First the obligation to beat Napoli, Chelsea or Bayern and the option to play a place in the final with Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City or recover a continental classic with Real Madrid. Barça made their way to the Champions League final on Friday in a draw held at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. The challenge is major in the calendar adapted to the consequences of the pandemic of the coronavirus, without a real margin of preparation between the end of Liga Santander and the resumption of the maximum continental competition.
Every decision is momentous right now. This is one of the mantras of Quique Setión in the last press conferences to justify rotations, alignments and the change of system in the thrashing in Villarreal (1-4), with Antoine Griezmann working as third striker and midfielder finding spaces to combine well with Leo Messi. The Champions League, in particular, calls for a round demand for the extra-sports asterisks that condition the football field.
“We want to thank the health professionals for helping to get everything back to normal. Football has returned thanks to the collaboration of everyone. Football is an important part of our society. It is a way to return to normal. These months we have seen that if we all work together we can achieve great things. We look forward to the best competition in the world coming back, “said UEFA Competition Director Giorgio Marchetti, who emphasized the value of the current edition of the Champions.
The road to Lisbon
The fact that Barça are part of the final in the eight based in Lisbon means overcoming the knockout round of the round of 16 against Napoli on August 8 at the Camp Nou (21 hours), with the intangible point of the field factor. The goal away from home reinforces [sobre el paper] his candidacy awaiting the latest developments. The pairings have defined a complicated route for the set of Quique Setión. They will face Chelsea or Bayern in a hypothetical quarter-final. The Londoners, one of the teams that have improved the most with the stop of confinement, or the reigning Bundesliga champion, with the overall result in favor (0-3) and an effective tactical proposal that combines touch, verticality and gunpowder in the final meters.
Barcelona need to maintain the growing trend of recent weeks and manage well the time between the end of the League and Europe. “That the Italian league ends sooner means that Naples may have a bit of an advantage, but you don’t know, it will be a small lottery. We are not clear what is best. We will give a few days off for the players to disconnect. The idea is to come back and play a friendly match. It will surely be between us, because it will be difficult to find a team that is competitive at the moment and that can offer us what we are interested in, “explained Quique Setién at a press conference, without making any assessments. ‘hypothetical rivals, limiting themselves to party-to-party discourse.
Guillermo Amor, as the club’s institutional spokesman, also maintained caution. “There are great teams, they can all be champions. In a single match in the quarter-finals there can be surprises. It’s three games and anything can happen. We haven’t done anything. We shouldn’t think we’ve already qualified for the final eight. It’s true that we have a good result, but we have to finish the job “, he commented in statements to Barça TV.
Barça’s rival in a hypothetical semi-final will come out of the round of 16 between Real Madrid and Manchester City (the English start with an advantage) and Juventus and Lyon. Once again there will be no classic in the Champions League final, but some semifinals could be played between the two great teams in the Santander League. Meeting Pep Guardiola would be an alternative to fuel the mysticism of the penultimate phase of the Champions League. Atletico Madrid, already ranked fourth, will play against Leipzig on the other side of the table. In the semifinals will be Neymar’s Atalanta or Paris Saint-Germain, who have not competed for months due to the French federation’s decision to end the season during confinement.
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