First the knife but then Juve’s assassin turns into a Sunday League fat bloke | Barney Ronay


Gonzalo Higuaín followed up a stunning volley with a penalty to put Tottenham on the rack but missed a second spot-kick that may prove Juventus’s Champions League undoing

For all the goals and the garlands Gonzalo Higuaín still carries a shadow. There is an argument Lionel Messi would already be safely enthroned as the greatest modern footballer if only Higuaín could finish in the big matches, a wonderful striker who seems destined to fall short at the very, very last. A losing World Cup final, two losing Champions League finals: only in the vertiginously cruel gimlet eye of elite football could this be seen as failure.

At the Allianz Stadium Higuaín seemed to be in the process of handing Tottenham and Harry Kane a lesson in exactly how games at this level are won: not with a flurry of punches but with a knife between the ribs.

Related: Christian Eriksen tops off brave Spurs fightback after Higuaín double

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