Rakitic: It’s the age of miracles

– Three weeks on from suffering a 4-0 humiliation at the hands of Paris St-Germain, Barcelona still believe that a Champions League “miracle” is possible at the Camp Nou tonight.

Since that fateful night in Paris, Barcelona have regained both leadership of La Liga and their confidence ahead of the last-16, second leg.

And despite the news that Luis Enrique will no longer be their coach next season, Barca showed no negative effects as Lionel Messi led a 5-0 destruction of Celta Vigo on Saturday in arguably the club’s best performance of the season.

“Hopefully we can produce a miracle,” said midfielder Ivan Rakitic (above).

No side has ever overturned a 4-0 deficit in the knockout stages of the Champions League.

“Evidently, it is very difficult, we are not stupid,” said Enrique.

Yet, by announcing his decision to go at the end of the season, Enrique has calmed the waters that raged as Barca were torn apart by a faster, more determined and precise PSG.

And in following up a 6-1 thrashing of Sporting Gijon with the dismantling of Celta at the weekend, Barca had the air of a team that has had a heavy weight removed from their shoulders.

Along with Messi, Neymar has come back into goalscoring form in the past week, while Luis Suarez already has 26 goals this season.

Indeed, the results from over a third of Enrique’s home games as Barca coach would be good enough to at least force the game to extra time.

That record includes all three of Barca’s Champions League games this season as they dismantled Celtic (7-0), Manchester City (4-0) and Borussia Moenchengladbach (4-0) by a combined score of 15-0. –

Barcelona