Champions League [Round 16 | 1st leg]: Bayern Leverkusen Vs Barcelona

¤Barcelona Squad traveling to Germany to face Bayer Leverkusen:
22 players including 5 Barca B player "Oier, Bartra, JDS, SergiRoberto,Tello" and Busquets!

If the wound under his right knee has healed well, Busquets would tomorrow get the medical green light. Last test in Germany. [via barcastuff]

Unavailable 1st team players: Kieta, Villa, Afellay and Fontas.

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Lineup, Formation and Score Predictions? Discuss.

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¤ Barcelona are unbeaten in their last 13 matches in european competitions [12CL, 1 USC]: 11W, 2D | Goals: 37-8 [Club record: 17].

¤ Guardiola's Barcelona Vs German Clubs: 4 matches [2W, 2D, 0L] | Goals:10-2 [+8].

¤ Messi Stats Vs German Clubs: 7 matches [4W, 3D, 0L] scored 6goals and assisted 1.

for much more stats check: https://twitter.com/#!/BarcaStatistics

This is the lineup I'd like to see

I just want one thing.
For Fabregas to take his rightful place on the bench.
Enough of the useless midfield imposter and lets have Messi back to his best.

Have not been this disinterested in a CL game for a while, the hangover from the weekend is still there and its easy to overlook Leverkusen because of their relative lack of stature.

Probably feel more about it tommorow.

We need the midfield back in the place, or at least on the pitch.

Puyol needs to sit down as hard as it is for me to say, im starting to worry about him.

For me it would be


--------------------------VV-----------------------

Dani A------Machete--------Pique-------Abidal

-----------------------Busquets---------------------

------------Xavi-----------------Thiago-----------

Sanchez------------Messi----------------Iniesta


Pedro is just terrible right now and I dont want to see him. I was considering Tello or Cuenca instead of Iniesta, because depending on his fitness I wonder what he can give. If Cuenca does play I would like to see Sanchez on the left.

I dont expect this team, I am pretty sure Cesc will start and Thiago wont but it is what I would like to see.

What I think Pep will do is more this.

-----------------------VV-----------------

-----------Puyol--------Pique-------Abidal

Dani Alves-------Busquets------------------
--------------Xavi-----------------Iniesta

------Messi---------------Cesc----------

-------------Sanchez-----------------------

With Cesc, midfield is not complete, he runs forward all the time. Either bench Sanchez and start Cesc instead of him, or bench Cesc, start Sanchez and Tiago. With Cuenca or Tello Sanchez Messi and Cesc it becomes 4 attacking players in team and its very bad for the team. at least if you start cesc then bench any of attackers..dont play all of them together

alexjanosik wrote:I just want one thing.
For Fabregas to take his rightful place on the bench.
Enough of the useless midfield imposter and lets have Messi back to his best.

I'm slightly critic with Cesc as you know, but I feel this is quite baseless. Messi was utter crap vs. Osasuna and Cesc was not playing. He has been pretty much meh since the turn of year, and I don't think it has nothing to do with Cesc. If you actually see him play, he seems slower, with less spark and takes weird decisions. And also his finishing has gone to the dogs. All of this, has nothing to do with Cesc being on the pitch, as with or without Cesc, he finds space, has chances and gets reasonably involved.

I would go with our best 11 for this match:

VV
Alves - Machete - Pique - Abidal
Xavi - Busquets - Iniesta
Pedro - Messi - Alexis

If Pedro is still in terrible form as he was vs. Osasuna I would play Cuenca or Tello instead. If Busquets can't play, I would play Thiago in his place. If Iniesta can't play, or has very low fitness, then Cesc.

The Franchise wrote:
What I think Pep will do is more this.

-----------------------VV---------------------------

-----------Puyol--------Pique-------Abidal

Dani Alves-------Busquets------------------
--------------Xavi---------------------------------

------Messi-----------------Cesc-----------------

-------------Sanchez-----------------------

There's a player missing here, no?

Yeah, Iniesta was supposed to be there. I will edit.

IMO

Valdes
Alves - Machete - Pique - Abidal
Xavi - Thiago - Iniesta
Alexis - Messi - Tello

I want a win with a 5 goal margin, is that too much to ask right now?

BarrileteCosmico wrote:I want a win with a 10 goal margin, is that too much to ask right now?

fixed

Guardiola: “We must score, it's vital”
02-13-2012 19:33

“We didn’t promise we’d win the Champions League in the first year, and we won’t promise to win the title now,” said Guardiola

"If we allow Bayer Leverkusen to run ... they are a lot stronger than we are"
"We must get to that level [again] and not let randomness feature in our games"
"In Pamplona, we were penalized for not adapting a quickly as possible to game conditions and game circumstances"

Returning to the Champions League after months of league and Cup commitments is never easy. In fact, since Guardiola took charge of FC Barcelona, the team has never won the away leg of the last-16 round. “It’s always been very difficult to get into this competition [after the break], and it’s always a risk to play against Germans. Against Stuttgart (1-1), two years ago, they deserved much more,” said the Barça manager during today’s press conference. For this reason, Guardiola believes that his team must score a goal in tomorrow’s match at the BayArena, saying, “it’s vital that we score.”

Better control

Guardiola has nothing but respect for German sides. “If we allow Bayer Leverkusen to run ... they are a lot stronger than we are. They have four or five players that are 1.90m tall and they’ve scored a lot of goals off dead balls. They can put you in a bind if you don’t control the game. It’s the biggest virtue German sides have,” said Guardiola. The manager is aware of the importance of Tuesday’s match and he believes that ball possession will be a determining factor in the outcome of the tie. If Barça dominates possession, the result, in all likelihood, will be favourable to Barça. If neither team dominates the match, the game could take a turn for the worse.

“It’s a serious challenge to win the Champions League”

The defeat in Pamplona this weekend featured prominently in today’s press conference. With the league title further out of reach than it was before, Guardiola said it would be a mistake to demand a Champions League title from his team: “now that it appears as though the league is difficult [to win], it seems as though we are obligated to win the Champions League. As if that were easy. It’s not. The challenge is to compete and at the end of the season we’ll see where we are.

“We have to take this one step at a time, because winning the Champions League is a serious challenge. I will not promise that we’ll win it. We didn’t promise that in the first year, when we nobodies, and we won’t promise to win the title now,” said Guardiola.

Taking “random” out of the equation

On the game in Pamplona, Guardiola indicated that “we were penalized for not adapting as quickly as possible to game conditions and game circumstances.” However, the team played “a great second half, where we did everything and more to mount a comeback.” For the manager, “we have a problem: we’ve dominated the game for a lot of years. [In the past] the random factor didn’t figure into our play. We didn’t give it any room. We must get to that level [again] and not let randomness feature in our games. We have to control it by playing better.” Ahead of the match against Leverkusen, the manger said that this is the first chance to eliminate the random factor from Barça’s game plan.

http://www.fcbarcelona.com/football/first-team/detail/article/guardiola-we-must-score-it-s-vital

Excellently put by Pep. The "randomness" has been big in our games, especially away. The lack of control leading to dangerous moments.

Osasuna scored 3 from 4 shots or something? This is just unusual.

We are not playing the game in a way where teams are so dominated, they cant even get into positions to create chances. Usually, we play and the opponant attack with numerical inferiority and 2 players vs at least 3. More and more often we are seeing men find space and punishing us.

Messi hattrick. Pedro double. Back to our proper form

Guardiola's Press Conference [Video]: http://www.101greatgoals.com/gvideos/guardiola-im-not-convinced-weve-lost-the-league-pre-leverkusen-presser/

I love the optimism, but for some reason, I dont feel it.

I wouldnt even be surprised by a score draw. Hope im reading the situation wrong.

I think Cesc will start, not saying that I particularly want him to tbh.

We will get a good result. I'm confident.

Albiceleste wrote:I think Cesc will start, not saying that I particularly want him to tbh.

I agree. I just dont see Pep leaving Cesc on the bench on the weekend and tommorow.

I really hope Thiago plays, especially if Busquets doesnt, but either way I hope he does because his play had been very good.

I agree, he was the best by far vs. Osasuna.

Yep, even when everyone else was playing poor he was still doing some very good things. Dribbling players, making accurate passes, working hard defensively.

I still would of expected him, if the entire team isnt doing well, him to suffer too, but he really went the other way and really upped his game.

Only one I wasnt dissapointed in after Osasuna (other than Tello and Cuenca)

free_cat wrote:

alexjanosik wrote:I just want one thing.
For Fabregas to take his rightful place on the bench.
Enough of the useless midfield imposter and lets have Messi back to his best.

I'm slightly critic with Cesc as you know, but I feel this is quite baseless. Messi was utter crap vs. Osasuna and Cesc was not playing. He has been pretty much meh since the turn of year, and I don't think it has nothing to do with Cesc. If you actually see him play, he seems slower, with less spark and takes weird decisions. And also his finishing has gone to the dogs. All of this, has nothing to do with Cesc being on the pitch, as with or without Cesc, he finds space, has chances and gets reasonably involved.

I would go with our best 11 for this match:

VV
Alves - Machete - Pique - Abidal
Xavi - Busquets - Iniesta
Pedro - Messi - Alexis

If Pedro is still in terrible form as he was vs. Osasuna I would play Cuenca or Tello instead. If Busquets can't play, I would play Thiago in his place. If Iniesta can't play, or has very low fitness, then Cesc.

Stats dont lie.

Any good bets you Barcelona fans see for this game?

Crimson wrote:Any good bets you Barcelona fans see for this game?

Not really. Our form of late doesnt really justify any certainties or wise bets, particularly as we are away and ive seen that it has been snowing in Germany.

If the draw is a good price...maybe look at that. I hope we win though. If Tello is really long odds to score he might be an option...

BarcaKizz wrote:

Crimson wrote:Any good bets you Barcelona fans see for this game?

Not really. Our form of late doesnt really justify any certainties or wise bets, particularly as we are away and ive seen that it has been snowing in Germany.

If the draw is a good price...maybe look at that. I hope we win though. If Tello is really long odds to score he might be an option...

Draw is paying 4.20 so I put abit on that already

Tello is at 2.63 to score, seems alot of people have the same idea and thus have pushed his odds down

Derdiyok is 4.20 to score so might put some money on that as well

Messi is 1.50 to score O.O lol