CL | 1/4 Final: FC Barcelona - FC Bayern Munich 2-8

RM won it while being more than 15 points behind us. This competition has it's own set of rules. Form and how the team played before that don't really matter. That's why I'm so optimistic about our chances against Bayern. In one match everything can happen and we proved in previous two seasons that we're basically very good when it comes to playing one world class match. The away matches are gone so our players aren't going to be intimidated by the away fans anymore. Furthermore, we would have been in two consecutive finals if this format stood.

This Bayern side is good against teams that don't play technical football. I think that's also the reason why they went out against mostly Spanish opponents in the recent years. Once they face such a side, there are problems because they won't be able to just outrun them and control the game that way. We have players like FDJ, Busi who are press resistant. We're used on building from the back, which should give them a lot of problem. Of course we will need Messi's magic again and I'm sure he will deliver it, like he usually does in such important ties. Also, MATS > Neuer all the way. MATS has been outperforming him for the past years and he still doesn't get the recognition he deserves. I hope that this match will highlight his unique abilities even more.

Dembele back in for the first time in 7-8 months?

I am also pretty positive about this tie. First of all its 1 off game. As we are largely considered underdogs, the pressure is not on players, situation is not comparable to Roma or especially Liverpool.
Fatigue, which has hurt us a lot in recent years (old legs being tired of season in april-may), is not an issue as team has had nice vacation and plenty of rest. None of the starters are injured, even Dembele might feature, Messi is different Messi when he does not need to play 3 matches per week. He has had plenty of rest and showed that he still has it in first half of Napoli game (before getting kicked really hard).
I do not really see this being a massacre to either side, but rather cautious game, where both sides try to avoid making mistakes. Bayern surely will put alot of pressure in the beginning as we always go to game really being not awake, but if we survive that, it is open to either side.
But most certainly, if we do win, its down to another Messi masterstroke.

This is the worst Barca side since 2003/04. We are getting beat by at least 3 goals. Unless some sort of miracle happens and Messi plays one of the best games of his life.

Jaguar said:

This is the worst Barca side since 2003/04. We are getting beat by at least 3 goals. Unless some sort of miracle happens and Messi plays one of the best games of his life.

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Its by far not that worst. For example we were 13/14, second half from 12/13 worse. We can beat them.

Its not like we are facing an all time great Bayern side (like 2013) either. Maybe I am just sleeping on the likes of Coman, Gnabry... but for me they are not comparable to the the truly fearsome Ribery/Robben. Their double pivot looks rather soft/unprotected as well. They annihilate weaker teams, but we will see what happens against a strong midfield with Messi upfront.

Fati_Future_BallonDor said:

Its by far not that worst. For example we were 13/14, second half from 12/13 worse. We can beat them.

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Barca 12/13 was much stronger

Alik said:

Barca 12/13 was much stronger

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I disagree. That team was soft as butter.

Messi was on 1 leg from Milan onwards.

Xavi was done.

Villa was nearly done.

We used Cesc! as the forward v Bayern at Camp Nou.

We had clowns like Montoya and Bartra and Correa in defense.

That team was so bad (exhausted legends, injured legends, and terrible La Masia) that we didn't win a single big game that season except for Milan 4-0 (thanks to Messi), and PSG (thanks to Messi).

RM had their best year against us (beat us like 3 times that year or more). Bayern destroyed us. Even Milan and PSG had great chances.

There was also an arrogance within the team because of the amazing Guardiola years before that just because we were Barca, we would win. Bayern knocked that arrogance out (and we rebounded with amazing effort in 14/15). We still have a lot of this (thanks to 14/15 lol) but Liverpool and Roma have knocked some of it out again.

Unless we're talking about fully fit 12/13 Messi, this Barca is a bit stronger than that one.

"Lewandowski! And it's fiiiiiivvvvveee"

Can this team give us 90 mins of effort? That's all I ask for. I can just see Bayern passing around and through us as Messi and Suarez stand and watch

KingLeo10 said:

I disagree. That team was soft as butter.

Messi was on 1 leg from Milan onwards.

Xavi was done.

Villa was nearly done.

We used Cesc! as the forward v Bayern at Camp Nou.

We had clowns like Montoya and Bartra and Correa in defense.

That team was so bad (exhausted legends, injured legends, and terrible La Masia) that we didn't win a single big game that season except for Milan 4-0 (thanks to Messi), and PSG (thanks to Messi).

RM had their best year against us (beat us like 3 times that year or more). Bayern destroyed us. Even Milan and PSG had great chances.

There was also an arrogance within the team because of the amazing Guardiola years before that just because we were Barca, we would win. Bayern knocked that arrogance out (and we rebounded with amazing effort in 14/15). We still have a lot of this (thanks to 14/15 lol) but Liverpool and Roma have knocked some of it out again.

Unless we're talking about fully fit 12/13 Messi, this Barca is a bit stronger than that one.

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12/13 team was better for the first leg against Bayern in the following ways:

- Xavi, Busquets, Iniesta midfield is better than whatever we are going to field on Friday.
- Sanchez/Villa > Current Suarez.
- Pedro > Griezmann.
- Pique > current Pique.
- Dani Alves > Semedo.
- Jordi Alba > Current Jordi Alba.

Fabregas and Adriano played in the second leg only. Montoya played a total of 3 minutes.

It was worse in the following ways:

- Current Messi is better than injured 12/13 Messi, maybe.
- Lenglet is better than Bartra.

That's it.

Maybe that Barca was arrogant. At least they were brave. This Barca is a tramautized Barca that couldn't even beat the worst Madrid in years. A Barca which doesn't even know what it's starting 11 is.

Donauwelle said:

I know that the Bundesliga never seems to count...

But since Flick came in November Bayern played
24 Bundesliga matches - 21 wins, 1 draw, 2 losses (the 3rd and 4th Bundesliga match) - with 75 goals for and 16 against
won all 4 Cup matches in regular time (+ the title)
won all 5 CL matches (18:2 goals)

The team has lost the last match on December 7th - and won the last 18 matches since February 9th.


The lineup probably will be (Flick has his first team)

Neuer
Kimmich - Boateng - Alaba - Davies
Thiago - Goretzka
Gnabry - M?ller - Coman
Lewandowski

Could be that Gnabry and Coman switch sides - but as Kimmich plays right defender again I think that Gnabry plays more over the right.
Coman is back in full training since Monday after being left out of the Chelsea squad because of muscular problems but I think that he will play - if not Perisic will.

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Neymessi said:

Bayern are in Bundesliga so they usually never get tested enough at this stage.

But they have been playing great against shit teams and we haven't been able to accomplish even that so the difference is huge.

And if this was Bayern 13 we would have forfeited this match lol, they are weaker than before but imo even we suck compared to Barca 13.

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As I said, those guys are not tested, even in UCL they faced trash teams. If we play it smart, we can win this.

My ideal line-up 4-1-3-2

Semedo-Pique-Lenglet-Alba
----------Busquets-------
----Vidal----FDJ----Puig
------Messi----Suarez/Grease

Second half subs Fati/Dembele and Maybe Bob for Vidal.

Alik said:

12/13 team was better for the first leg against Bayern in the following ways:

- Xavi, Busquets, Iniesta midfield is better than whatever we are going to field on Friday.
- Sanchez/Villa > Current Suarez.
- Pedro > Griezmann.
- Pique > current Pique.
- Dani Alves > Semedo.
- Jordi Alba > Current Jordi Alba.

Fabregas and Adriano played in the second leg only. Montoya played a total of 3 minutes.

It was worse in the following ways:

- Current Messi is better than injured 12/13 Messi, maybe.
- Lenglet is better than Bartra.

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Iniesta was the only world class performer in the midfield that season. You're looking at the heavyweight names of Xavi and Busquets and making assessments based off that. Xavi fell off a cliff that season (compared to his prime) and it showed versus the big teams. This was also the first season where Busquets was exposed without Xavi to cover for him as much.

Alves >> Semedo is true.
Alba > current Alba is true.
Villa > Suarez is not true. Maybe about even. Villa was coming off a leg break and was just about as done as Suarez is these days.

Pedro was a good-great roleplayer during the Guardiola days but he was a system player. Tito/Roura had no system. Setien doesn't have it either which means Griezmann is a bigger threat than Pedro.

12/13 Pique > current Pique is not true. That Pique was a naive idiot who got burned on every counter. He'd still get burned on every counter but he plays less arrogantly these days.

Also, no offense, but you can't expect me to take you seriously with the current messi being maybe better than injured Messi. A player who can't sprint is useless.

KingLeo10 said:

I disagree. That team was soft as butter.

Messi was on 1 leg from Milan onwards.

Xavi was done.

Villa was nearly done.

We used Cesc! as the forward v Bayern at Camp Nou.

We had clowns like Montoya and Bartra and Correa in defense.

That team was so bad (exhausted legends, injured legends, and terrible La Masia) that we didn't win a single big game that season except for Milan 4-0 (thanks to Messi), and PSG (thanks to Messi).

RM had their best year against us (beat us like 3 times that year or more). Bayern destroyed us. Even Milan and PSG had great chances.

There was also an arrogance within the team because of the amazing Guardiola years before that just because we were Barca, we would win. Bayern knocked that arrogance out (and we rebounded with amazing effort in 14/15). We still have a lot of this (thanks to 14/15 lol) but Liverpool and Roma have knocked some of it out again.

Unless we're talking about fully fit 12/13 Messi, this Barca is a bit stronger than that one.

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Yeah people overrate 12/13 too much.