Eighty thousand coloured cards will be held up Wednesday night at Camp Nou before the Uefa Champions League last-16 second-leg game between Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain. A giant flag with “All with the team” will be unveiled, too, and the packed stadium, with 94,000 home fans, will provide the most vocal backdrop seen all season. By kick-off, many of the fans will believe the impossible is possible.
No team has ever gone through to the next round after losing the first leg of a game 4-0 in the Champions League, but if there is one team who can then it is Barcelona at home.
Luis Enrique’s side have hit their stride again after that humiliation in Paris three weeks ago, a performance which the Barca manager described as the worst of his three-year tenure. And that is all it will be, for the Asturian has since announced that he is stepping down at the end of the season. That announcement, after months of corrosive speculation, helped lift the mood at Camp Nou.
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Barca’s manager is visibly more relaxed, he feels under less pressure and more inclined to enjoy his final months at a club where the managerial fuse is short.
The announcement also revived appreciation of Enrique. Three weeks ago, fans were divided as they cheered and jeered him. Against Celta Vigo on Saturday, when Barcelona provided their best performance of the season in a 5-0 victory, there were only cheers and a stream of Enrique songs in what became a carnival atmosphere.
The great football helped, especially the outstanding contribution from Lionel Messi, who scored twice. “Sometimes tactics don’t explain everything, it’s about talent,” said Celta manager Eduardo Berizzo. “And Messi’s talent decided the game.”
Though he played more to the right, Messi was deadly going down the middle. For his first goal, he received the ball with his back to goal in the centre circle before running beyond several Celta players.
Neymar made more dribbles than any player in the Primera Liga this term, while Ivan Rakitic enjoyed his best game in months. The side worked harder for each other to blitz a Celta team who had defeated them earlier in the season.
Other factors have helped. A month ago, Barcelona were off the pace in the title race. Now, they are top of the league after Real Madrid lost at Valencia and drew at home to Las Palmas. Since Paris, Barca have beaten their Copa del Rey final opponents Alaves 6-0 away, beaten Atletico Madrid 2-1 away, hammered Sporting Gijon 6-1 at home and then Celta 5-0 on Saturday. Sporting put out a reserve team out; Celta did not.
Though Real Madrid are only a point behind with a game in hand, the title is now in Barcelona’s hands for they still have to play Madrid again.
The mood in Barcelona is good and flags in the crowd on Saturday and Wednesday will urge a comeback. A smiling Enrique, when he wasn’t complimenting journalists on their questions, said: “We’ll give our best from the first to the last minute to make the comeback happen on Wednesday. We trust in our coach and nothing has changed. We trust 100 per cent in ourselves”.
Barca’s manager said that he has spent more hours analysing the PSG defeat than any other game since he took over in 2014. Now that he is looking to turn it around, he says he has unwavering faith in his players.
Barca are confident, talented, in form and motivated. Their attack is praised, yet goalkeeper Marc Andre ter Stegen has established his best level since joining from Borussia Monchengladbach.
However, it is still a mighty ask to overturn a 4-0 defeat and reach the quarter-finals for a record 10th successive season. PSG, with no injuries or suspensions to contend with, have been eliminated at the last-eight stage in each of the past four seasons.
They have the substantial cushion of four goals, a wily Spanish manager who outwitted Barcelona in the first leg and a team stocked with world-class performers, including the Andres Iniesta clone Marco Verratti, who were on top of their game in Paris.
They will need to be the same at Camp Nou.
Fixtures piling up for tired Celta
Spanish teams, especially Sevilla, have dominated the Europa League. Sevilla have won the past three tournaments, and earned the right to enter this season’s by finishing seventh in the Primera Liga last term but, as winners of the Europa League now automatically qualify for the Uefa Champions League, Athletic Bilbao, Celta Vigo and Villarreal were all among the favourites to win the competition instead.
Only Celta Vigo, playing in continental competition for the first time in a decade, remain of the three Spanish teams who reached the last 32. Athletic Bilbao were surprisingly eliminated by Cypriot side Apoel.
Villarreal’s 4-0 defeat to Roma in the first leg of the round of 32 was one of the biggest surprises of the season. They won 1-0 away in the second leg, but the damage had already been done.
Celta were also beaten at home by the competition’s form team, Shakhtar Donetsk. A goal down, they were going out of the competition until Iago Aspas scored a 91st-minute penalty to level the return tie in Kharkiv. Cabral’s 108th-minute winner sent them through to play Russian side Krasnodar, who eliminated Fenerbahce in the last 16. The first leg is in Vigo on Thursday, with Celta favourites against a side who won two of their six group games and lost three. Then they face another long trip east next week.
Despite losing their opening three league matches, this has been a good season for Celta, but it could quickly unravel. They knocked Real Madrid out of the Copa del Rey to reach the semi-finals, before exiting to a late Alaves goal. They beat Barcelona in the league, but were then hammered by the Catalans 5-0 on Saturday. Cup competitions and playing more games than any other Spanish team other than Barca and Real Madrid have hit Celta’s league form hard.
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Celta have won only one of their past five league games and sit 10th, 10 points adrift of the sixth position, where they finished last season to qualify for Europe. Those games have included away matches at Atletico Madrid and Barcelona, combined with their cup matches.
They also have a rearranged league game to play against Real Madrid, but it is a challenging time for Celta and their talented players including Iago Aspas, the leading Spanish goalscorer in La Liga, and John Guidetti.
Celta still have to play almost all the teams who are pushing for those Europa League places, and they will have a chance to close the gap starting with Villarreal at home on Sunday. But playing two games a week and flying at least once a week from one of western Europe’s most westerly destinations will be tough. They also have a Galician derby at neighbours Deportivo La Coruna next week.
Alternatively they have another route into Europe next season — by winning the Europa League for a place in the Champions League.
Player of the week
■ Lionel Messi: The Argentine was imperious for Barcelona in a 5-0 win against Celta Vigo, scoring twice. As did Antoine Griezmann for Atletico Madrid in a 3-0 win over Valencia. Karim Benzema also scored a double in Real Madrid's impressive 4-1 win at Eibar and looked to be back to his best. James Rodriguez was also excellent at Eibar and got on the score sheet.
Game of the week
■ Real Sociedad v Athletic Bilbao: The biggest Basque derby between these two clubs. La Real are flying in fourth, and beat Real Betis away at the weekend with veteran Xabi Prieto scoring twice. Athletic sit seventh, four points off a European spot behind Villarreal. Given the competition from Eibar and Alaves, being the top Basque team is an achievement. Real Sociedad will go 10 points clear of Athletic if they win.
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