One of the reasons why football fans consider the Champions League to be their favorite club competition is because it provides them with the unique opportunity of witnessing the greatest clubs on the continent clashing against one another.
However, the battle of the feet isn’t the one that thrills the observers. In fact, the battle of the great minds can be even more compelling at times.
On Wednesday, Juve’s matchday two encounter against Chelsea will see Max Allegri going into a chess battle against the brilliant Thomas Tuchel.
La Gazzetta dello Sport sheds some light on this thrilling skirmish between two top European managers with two very different philosophies.
The German tactician is nicknamed “the sports scientist” for a good reason. The former Borussia Dortmund and PSG manager spends hours studying his opponent before the clash.
Moreover, Tuchel considers the training sessions to be the most important part of his job. In fact, the source describes some of the unusual drills that he uses in training, which includes forcing his squad to play in a pitch without corners in order to learn how to play vertically, or even on a field shaped like an hourglass.
On the other hand, Allegri believes that the manager’s most important role is to read the match during the 90 minutes.
The Italian mentally prepares his players ahead of the match, but the focus is less on the opponent at that stage. The report notes how Max couldn’t name a single player from Malmo ahead of his team’s encounter against the Swedes.
So who will emerge victorious from their first encounter this season?