Barcelona – Inter (X/21.00 h.)
The central defender, who began the season as the fifth central defender, will once again lead the Barça defense in a capital duel in Europe
Gerard Piqu, from his watchtower in the upper area, has been hearing all his life that he is a smart guy, one of those who tend to get away with it. It happens, however, that he lived through it during the last three months, much less would he have expected it after years of bulling in a Barcelona where he did and undid as he pleased. A club in which the leaders of the mandate of Joseph Maria Bartomeu They came to fear his calls from the same locker room before any of his demands.
But Piqu, before the start of this season and with a contract until June 2024, had to hear from the mouth of Xavi Hernandez, former teammate and now foreman, that his time in the Barça first team had to come to an end. To which the defender replied that, as had happened for the last 14 seasons, the site would end up being his because he would focus on his theoretical main occupation. Piqué was right. Although for this they have had to mediate the injuries of Araujo, Kound -he is expected to be the right side in the classic- and Christensen. This Wednesday, in the game that will define the sporting and economic future of the club, he will once again lead Bara’s defense in another game with dramatic features in Europe. Because another Barça defeat against Inter after 1-0 in Milan would mean elimination from the Champions League and a predictable new banishment to the Europa League.
At the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper, despite insisting that Piqu did not show a particularly negative attitude during the time he was relegated to the last corner of the squad as fifth central defender, they do notice an increase in intensity in his last training sessions. . he himself knows that an opportunity has presented itself to him and that he cannot afford to fail, warns a club employee. The Camp Nou fans, in fact, applauded him as much as they could in the last league game against Celta, where Piqu spent the second half bailing water along with Ter Stegen. Jordi Albadefinitively turned into an antichrist in the stadium, was fired again between whistles.
Discomfort
The fact that Piqu has gone from being condemned to being a great defensive support for Xavi Hernndez’s Barcelona has caused a certain feeling of discomfort among the entity’s bigwigs. Both from the plot and from a scenario as given to populism as the assembly of delegates, the leaders of the entity have tried to remember that they will not solve their problem with the wage bill (656 million euros) until they are released from the contracts with the captains. Within the club they maintain that between this season and the next they will have to disburse around 200 million euros to their sacred cows. So President Joan Laporta had no qualms last Saturday in pointing out – without naming them – Piqu, Sergio Busquets or Jordi Alba, three of the four captains, for not wanting to lower their salary during the last summer market. This, according to Laporta himself, forced him to present a personal guarantee of ten million euros to register Kound, a guarantee in which his football director also participated, Mateu Alemany.
Meanwhile, Piqu, who has not yet started in this Champions League and who has barely played 76 minutes in the tournament (45 minutes in the win against Viktoria Plzen and 32 in the last loss at the Giuseppe Meazza), will once again be one of the main people responsible for the future of the team in Europe.
Piqu, whose ascendancy in the team was barely discussed for a few weeks by Luis Enrique in the campaign to win the last Champions League in Berlin (14-15), was a starter in the seven continental landslides that have marked the fall to hell from Barcelona: PSG 4-Barcelona 0 (16-17), Juventus 3-Barcelona 0 (16-17), Roma 3-Barcelona 0 (17-18), Liverpool 4-Barcelona 0 (18-19), Barcelona 2- Bayern 8 (19-20), Barcelona 1-PSG 4 (20-21) and Barcelona 0-Benfica 0 (21-22).
Bara’s options in the Champions League
After losing this season in Munich (2-0) and Milan (1-0) and adding a single victory against Viktoria Plzen (5-1), a new defeat of Barcelona this Wednesday against Inter would lead to elimination (as long as Bayern got at least one point from their visit to Plzen). A Bavarian defeat coupled with another Barça defeat would force Barcelona to win both Bayern (by two or more goals) and Viktoria away from home, and Nagelsmann’s men would lose on the last day against Inter in Munich.
And a tie tonight at the Camp Nou would also leave the Catalans on the edge of the precipice. He would be forced to beat Bayern on the penultimate matchday at home, but he would not depend much on himself. They would have to wait until Inter did not beat Viktoria at the Giuseppe Meazza, in order to reach the last day of the group stage with options. Then, Xavi’s men would have to get the three points in the Czech Republic and trust that Inter won’t get more than a draw from their visit to Munich.
And triumph del Bara against Inter will open up the prospect and leave both teams level on six points with two games to go. The azulgrana will remain above the Nerazzurri as long as they won by more than one goal difference. In case of doing it by only one, the tiebreaker criterion will be the goals in favor in the two games of the teams involved in the tie. If that equality is not resolved after the dispute on the last day, it would go to average of the group, to the goals scored, to the goals away from home, to the number of wins to away wins and, finally, to the criterion of fair play.
According to the criteria of
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