🔬 CL under the microscope: Barcelona | OneFootball

The Champions League offers Barcelona their last chance to salvage something from what has been a disastrous campaign.

With the remaining eight teams all in Lisbon ready to fight it out for the trophy, we’ve taken a closer look at the Catalan giants.

🏆 What’s their Champions League pedigree like?

You are probably already well aware. They’re four-time winners in the past 14 years but haven’t won or reached a final since 2015.

That’s too long for a club of their stature.

✈️ How did they get here and what’s their route to the final?

For all of their poor domestic form, Barça have been decent in Europe. In a difficult group featuring Borussia Dortmund and Inter, they emerged without defeat before beating Napoli 4-2 on aggregate in the last 16.

However, Bayern Munich await in the quarter-final. If they can overcome that tough challenge, the winner of Manchester City-Lyon and a potential Pep Guardiola reunion awaits them.

🥳 Why should I root for them?

Because they have been on the receiving end of heartbreaking comebacks in each of the past two years and it would just be cruel to see them keep suffering.

Plus, who doesn’t want Lionel Messi to lift it one more time?

😡 Why won’t everyone be rooting for them?

Because they are Barcelona. Or Uefalona, as some prefer to call them. Because characters like Gerard Piqué, Luis Suárez and Antoine Griezmann aren’t the world’s most popular players.

And it would be an unjust reward for a club who haven’t done a lot right lately.

✅ What makes them so good?

They have an attack that can rival the best of them, spearheaded by the best player in the world. Between the posts, Marc-André ter Stegen is a match-winner too and he’ll need to be on top form.

❌ And what’s their biggest weakness?

Their midfield is static and lacks any kind of spark or real creativity – a problem you would never have predicted at this club a decade ago.

🔮 How will they line up?

Differently. Reports in Sport and other local media outlets claim that Quique Setién is set to implement an anti-Bayern plan by again returning to a 4-4-2 system in order to pack out the midfield and stifle the Germans.

It is a tactic he deployed previously in games against both the Madrid clubs, although Barça failed to win on either occasion.

They will …

… be back home in Barcelona by Saturday morning.