Days after their first sport on the renovated Spotify Camp Nou, Barcelona return to the highway, this time for a protracted journey to England to lock horns with Chelsea within the UEFA Champions League.
Enzo Maresca’s males, the reigning FIFA Membership World Cup Champions, have been on a great run thus far this season, and their place throughout competitions reveals how a lot they’ve improved from the earlier marketing campaign.
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After twelve video games within the Premier League, Chelsea are solely six factors behind leaders Arsenal and have scored 23 objectives within the competitors.
Within the UCL, they’ve two wins, a draw, and a defeat, similar to Barcelona, and are solely narrowly behind the Blaugrana on the standings, having scored three fewer objectives.
Barça Common brings you three speaking factors forward of Chelsea vs Barcelona.
A file to neglect
Over the previous 20 years, Barcelona haven’t performed many video games at Stamford Bridge.
Barcelona have received just one sport at Stamford Bridge. (Picture by Jamie McDonald/Getty Pictures)
Regardless of the picture being rooted firmly within the reminiscence of Culers, even that sport led to a draw after 90 minutes.
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Six video games have been performed between the Catalans and the London-based facet on the venue through the years, and Barcelona have received simply as soon as. Compared, Chelsea have received thrice, with two video games ending in attracts.
The English giants beat Barcelona by a complete 4-2 margin in 2005, and a yr later, Barcelona took revenge by taking away a 2-1 win over a ten-man Chelsea.
In October of 2006, Chelsea went one up on Barcelona with a 1-0 win, and the 2 groups then confronted off solely three years later when Iniesta scored the last-minute equaliser to take Barcelona by means of.
After that notorious debacle, the English facet beat Barcelona by one aim in 2012 earlier than settling for a 1-1 attract 2018, and it’s secure to say that the Catalans’ file on the venue is nothing promising.
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Tomorrow night time, Hansi Flick and Co. will look to undo that file and begin on a recent slate, particularly given how they’re rejuvenated each when it comes to health and psychological fortitude. A magnanimous sport awaits.
No room for error
Barcelona must make each second depend. (Picture by David Ramos/Getty Pictures)
The UEFA Champions League has not been notably memorable for Barcelona thus far this season, for his or her type within the competitors has been nowhere near what they confirmed final season.
Flick’s males bought their season underway with the right begin, taking all three factors away in opposition to Newcastle and asserting that they’re a pressure to be reckoned with.
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Submit the successful begin, nevertheless, they misplaced to Paris Saint-Germain in a sport the place they had been completely dominated and noticed the steam come off their boots.
A 6-1 win over Olympiacos served as comfort, however they once more dropped two factors to Membership Brugge.
4 video games into the league part, Barcelona are in eleventh place on the desk and much from the place they’d have wished to be.
They do certainly have 4 extra video games, however there is no such thing as a room for error in the event that they want to end within the high eight.
It’s clear that Flick and Co. will want to keep away from an additional two video games by ending top-8, and it’s thus essential that they don’t drop additional factors in opposition to Chelsea tomorrow night time.
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In any case, they could nicely see their hopes of direct qualification collapse ought to they lose.
A win at Stamford Bridge, in the meantime, will go away them as favourites to take a top-8 place as their subsequent three opponents are all comparatively straightforward. Tomorrow’s sport, thus, is huge from that standpoint.
Double hassle on the again
Flick has a number of selections to make. (Picture by Jose Manuel Alvarez Rey/Getty Pictures)
Barcelona’s win over Athletic Membership gave Hansi Flick a number of positives to remove, one of many greatest ones being how sound the defence seemed on the night time.
Regardless of Athletic Membership’s pacey assault and counter-attacking risk, the Catalan back-line seemed as much as the duty with Gerard Martin doing exceedingly nicely alongside Pau Cubarsi at centre-back.
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Jules Kounde and Alejandro Balde, in the meantime, additionally put up good performances and held up their line nicely to implement the offside entice to significantly better impact.
Including to the steadiness on the again was , who had a sensational sport enjoying because the workforce’s pivot and managed the proceedings to nice impact whereas performing like an absolute machine with interceptions.
Whereas the preparations within the earlier sport had been certainly makeshift preparations to assist fill the void created by Frenkie de Jong and Pedri’s absence, the supervisor now has a powerful case to maintain the identical concept shifting ahead.
With Pedri nonetheless unavailable, Garcia might nicely be part of De Jong within the double-pivot in London, changing Dani Olmo within the beginning lineup. In any case, he confirmed a fantastic stage over the weekend.
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Concurrently, there’s a moderately sturdy case for Martin to proceed because the centre-back alongside Cubarsi, particularly if Garcia does certainly characteristic in midfield. The supervisor, thus, has huge selections to make.