Barcelona the team to beat in Champions League
One of two properly heavyweight ties in the last 16, with a genuinely profound Champions League history further weighing on it, and yet what makes this match-up all the more engaging and maybe more entertaining is that neither of these sides are quite at their top level.
That might sound remarkable for a Barcelona that are running away with the Spanish league and have Lionel Messi back close to his best, but it is true, and is also emphasised by what has been a subpar European season for Spanish clubs in general.
The specific challenge for Antonio Conte in this match will be to figure out how to limit Messi’s influence, of course, although it could also lead to one of the great duels: the best attacking player in the world against the best defensive player in the world, as it’s difficult to think of a job more suited to N’Golo Kante.
Could this be his career performance to go with his career achievements so far? It represents a big game in Conte’s career, too, since he still hasn’t won a knock-out competition and still hasn’t had a truly momentous Champions League campaign and it now represents the best hope to make this a successful season.
Barcelona aren’t as sensational as they have been, but new manager Ernesto Valverde has made them a more dogged side. They are a bit more calculated, and constrained, if always looking to launch Messi. Compli- cating that, mind, is the likelihood that the Catalans will strengthen in the summer.
Underscoring this game, then, is the remaining intrigue over Eden Hazard’s future. He looks ready to go another level himself, and a face-off against Messi might only further fire that. It should fire this tie, and is better than being fired by some of the ugliness that has done so in 2005 or 2009.
This might just be their best tie yet, and that is saying something.
On the surface, of all Liverpool’s potential knockout phase opponents, Porto were certainly one of the more preferable choices.
An early exit would have been expected if Xabi Alonso had drawn his former club against one of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or Juventus. All three have issues this season but all three have consistently progressed to the latter stages of this competition in recent years as well.
Basel and Shakhtar Donetsk offered kinder ties but both came with drawbacks. Ask Gerard Houllier and Brendan Rodgers about their memories of playing at St Jakob›s Park in this competition for starters. They are not pleasant. Neither is a trip to Kharkiv in February. The Iberian coastline is much nicer.
Porto’s record in the Champions League this season, meanwhile, offers yet more hope. Sergio Conceicao› s side qualified with the fewest points of any of the six clubs Liverpool could have faced and did so in arguably one of the more favourable, if still one of the most evenlybalanced groups.
Though they scored 15 goals, with five coming in their final match against last season›s semi-finalists Monaco, Porto shipped 10 – four more than Liverpool – and were beaten by the other two in Group G: Naby Keita›s RB Leipzig and this year›s surprise packages, Besiktas. On the surface, it is a favourable draw.
That› s just the surface though, and for an impression of how much a surfacelevel reading tells you about a team, apply the same method to Liverpool. Do that, and you have a team that qualified with the second-fewest points of any group winner, winning only three times in another relatively favourable group: twice against the champions of Slovenia and just once against the champions of Russia.
The point stands: Porto may have been one of the kindest draws on offer to Liverpool in the round of 16, but Liverpool were one of the kindest on offer to Porto too. Having avoided the likes of Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City, the 1987 and 2004 European Cup winners.