Three talking points ahead of Chelsea vs Barcelona | UEFA Champions League MD5

Days after their first sport on the renovated Spotify Camp Nou, Barcelona return to the highway, this time for a protracted journey to England to lock horns with Chelsea within the UEFA Champions League.

Enzo Maresca’s males, the reigning FIFA Membership World Cup Champions, have been on an excellent run to date this season, and their place throughout competitions exhibits how a lot they’ve improved from the earlier marketing campaign.

After twelve video games within the Premier League, Chelsea are solely six factors behind leaders Arsenal and have scored 23 targets within the competitors.

Within the UCL, they’ve two wins, a draw, and a defeat, identical to Barcelona, and are solely narrowly behind the Blaugrana on the standings, having scored three fewer targets.

Barça Common brings you three speaking factors forward of Chelsea vs Barcelona.

A document to neglect

Over the previous 20 years, Barcelona haven’t performed many video games at Stamford Bridge.

Regardless of the late Andres Iniesta aim picture being rooted firmly within the reminiscence of Culers, even that sport resulted in a draw after 90 minutes.

Six video games have been performed between the Catalans and the London-based aspect on the venue through the years, and Barcelona have received simply as soon as. Compared, Chelsea have received thrice, with two video games ending in attracts.

The English giants beat Barcelona by a complete 4-2 margin in 2005, and a yr later, Barcelona took revenge by taking away a 2-1 win over a ten-man Chelsea.

In October of 2006, Chelsea went one up on Barcelona with a 1-0 win, and the 2 groups then confronted off solely three years later when Iniesta scored the last-minute equaliser to take Barcelona by way of.

After that notorious debacle, the English aspect beat Barcelona by one aim in 2012 earlier than settling for a 1-1 attract 2018, and it’s secure to say that the Catalans’ document on the venue is nothing promising.

Tomorrow evening, Hansi Flick and Co. will look to undo that document and begin on a contemporary slate, particularly given how they’re rejuvenated each when it comes to health and psychological fortitude. A magnanimous sport awaits.

No room for error

The UEFA Champions League has not been notably memorable for Barcelona to date this season, for his or her type within the competitors has been nowhere near what they confirmed final season.

Flick’s males bought their season underway with the proper begin, taking all three factors away in opposition to Newcastle and asserting that they’re a pressure to be reckoned with.

Publish the successful begin, nevertheless, they misplaced to Paris Saint-Germain in a sport the place they had been completely dominated and noticed the steam come off their boots.

A 6-1 win over Olympiacos served as comfort, however they once more dropped two factors to Membership Brugge.

4 video games into the league part, Barcelona are in eleventh place on the desk and much from the place they might have wished to be.

They do certainly have 4 extra video games, however there is no such thing as a room for error in the event that they want to end within the high eight.

It’s clear that Flick and Co. will want to keep away from an additional two video games by ending top-8, and it’s thus essential that they don’t drop additional factors in opposition to Chelsea tomorrow evening.

In spite of everything, they might nicely see their hopes of direct qualification collapse ought to they lose.

A win at Stamford Bridge, in the meantime, will go away them as favourites to take a top-8 place as their subsequent three opponents are all comparatively straightforward. Tomorrow’s sport, thus, is huge from that standpoint.

Double hassle on the again

Barcelona’s win over Athletic Membership gave Hansi Flick a number of positives to remove, one of many greatest ones being how sound the defence appeared on the evening.

Regardless of Athletic Membership’s pacey assault and counter-attacking risk, the Catalan back-line appeared as much as the duty with Gerard Martin doing exceedingly nicely alongside Pau Cubarsi at centre-back.

Jules Kounde and Alejandro Balde, in the meantime, additionally put up good performances and held up their line nicely to implement the offside lure to a lot better impact.

Including to the soundness on the again was Eric Garcia, who had a sensational sport enjoying because the crew’s pivot and managed the proceedings to nice impact whereas appearing like an absolute machine with interceptions.

Whereas the preparations within the earlier sport had been certainly makeshift preparations to assist fill the void created by Frenkie de Jong and Pedri’s absence, the supervisor now has a powerful case to maintain the identical thought transferring ahead.

With Pedri nonetheless unavailable, Garcia may nicely be a part of De Jong within the double-pivot in London, changing Dani Olmo within the beginning lineup. In spite of everything, he confirmed an excellent degree over the weekend.

Concurrently, there’s a moderately robust case for Martin to proceed because the centre-back alongside Cubarsi, particularly if Garcia does certainly characteristic in midfield. The supervisor, thus, has huge selections to make.