FC Barcelona travels to Munich to play the second leg after comfortably winning the first leg 4-0. This suggests that Barca is pretty much through to the semifinals, which is also true. However, Barca will still have to work for it as Bayern has a lot of quality on the offense as they proved when they won with 4-0 against former great, Eintracht Frankfurt.
The last time Barca played in Munich was in Mehmet Scholl’s testimony, before the start of the 07/08 season. It that instance, Barca won 1-0 after a volley by Messi 5 minutes before the ref blew the final whistle. The game was rather uneventful and if the game tomorrow is that as well, it bodes well for Barca’s chances.
Guardiola will probably field one of his strongest teams, as although advancing to the semi-finals seems pretty certain, there is no reason to take a chance on it. The only player absent from the strongest lineup is Marquez who cleverly took a yellow card and a suspension in the first game. Furthermore, Henry isn’t feeling to well so he’ll probably be left out.
Expected Barcelona lineup:
Valdes
Alves, Pique, Puyol, Abidal
Yaya
Xavi, Keita
Messi, Eto’o, Iniesta
Abidal will be reinstated at left back after coming back from injury. He was on the bench on Saturday so he should be ready. Yaya, Xavi and Keita didn’t start the game against Recreativo so the midfield looks dead set. Eto’o didn’t play against Recreativo so he’s a shoe-in, while Iniesta doesn’t suffer from fatigue due to his injuries. The only question in attack is Messi. He looked tired against Recreativo and could be replaced by Bojan or Hleb.
This formation will also ensure that Barcelona will keep a lot of possession and thereby be strong in defence by simply holding the ball as we discussed in a recent article on who the play in the midfield.
The game kicks off tonight at 8:45 PM local time.
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