Exclusive: in the first of his series of Guardian columns, Arsenal’s head coach runs the rule over two clubs he has met in the last two seasons
The narrative of the last three Champions League finals has been similar, with one team really coming out, dominating and profiting from their goalscoring opportunities early on. It is the chance to get momentum and give the opponents a game they maybe hadn’t prepared for. In last year’s final, Barcelona were on the receiving end of a fast start from Lyon. In Saturday’s final, between Barcelona and Wolfsburg, we will likely see both teams attempt to start aggressively.
Jonatan Giráldez’s Barcelona will want to keep the ball, in keeping with their style, but they also press aggressively and will try to pen Wolfsburg back into their half. Wolfsburg, who knocked out my team, Arsenal, in the semi-finals, will do the opposite. They don’t like building and will try to frame the game around counterattacking moments and profit from those. If they lose the ball deep, they’re going to be very aggressive in their defensive man-marking and counterpressing to try to win it back. I imagine the first 15 minutes may be very, very intense.
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