UCL | R1 | FC Barcelona vs APOEL FC

vs.
FC Barcelona vs APOEL FC
Camp Nou (Barcelona) | Wed, Sep 17 | 20:45 CET



The first match of a new European campaign is upon us and many will expect a simple win over the lowest ranked side in the group in the shape of Cypriot champions APOEL, but those who know their CL football well will remember that they went all the way to the quarterfinals just three seasons ago, causing a few upsets on the way and should not be taken lightly even if they come into this game as heavy outsiders.

A good domestic start to the Liga campaign has calmed any nerves down and given the team some renewed confidence after a disappointing 13/14 season, but European football is always a different animal to take on and if Barca aren't careful, points could well be spilled and leave the team with plenty of work to ahead of the hardest match in the group on paper coming up next, a trip to Paris to face Ibrahimovic's PSG side.

Pique, Alves, and Neymar are expected to return to the starting lineup having missed out from the first XI on Saturday (Alves missing out completely with knee discomfort), leaving the final spot in the lineup to likely be decided between Pedro and Munir. Vermaelen remains injured while Suarez is of course still banned.

My predicted lineup:

Bravo
Alves --- Pique --- Mathieu --- Alba
Rakitic --- Busquets --- Iniesta
Pedro --- Messi --- Neymar

My predicted lineup:
----------------MATS
-Douglas---Pique----Mathieu---Alba
---------------Buscuit
---------Xavi----------Iniesta
-------Munir---Messi---Neymar

time to try out MaTS and Douglas.. would also like to see Verm but might be too early.
Xavi to finally start a game, maybe wishful thinking but i hope pedro stays away from the lineup... forever

MAtS to get his first official game for Barca.

Alves to start and play 60 minutes to regain match fitness after his injury. Then Douglas to come on and show us what he can do in one of the easier games of the season.

Xavi to start and play 90 minutes to regain some match rythm.

Iniesta to start and play 60 minutes to regain match rythm (only played vs. Athletic since Elche, looked rusty).

Mascherano to sub off Busquets after about 60 minutes so Busi can have a bit of rest.

Neymar to play 90 minutes and statpad. Hasn't started a game since the World Cup.

That's mostly what I care about in this game.

MAtS
Alves Bartra Pique Alba
Busquets
Xavi Iniesta
Rafinha Messi Neymar

Sub:

Alves => Douglas
Busi => Masche
Iniesta => Munir (Rafinha slotting into midfield then)

Squad (vs APOEL): Rakitic, Xavi, Sergi Roberto, Iniesta, Rafinha, Munir, Messi, Sandro, Neymar, Bravo, Ter Stegen, Alves, Douglas, Bartra, Pique, Mathieu, Adriano, Samper

Official: 18 players called up, Montoya, Mascherano, Alba, Busquets, and Pedro not included, first call-up Douglas

No Busi or Masch, hmmm interesting.

What the..... we gonna use rakitic in the dm spot or something?

Sergi Roberto perhaps?

Would rather see Samper to be honest.

I agree. Samper is legit

It will be Samper, no doubt. He's in the squad.

Lucho even bigger youth legend than I thought.

it can also be Bartra.

No it can't:

Barcelona line-up (official): TerStegen - Alves Bartra Pique Adriano - Xavi Samper SergiRoberto - Munir Messi Neymar

Lucho has some balls, hopefully it's not going to be a clusterf*ck.

Wow at that lineup! Some balls on Lucho

Surprised Sergi got in over Rafinha

Lucho officially the new Pep after that line up.

Pique scoring from a set piece. Lucho officially a magician.

windkick wrote:Samper is legit

Meh

Almost a **********. Xavi in the field and we played exactly like last season, too slow, too conservative, too predictable.

[profanity removed - rwo]

Lucho does indeed have balls but i'm not fully convinced yet...
i'll excuse the team because apparently all the other teams today minus roma and porto had meh games as-well.. but idk

the whole thing looked like a friendly from our part, no one really looked like they were trying or cared.
Messi and Neymar both messed up so much it in passing dribbling and shooting.
Xavi was used against a parked team which shows his weaknesses.

the only real star of the game was Pique.. and not just for his goal but the guy was a rock today must be said he didn't lose one single header defensively and stopped about 99% of the balls coming his way.

MaTS saved us that last minute as-well which was nice to see.

I still don't like Dani Alves, granted he did well tracking back and positioning himself but he contributed absolutely nothing in attack this whole game, like the rest his passes were sloppy and don't believe he even got past one player today by himself.

overall really bad game except the defence.

Not that bad. Just lacking precision upfront and chemistry in the middle against 11 men in the box.

Harmonica wrote:Almost a **********. Xavi in the field and we played exactly like last season, too slow, too conservative, too predictable.

You're talking as if Xavi were the only change to the midfield

Samper really is legit.

Xavi played with Roberto and Samper in midfield.

CBarca wrote:Samper really is legit.

First team debut.

118 touches, 102 passes, 93% accuracy, 7/8 long balls completed, 4 interceptions, 3/3 effective clearances, 5 tackles.

expected us to drop the hammer but nothing. Atleast Ajax and PSG dropped points, but still....

So far Lucho has been winning but hasn't been blowing teams out. Hope this doesnt turn out to be like when Tata,Tito first arrived...and everything looked fancy but had a strange feeling to it, and the first half of the season went great and then things fell apart when the going got rough

Well we have yet to concede a goal and honestly not many teams really have gotten far when attacking us.
i think Apoel had the most chances vs us compared to the la liga teams...
but we were also practically playing with our B team which is promising.

Samper