Friday, May 18th, 2012
Tomorrow night FC Barcelona will contest an unprecedented 8th Uefa Champions League semi-final. The Catalans play their fourth consecutive semi-final too, a feat previously achieved only by Italian side Juventus.
Relatively little was surprising about the Shakhtar Donetsk vs FC Barcelona quarter finals second leg a fortnight ago. The game resembled most involving Barcelona. They dominated possession. Balon d’Or, Leo Messi, scored. Records were broken, more milestones reached. They qualified comfortably with a 6-1 aggregate score, crowned by a 1-0 away win. No surprises there then.
Hold on a second… an away win? In a Champions League knock out round?
For Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona?
On a night when nothing at all appeared shocking about the win, the shock was the win itself.
Prior to this year’s quarter final, Barcelona, under Pep Guardiola, failed to win any of their away fixtures in the Champions League knock out stages. In these seven games, the current Spanish champions had drawn five times and lost twice. Only one of these results followed a comfortable first leg win at the Camp Nou. The run which began in Lyon in February ’09 ended in Donetsk in April of this year.
During this time they travelled to Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Lyon, to Arsenal twice and current European champions Inter. But the record is even more puzzling when the Champions League is considered in its entirety. Five away wins in seventeen matches is hardly a record befitting of such a revered and successful group of players. Prior to the victory in Donetsk they had won only two of their last ten Champions League away matches. On Wednesday night Barcelona will travel to the Santiago Bernabeu in search of another away win, when they face Real Madrid in the first leg of the 2011 semi-final.
A year ago, the Blaugrana travelled over 1000km, for nine hours, over two days, by bus to face Jose Mourinho’s Inter. The trip was hampered by a volcanic ash cloud which made air travel impossible. As is seemingly customary, they dominated for large periods of the game with a significant 68% possession of the ball. Barca started brightly and Pedro opened the scoring on nineteen minutes.
The tide soon turned as Inter expertly exploited poor positioning and lapses of concentration in the Barcelona back line with a series of quick and ruthless attacks. Cries of fatigue from a mammoth bus journey as well as a suspicion of offside for Inter’s third goal echoed widely from fans and the Catalan press. Whatever the cause, the result was clear; in Europe, once again, Barcelona struggled away from the Camp Nou.
Two recent trips to the Emirates also reveal much about Barcelona’s away form in Europe. Last year’s Champions League quarter final first leg saw Barcelona dominate possession and create then miss a number of goal chances. Zlatan Ibrahimovich scored twice after the restart to make it 0-2. Arsenal, second best for large periods, managed to get back into the game, however, as once more; Barcelona failed to maintain their earlier intensity and struggled with Arsenal’s swift attacks.
Theo Walcott finished off a lightning quick Arsenal move before Cesc Fabregas converted a penalty to equalise. Questions were asked of Guardiola’s tactical decisions also, particularly the substitutions of Ibrahimovich and Messi, as Barcelona squandered a two goal lead. In the return leg, a weakened Arsenal side went a goal up but a breathtaking display from Leo Messi, in which he grabbed four goals for his team, secured a semi-final tie against Inter.
At the Emirates in February of this year, Barcelona were the stronger of the two sides, dominating possession and squandering a number of excellent opportunities in an exciting first half. Arsenal later found rhythm and their counter attacking began to trouble Barcelona, again punishing their often weak defensive positioning. Goals from Robin Van Persie and Andriy Arshavin secured the victory for the London club.
There was a recognizable sense of complacency about the Catalans, seemingly content in seeing the game through with a one goal lead. The attacking urgency disappeared in the final third as David Villa was replaced midway through the second half by the more defensive Seydou Keita. Despite ample opportunity to secure the win, they left London the losing side. Once more, Pep Guardiola’s substitutions were criticized.
As was the case so often before, home territory, the impregnable Camp Nou, was where Barcelona had to rescue the tie with a win. This familiar approach had almost always worked before. Prior comfortable wins over Lyon, Stuttgart and Bayern Munich, made the travails of the away leg seem irrelevant.
This time round other factors come into play. This is no one off fixture; it is an age-old domestic battle on a European stage. Twice every season El Clásico takes place in la Liga. Barcelona and Real Madrid have faced off three times already this season, seven meetings in total since Pep Guardiola took charge. Of these games Barca have won five, drawn and lost once, the defeat after extra time in the Copa Del Rey final last Wednesday night. Three trips to the Bernabéu have seen two wins and a draw for Barcelona.
Indeed, winning need not be the objective for Guardiola. With the season coming to a close and the depletion of his already small squad, an away draw against the eternal rival might be considered a positive result, even by critics of their European form. According to Guardiola, Madrid are rightly considered favourites. Having already secured a spirited draw in La Liga and the season’s first trophy, the momentum is with Los Blancos in the current series of games.
Nevertheless, the Barcelona philosophy is to attack. Their style is irrefutable. “Even if we die”, said midfielder Javier Mascherano defiantly, “we will die doing it our way.” Who knows, maybe they will dominate possession. Maybe they will take an early lead, run out of steam, and throw away their advantage again. Maybe, Barcelona will leave it all to do in the Camp Nou once more. That would be no surprise at all.
Tags: Champions League, FC Barcelona, Josep Guardiola
