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Rejuvenated in Italy: Carlos Tevez looking to lead Juventus back to the pinnacle

Reuters

Ask Carlos Tevez a straightforward question, and you will get a straightforward answer. 

"Can Juventus win the Champions League?" posed La Repubblica’s Emmanuele Gamba when he sat down with the Argentinian forward this April. "Yes," came the one-word reply. 

Why should Tevez believe any different? Juventus had thrashed Borussia Dortmund 3-0 at Signal Iduna Park just a few short weeks before. Next up was a quarter-final against Monaco – widely perceived as the weakest team remaining in the tournament. In the event, the Ligue 1 side pushed Juventus hard. But the Italian champions still progressed in the end. 

For once, Tevez was not the star of the show. In fact, Gazzetta dello Sport rated him as Juve’s worst performer during the second leg in Monaco. The Bianconeri progressed with a combination of stout defence and a contentious penalty converted by Arturo Vidal

But none could dispute the assertion that Tevez had been fundamental in getting his team through to this stage in the first place. 

He was the chief architect of that famous win in Dortmund, scoring twice as well as setting up Alvaro Morata’s goal in-between. Tevez had opened the scoring in the first-leg, too, as well as grabbing three of Juve’s seven goals during the group phase. 

Nobody could be more satisfied by such developments than Beppe Marotta. The Juventus general manager had targeted Tevez specifically as someone who could elevate his team’s European performances in the summer of 2013. Domestic success remained an imperative, but after two consecutive Scudetti, Juve’s only real opportunity for growth was through the Champions League. 

On the surface, Tevez might have seemed like a curious choice to help them pursue that goal. He had not scored in Europe for five seasons. His combined career tally in the Champions League, Europa League and Uefa Cup added up to six goals in 34 games. 

Tevez, however, claimed to be blissfully ignorant of his own struggles. "That’s a problem for attackers who read in the papers about how many minutes they have gone without scoring," he told La Repubblica. "I was not even aware."

From the lips of another striker, such words might have sounded implausible. But in Tevez’s case they ring true. He is not a man who scans the sports pages on the day after a match, or tunes into radio talk-shows on his drive home. In fact, he claims not to follow football at all in his free time – preferring to spend that with his three children. As he put it recently, "I only watch games when the boss has me study an opponent."

That approach has worked out pretty well so far. 

Tevez has scored 49 goals across all competitions in less than two seasons in Turin. But his improved European form is an even more recent development. He failed to find the net in any of Juventus’s six Champions League games in 2013-14, and did so only once in the same number of appearances after they dropped into the Europa League. 

Massimiliano Allegri deserves a slice of the credit for Tevez’s recent improvement. The manager has alternated different formations since replacing Antonio Conte last summer, but also made less obvious tactical tweaks. 

"With Conte we played in a precise way," explained Tevez in another recent interview with Tuttosport. "For example, with the two strikers always close together. He did not want either striker to drop back so that one was playing behind the other. [When Juventus have possession] Allegri gives me freedom to play as I feel comfortable. Now I do what I want to do."

Such freedom has suited Tevez perfectly, allowing him to come deeper in search of the ball before running at defenders as he loves to do. Some brilliant goals have resulted, and none more breathtaking than the coast-to-coast he scored against Parma in November. 

It was a strike that drew comparisons with Diego Maradona, confirming Tevez in the eyes of many Italians as one of the very best players on the planet. Ahead of Tuesday’s semi-final first leg against Real Madrid, Gazzetta dello Sport presented him as Juventus’s answer to Cristiano Ronaldo

Tevez himself might scoff at the suggestion. Asked shortly after he had arrived at Juventus who was the better player between him and the Portuguese, he once again replied with a single word: "Ronaldo."

Another straightforward answer to a straightforward question. But as Real Madrid might just be reminded this Tuesday, Tevez’s honest words exist in stark contrast to the deceit that he weaves with his feet.

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