Not even the older ones remember the last time Barça came to a European match without being the favorite. What for others is an added pressure, at the Camp Nou had become a source of pride. Know that before you went out to play everyone trusted you. But the slow decline of the Barça project, coupled with the explosion of Hansi Flick’s Bayern in recent months, have changed the script. At the Da Luz stadium (9pm / Movistar Champions), the German champion seems to have more arguments than a Barça that has come to Lisbon surviving, avoiding the final breakaway with victories not always shining. Defeating Napoli, Setión’s team won the right to dream in Lisbon and is three games away from being champions. Now, perhaps the day of Naples did nothing but prolong the agony of what would be the first blank season in 12 years. Whatever happens, in the offices it is assumed that sports planning has not been the best and the team will have to be redone. If the economy allows it. The Champions League, the competition that has shaken the club with the defeats of Rome and Anfield, has become the possible salvation. Or in the epitaph of this project.
Quique Setién: “It’s one thing to say to Bayern and quite another to see what happens on the pitch”
Barça, the club that has spent the most money in the last five years, has been losing sheets with each wash. And he arrives half naked in Portugal, with a short and tired squad. If against Napoli Setión had just 13 first team players, now Sergio Busquets and Arturo Vidal are recovering, both destined to be starters in the middle of the field that could be more conservative than other times, with a possible 4-4-2 in which Griezmann would end up on the bench. Sergi Roberto and De Jong would be the other midfielders, with Semedo on the right wing in his hometown. To give up a striker would be to assume that Bayern is scary, that it bites. Prioritize not receiving goals. “If you have the ball, it means that you spend less time defending against a rival who has great potential. When you have the ball you defend yourself better, but it will all depend, as usual, on success. Tactical drawing may not be so important. A lot of things have been worked on these days, it will be seen “, said Setión, half acknowledging that he has worked this 4-4-2 thinking about a match in which we will have to see how we can keep up his pace and if we can overcome his high pressure. Then they can suffer. There will be no clear dominator, whoever is right on goal occasions will win. I imagine phases of control of each team.
???? @QSetien on possession of the ball # barçabayern pic.twitter.com/YfBEWK6GdZ
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona_cat) August 13, 2020
In fact, Setión, who arrived promising good play, has managed to get the team to score few goals. However, it marks less than before. To the point that 14 years ago Barça did not score so few. And it is the worst goal-scoring season for Lionel Messi in the Champions League since he was 19 and he wore his hair long: he has only scored three. But this team that seems on its way to the end of the cycle still has moments of greatness, as demonstrated for 30 minutes against the Neapolitans. With Messi on the field, in fact, anything is possible, although from Bayern it is said that right now the best footballer is Robert Lewandowski, the top scorer in the competition. “Lewandowski is a great player but he is not at the level of Lionel Messi, who is capable of everything. However, he needs to have a strong team behind him “, said Setión on one of the duels of a match full of small individual rivalries. Arturo Vidal, who was a teammate of the Pole, made it clear that “they can not be compared, Messi is not from this planet.” In fact, when a rival says he has a better-paid footballer than Messi, it’s usually a bad deal for them. And at Barça they know it. Eliminating Bayern would be a new twist in a year that began with a defeat on the shores of the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia, which cost Valverde the job, and continues with views of the Atlantic in a phase final in which Setión is three games away from winning a competition he had always seen on television before. Everything is possible, this year.
A haughty rival
Barça players have memorized every phrase of the Bavarian players to be more motivated these days. They have trained well, according to Setión. They have heard time and time again that Bayern’s stats are formidable, in the only duel of the final phase between teams that already know what it’s like to win this competition. “We can’t minimize the danger of the opponent, his statistics and his game speak for themselves, but we have a lot of confidence. They have a lot of potential, but so do we. It will be a very even match, with alternatives. When a game like this arrives you don’t need more motivation, but one thing is what the people of Bayern say and a very different one what will happen on the pitch “, said a always prudent Setión, unlike Arturo Vidal, who he let go: “We are the best team in the world and we want to prove it.” The Chilean wants to party and is not one to hide. And Setión needs that character.
Barça-Bayern, the match of the pending accounts
Barça, in fact, are confident in their chances, even if they have the fittest team on the continent in front of them, the one who scores the most goals, the one who hurts the rivals the most. The format of the tournament, in a single match, and the pride of a Bayern player who has naturally assumed his status as a favorite have become reasons for Barça’s hopes. Setión will hardly give minutes to young people like Riqui Puig, who has not yet made his Champions League debut, or Ansu Fati. As he did against Napoli, the Cantabrian will bet on experience and the match will have one of the most beautiful duels between Ter Stegen and the man who closes the door of the team, Neuer. Instead, we will have to see how many minutes Coutinho plays, the most expensive signing in the history of Barça, who plays on loan to the Bavarians but should be a substitute in Da Luz’s game.
French nightmares
At Bayern, Flick will have the safe absence of Benjamin Pavard, as if a curse would affect the 2018 world champions, as at Barça it is doubtful Ousmane Dembélé, who has been out of action for six months but has been discharged. “It’s good news to have him here, he could play for a few minutes,” Setión explained. The coach also does not guarantee the ownership of Griezmann, another world champion two years ago now. And, of course, Samuel Umtiti is out, punished by injuries at a Barça where there will be no Arthur Melo, punished in this case by the club. The Bavarians have yet to lose an official match this year, with a single draw. He has won the League and the Cup and have shattered Chelsea in the round of 16. Flick, however, warns that “you can’t think that Barça won’t create danger for you”, trying to moderate the speech of former club players, who have been in charge of starting the psychological war, as if they were so eager to celebrate. the funeral of Barça who have called the car of the dead without checking the patient’s condition. And this Barça is very much alive.
Against a rival he has only beaten in 2 of the previous 10 matches, Barça want to get excited thinking that for the first time this year he will have to win the Champions League more with his heart than with his game. Other clubs have already done that, but Barça have not. There is always a first time.
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