Barcelona, PSG fight to keep their treble dreams alive
A file photo of Barcelona's star treble celebrating a goal. PHOTO: AFP
Just six months into his tenure, Luis Enrique realised just how difficult his new job is. A falling out with the star player, a lack of goals from his star signing, an El Clasico defeat that left his side trailing their biggest rivals in the league, the legal battle of Neymar’s transfer, the club’s upcoming presidential elections and a transfer ban that prevented him from signing new players in the coming window. A plethora of problems troubled the Camp Nou and the season looked like one that would need to be written off.
Then suddenly, a little Argentine called Lionel Messi clicked into gear. Fast forward just over a 100 days and there are genuine talks of a treble, with Enrique’s side being compared to the Pep Guardiola one that is considered by many to be the best in the club’s history. They are in the final of the Copa del Rey, two points clear in the league despite a 2-2 draw over the weekend and face familiar foes Paris Saint-Germain in the quarter-finals — the comparisons are not unjustified.
On Wednesday, PSG and Barcelona will clash for the fifth time in the last three years, including their two group matches this season. The Catalans travel to Paris having been defeated 3-2 in their last visit to the Parc des Princes. However, two of PSG’s goalscorers that day, David Luiz and Marco Verrati, are out with injury and suspension respectively.
Laurent Blanc’s side will also be without former Barcelona striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who was sent off in the second-leg round-of-16 clash with Chelsea. However, the Frenchman will take solace with the way his side managed to get past the Premier League leaders despite being similarly depleted with injuries before the clash at The Bridge, and Edinson Cavani will be out to prove that he is much better suited to playing through the middle than being shunted out left.
Also like Enrique, Blanc came under pressure early on in the season as PSG struggled in the league but he too is chasing an unprecedented treble as his men have already won the French League Cup and are leading the league with seven matches remaining.
It has been 20 years since PSG last reached the semi-finals of Europe’s premier club competition but did so against Barcelona back then too. And it has been just as long since PSG lost a Champions League match at home — last suffering defeat on April 5, 1995 against AC Milan. They are also unbeaten at home this season and are in a rich vein of form, with only two defeats in 22 matches since the turn of the year.
With the close away-goals elimination from two years ago still fresh in PSG’s mind, the nuevo-rich side will be out to take revenge and will be hoping to use their home form to their advantage — winning two and drawing one of the three matches they have played against their Spanish rivals at home.
Barcelona, on the other hand, are the most successful side in the Champions League’s recent history and are the only team to have won it more than once in the last 10 years — having done so thrice.
Last year was the first time since the 2006-07 season that the Spanish giants were knocked out before the semi-finals. Of the six teams that have eliminated them in the last decade, four have gone on to win the title while the other two have finished as runners-up. There is no bigger fish in the Champions League than Barcelona.
If ever a drab 0-0 draw was unlikely in a match then this is it. PSG have never kept a clean sheet at home in the knockout stages and in the six times that these two sides have faced each other, neither of them have been able to keep a clean sheet — shipping a total of 20 goals at an average of 3.33 per game.
With Messi’s troubles of last year behind him by his own admission, Suarez finally finding his scoring boots and Neymar signalling an end to his poor run of form with an exquisite free-kick against Sevilla, Enrique will surely be hoping that his front three can provide him with vital away goals.
The Argentine maestro has eight goals to his name and will be hoping to finish the season with the golden boot. This fixture will hold particular importance for him on a personal level. It was in Paris nearly two years ago that the Argentine suffered a hamstring injury that caused a decline from his otherworldly standards and led to Cristiano Ronaldo usurping him as the best player in the world. Now he returns having finally regained that form once again.
Goals are a given, especially considering the attacking mentalities of both managers and the team that is able to control midfield may be able to come out on top in a match that will almost certainly be 90 minutes of end-to-end action.
Bayern beware, here there be dragons
2012-13 European champions Bayern are also looking to repeat their treble achievements and travel to Estadio do Dragao — the Stadium of Dragons — to take on Porto in their quarter-final clash.
The German giants have a massive 10-point lead in the Bundesliga with only eight rounds remaining and are the clear favourites to win the German Cup. In Porto, they face one of the easiest teams in the quarter-finals but Guardiola’s men will be taking nothing for granted in Portugal. In the middle of a debilitating injury crisis that rules out a whole host of key first-team players — David Alaba, Javi Martinez, Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery and Bastian Schweinsteiger — Bayern will be aware that the trip to Portugal will not be easy.
Porto have not conceded in their last six home games and have scored 19 goals without reply in the meanwhile. Julen Lopetegui’s charges are just three points behind Benfica in the Primeira Liga and boast the best defence in the division, having conceded just 12 times in 28 games. However, their league commitments may mean that the Spanish manager may have one eye on the upcoming league fixtures, especially with a potential title-decider against Benfica on the horizon.
The Portuguese side will know just how important a victory at home is, with Shakhtar Donetsk’s 7-0 demolition job at the hands of Bayern at the Allianz Arena providing ample warning of what can happen to teams when they travel to the German giants without the cushion of a home win to fall back on.
Having won 4-0 against Basel in their last Champions League match, Porto will be confident of scoring against what could be a makeshift Bayern backline and midfield. But Bayern have a tendency of dominating possession even when they play away from home and are an altogether different prospect as compared to Basel.
The German giants are on a typically ominous run of form and have lost just once since their group stage lost to Manchester City in November.
Bayern may have it easier than fellow favourites Real Madrid and Barcelona but with several key players out and Porto having little to lose, the tie may end up being trickier than what Guardiola bargained for.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 15th, 2015.