Champions League: Barcelona- Bayern Munich
Something always seems to come between a Barcelona - Real Madrid final, but this does look the season it could finally happen . The Catalan giants are playing the best football we have seen them for at least three years and probably longer and Messi, Suarez and Naymar appear unstoppable upfront and it is close to impossible to keep all three quiet for 90 minutes, especially in the big games, where they are all looking to shine and compete, not just with opponents, but each other ( in a good way) and they could not come into this game in better form, with the trio having an incredible 25 goals between them in their last seven starts !
We could argue that Bayern coach Pep Guardiola knows the hosts as well as anyone, but Suarez and Neymar joined after he left and good luck with having a game plan for Messi and the threat doesn't really end with those three anyway ! It is not like Bayern are at their best, far from it, the big second leg win over Porto papered over a few cracks, but the visitors fell apart there and that cannot happen to Barce, not this version anyway. Bayern looked suspect in Portugal and I have spoken previously about the lack of real domestic competition not doing them any favours when it came to the major European ties. They have also struggled with injuries all season and today, Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery, Holger Badstuber, David Alaba and Sebastian Rode are all missing and Robert Lewandowski collected what appeared to be a serious facial injury and concussion last week and if he is available, with have to play with a protective mask, this alone smacks of desperation and if there were options, I doubt that Guardiola would even have allowed him to travel. In his absence at the weekend,soon to be 37yo Claudio Pizarro played up front on his own in a 2-0 road defeat to Leverkusen, after seeing only 122 minutes of action previously since late September, which highlights how few altenatives they have offensively.
There is also the small matter of revenge, if you think the 7-0 aggregate loss to Bayern at this stage of the competion two year ago have been forgotten by anyone in Barcelona, think again and I suspect they might be viewing this as payback and with Bayern perhaps having a few more options for the return, I doubt they will pass up the opportunity to try and put this tie to bed this evening.
Barcelona -1 ball 2.36 asian line/Sportmarket.
banned for add link site spamming : admin
Something always seems to come between a Barcelona - Real Madrid final, but this does look the season it could finally happen . The Catalan giants are playing the best football we have seen them for at least three years and probably longer and Messi, Suarez and Naymar appear unstoppable upfront and it is close to impossible to keep all three quiet for 90 minutes, especially in the big games, where they are all looking to shine and compete, not just with opponents, but each other ( in a good way) and they could not come into this game in better form, with the trio having an incredible 25 goals between them in their last seven starts !
We could argue that Bayern coach Pep Guardiola knows the hosts as well as anyone, but Suarez and Neymar joined after he left and good luck with having a game plan for Messi and the threat doesn't really end with those three anyway ! It is not like Bayern are at their best, far from it, the big second leg win over Porto papered over a few cracks, but the visitors fell apart there and that cannot happen to Barce, not this version anyway. Bayern looked suspect in Portugal and I have spoken previously about the lack of real domestic competition not doing them any favours when it came to the major European ties. They have also struggled with injuries all season and today, Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery, Holger Badstuber, David Alaba and Sebastian Rode are all missing and Robert Lewandowski collected what appeared to be a serious facial injury and concussion last week and if he is available, with have to play with a protective mask, this alone smacks of desperation and if there were options, I doubt that Guardiola would even have allowed him to travel. In his absence at the weekend,soon to be 37yo Claudio Pizarro played up front on his own in a 2-0 road defeat to Leverkusen, after seeing only 122 minutes of action previously since late September, which highlights how few altenatives they have offensively.
There is also the small matter of revenge, if you think the 7-0 aggregate loss to Bayern at this stage of the competion two year ago have been forgotten by anyone in Barcelona, think again and I suspect they might be viewing this as payback and with Bayern perhaps having a few more options for the return, I doubt they will pass up the opportunity to try and put this tie to bed this evening.
Barcelona -1 ball 2.36 asian line/Sportmarket.
banned for add link site spamming : admin
