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The Champions League returns this week and Wednesday night sees one of the most highly anticipated second leg ties, as Tottenham host Italian champions Juventus. The first leg at the Allianz Stadium ended in a 2-2 draw, meaning everything is still to play for at Wembley.
With both teams hopeful of reaching the last eight, both Spurs and Juve will be looking at their key players to be the ones to make the difference. For Tottenham, their obvious go-to man is striker Harry Kane, while for Juventus, Argentine forward Paulo Dybala will be looking to have a huge impact.
Only one team can go through, though – and so here are five reasons why Kane will outshine Dybala and fire Spurs into the quarters.
#1 Juventus have to attack – leaving themselves more open
Despite going into the second leg with the score level at 2-2, due to the away goals rule, it’s Tottenham who will have an advantage in the tie. Juventus essentially need to beat Tottenham or gain a higher-scoring draw than 2-2 to qualify, and so for all intents and purposes, their usual, more defensive gameplan simply won’t cut it.
Juventus were the lowest scoring side to qualify for the knockout stages of the tournament, meaning they’re just not used to pushing forward and attacking a team like say, Liverpool or Real Madrid are. This means that by attacking, they could well leave themselves open to counter-attacks – something that Tottenham are simply brilliant at doing.
Sweeping counter-attacks – usually finished by the deadly striking skills of Kane – have been a hallmark of Tottenham’s success under Mauricio Pochettino since he arrived at the club in 2014, and we saw another example of this on Saturday in Spurs’ game against Huddersfield. Granted it wasn’t Kane scoring, but he did set up Heung-Min Son’s goal with a phenomenal pass.
If Juventus are forced to attack – and essentially, they will be – then they will be open for a quick counter that Kane is an expert at finishing – and if he can score a couple of goals then he’ll outshine Dybala by far.
#2 Kane thrives at Wembley
One of Tottenham’s weaknesses in the Champions League last season was that they struggled at Wembley – their temporary home. This season, however, Spurs have turned the national stadium into a fortress. They haven’t lost a game at Wembley since October’s upset in the Carabao Cup against West Ham, and they won all three of their Champions League group games there.
More to the point, 15 of Harry Kane’s 35 goals in all competitions this season have come at the famous stadium. He’s also assisted in four goals while playing there and hit a Wembley hat-trick against Southampton in January. Basically, it seems that few Tottenham players enjoy playing at Wembley more than Kane.
The occasion simply doesn’t seem to faze him at all, and it’s almost a guarantee that he’ll be confident coming into the Juventus game. Dybala meanwhile has yet to record a single assist or goal in Champions League action this season. So surely it’s a no-brainer that on home turf, Kane will be the man to shine.
#3 Kane has better supporting players around him
In previous years, the biggest question mark surrounding Tottenham has always been the overall strength of their squad – in comparison to Europe’s biggest clubs, Spurs had a relatively thin squad and outside of their first eleven, few of their supporting players could be considered genuinely class. Not so now.
New signings like Lucas Moura, Fernando Llorente and Serge Aurier have provided more depth, while Harry Winks, Erik Lamela and Kieran Trippier have stepped up to the mark in a much stronger way than was initially expected. Add in genuine world-class talents alongside Kane like Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen and Mousa Dembele, and it means one thing – Tottenham’s squad is now stronger than Juventus’.
That isn’t to say Juventus have a weak side – obviously they don’t as they made the Champions League final in 2016/17 – but it is true that the majority of their key players – the likes of Mario Mandzukic and Sami Khedira - are now ageing and are arguably past their prime – with the exception of Dybala, that is. But with a weaker supporting cast to Harry Kane, can he be expected to outshine the English hitman? I don’t think so.
#4 Dybala’s been out for a while and is only just returning
Dybala meanwhile barely missed a game for Juventus until early January, when a hamstring injury sidelined him for six games, causing him to miss most of the first portion of 2018. He returned to action in Juve’s game with Torino on February 18th, but only played his first full game this weekend in a win over Lazio.
Now admittedly, Dybala scored the winner in that game with an absolutely fantastic goal and was also named Man of the Match on whoscored.com. But even so, can he really be expected to star in a far tougher game against a far better side in Tottenham, when he’s played just 121 minutes of football since returning? It’s doubtful, and so it’s another reason why the more consistently fit Kane will outshine him.
#5 Kane is a big game player
Since he shot to stardom in 2014/15, opposing fans have accused Kane of a number of things – being overrated, being a one-season wonder, and so on – but one thing it’s hard to accuse him of being is a flat-track bully. Kane is essentially just as dangerous against stronger sides as he is against the weaker ones, but this season, in particular, he’s proven himself to be a true big-game player.
In the Champions League he’s been fantastic – scoring three and assisting in one over two victories against Borussia Dortmund, and although he didn’t score in either of Tottenham’s games against Real Madrid, he was still one of their key men – setting up Christian Eriksen’s goal in Spurs’ 3-1 victory over the European champions at Wembley. And of course, he fired Tottenham’s first goal in the first leg against Juventus as they came from 2 behind to draw 2-2.
In comparison, when it came down to the biggest game of last season – Juventus’ Champions League final match with Real Madrid – Dybala simply went missing. He was supposed to be Juve’s key man and yet he was booked after 12 minutes and substituted after 78 as the Old Lady lost 4-1. All recent evidence suggests that Kane is the man who delivers on the big occasion – and that’s why he’ll outshine Dybala on Wednesday night.
