is impossible. Any other country in the world would love their problem.
The strikers travel well, too. In South America, you know that if you do well as a footballer then you are going to move to Europe, so you prepare for that mentally. You also see how well others have done before you and that helps because it shows it can be done.
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Diego Maradona, Hernan Crespo and Gabriel Batistuta were all the leading scorers in Serie A. Maradona’s record at Napoli was incredible, yet the current team have recently gone on an eight-game winning run in the league, better than anything Maradona’s team managed, though they did win the scudetto twice, the last time in 1990. Napoli have also won all six of their Europa League games this season. They have surprised me by how well they have done, and the Juventus game is huge.
Higuain is enjoying being the main man. He was never that at Real Madrid, where he did well and won trophies but was in and out of the side. Madrid want the biggest stars and never felt that Higuain was one. It is a shame for he is an excellent player as he is now proving.
If you go to training as a club’s main goalscorer, in-form and knowing you are going to play matches, that gives you a lift. You have a glow about you, it gives you confidence and responsibility. Yet Higuain started this season having received so much criticism for missing a penalty in the Copa Libertadores final for Argentina against Chile in Santiago.
Argentina lost and people were quick to criticise him, but he has proved them wrong by being brilliant all season. Against Juventus in the home league game earlier this season, he set up one goal and scored the second as Napoli won. That game was in September and I think it was when people started to take notice that Napoli could beat the best.
Higuain does what is important: He scores. You cannot say that he has got any standout quality, anything which would be 10/10 on the PlayStation. We spoke last week about Jackson Martinez when I could say “pace and power” straight away, or with Jamie Vardy, again you would say “pace”. With Higuain, he scores and he does it consistently. That is the most important thing when your job title is “goalscorer”.
The title will be contested between Juve and Napoli, which is why this north v south game, where rivalries run deep, is so crucial, though Juventus are the one team with fans all over Italy. The others have fallen away, unable to keep up with the two teams who keep winning, mostly through the goals of their Argentine strikers.
I still think Juventus are slight favourites to win the league. They are on a 14-game winning run, which is incredible, and they are at home to Napoli. They have the spine of a team which won the league, cup and reached the Uefa Champions League final last year. They could repeat such feats again this year.
Juve have slightly better payers and more experience, but they cannot get arrogant. It can be dangerous for any team who thinks that they are going to win.
It is just a shame that my compatriot Martin Caceres will not be playing on Saturday. He has battled with injury all season and made a return at the start of the year. He worked his way back into the side only to rupture his Achilles tendon. He is expected to be out until October. Juventus will miss him and so will Uruguay. He can play anywhere in defence; he is a great player at a great club.
But will Juventus be the greatest club in Italy this season? Saturday’s game against their greatest challengers will tell us a lot.
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