Champions League final: 3 reasons Juventus will defeat Barcelona

If you ask most of the football world, we should probably just hand the trophy to Barcelona and be done with it. The Blaugrana can't lose.

Not because Juventus is not a worthy opponent. They are. It's an endorsement of the Spanish side more than it is an indictment of the Italians.

But they're not looking at it that way. Nor should they.

Here are three reasons why Juventus will top Barcelona to win their first Champions League title since 1996.

Paul Pogba and Arturo Vidal are really, really good at football

Like, good enough to win matches on their own. Ask Real Madrid about the Chilean's ability to be a tattooed, mohawk-clad destroyer of worlds in the opening leg of their semifinal. They'll tell you all about it.

Or ask any player that has even been comfortably in possession against Juventus, with plenty of time on his hands, only to then be charged down by the galloping limbs of a 22-year-old Frenchman - who will not only rip the ball away from him, but pirouette around him for good measure.

Andrea Pirlo is, despite the cracks that have started to surface, still a positional genius who can just as easily pick an awe-inspiring 50-yard pass as he can spend the match dragging midfielders around as a decoy. Claudio Marchisio, meanwhile, is the glue that keeps the Juventus midfield together.

But Vidal and Pogba are the stars. The horsepower that puts this Alfa Romero into top gear. As Mike L. Goodman of Grantland writes, they are the box-to-box beasts that allow the Bianconeri to adjust to any situation.

For Juventus, their group of multifaceted midfielders lets them shape a game as they see fit. If they need goals, they can turn it into an up-and-down track meet of chances and transition. If they’re protecting a lead, they can muddy the midfield waters as they all adopt more defensive responsibilities.

If these two put in superstar performances on Saturday, Juventus can pull off the upset.

Lionel Messi is only human (we think)

It's a stretch, but stick with me here.

As far as we know, Lionel Messi puts his shorts on one leg at a time, just like you and I. James Milner (death by nutmeg), Jerome Boateng (death by broken ankles) and about five Athletic Bilbao players (death by wizardry) would disagree, but the Argentine megastar is capable of having a day where, like the rest of us, not everything he touches turns to gold.

His 58 goals and 23 assists in all competitions this season may suggest otherwise, but everything else says he is one of us: the boring wardrobe choices, the bad haircut, the vomiting. Those are all human failings. There is some (fleeting) evidence.

Compound that with Juventus' stingy defense - even without heart and soul warrior Giorgio Chiellini - and the presence of Gianluigi Buffon, it's not impossible to think Messi, and his two unfairly talented pals, can be slowed.

As Buffon notes, you have to be the benefactor of some luck as well.

"Messi is an alien that dedicates himself to playing with humans. The only hope is that this Saturday he will be from earth, like the rest of us," the Italian icon said earlier this week.

You asked for a way Juventus could win. This is a way.

Carlos Tevez can dominate matches on his own

Messi, with very good reason, gets all the attention. He's the undisputed best player on the planet. That's fine.

But he isn't the only Argentine attacker whose enjoying a marvellous season of leading his team to the brink of a treble. Roberto Pereyra has been ... I joke, I joke.

Carlos Tevez, the unrelenting Juventus striker who buzzes and bounces around a pitch with the verve of a young child hopped up on too much sugar, is in the midst of a stunning campaign that has seen him force his way back into the Argentine national team by sheer will.

With 27 goals and eight assists between Serie A and the Champions League this season - including 44 percent of the club's European goals - El Apache has thrust his name back into the conversation when the question of the world's most influential attackers is broached.

Javier Mascherano, who will be tasked with stopping his compatriot at the Olympiastadion, knows how harrowing that task is.

"He is one of the best players I have ever shared a pitch with and has an incredible winning mentality," the defender said.

"He has left a mark at all the teams he has played with. Obviously, if you are faced with playing him you have to be very careful."

If not, Tevez is more than capable of ensuring that Juventus captures a third Champions League title in club history.