Graham Hunter CAMP FIRE OUR MAN IN SPAIN
Don’t rule out Barca pulling off greatest ever comeback
WITH all due respect to the Liverpool heroes of Istanbul if there’s going to be an unfeasible Champions League comeback victory then where better than the Camp Nou?
Luis Enrique was in the Barcelona squad knocked out in the group stages by Manchester United and Bayern Munich in 1999 – and Sir Alex Ferguson’s men then beat the Germans in the final in the three minutes of added time.
Now Lucho’s team needs to provide a footballing miracle of twice those dimensions.
Two goals won’t do it. Nor with three. Four only buys you an extra half hour. Oh, and no conceding.
But although Barcelona’s coach has called time on his Camp Nou career – he’s not willing to be ushered out the door with PSG’s French accents ringing in his ear.
He’s not finished partying in Europe. Or at least so he and Luis Suarez claim.
Enrique said: “If a team can score four against us then we can score SIX against them...”
The Uruguayan striker and the Asturian manager hammered home the message that the game will last “95 minutes” and that “an infinite amount of things can happen in a match”.
Everybody’s fit, everybody believes, everything is on Barca’s side – except the four unanswered goals they shipped at the Parc Des Princes nearly a month ago.
Enrique said: “For more than two weeks I’ve been convinced there’ll be a stage in this match when we’re close to overturning the PSG lead. We’ve nothing to lose.”
Hopes like that would have sounded ludicrous in the dark days after the atrocious performance in the French capital but MSN, (Lionel Messi, Suarez and Neymar) which became the MNS in Paris (Might Never Score) are back in the groove.
Messi’s scored more this season already than most leading strikers ever hit in their best year .
Neymar, although his strike rate is down, believes he’s in the middle of his best season at the Camp Nou while Suarez has hit the net 26 times in 36 matches.
These three are beasts and that’s how Enrique referred to the MSN in his first treble season when he explained why the ball should be played quickly to them without the usual finicky midfield build-up.
But by not using the wonderful midfield play Andres Iniesta and Xavi turned into the Camp Nou trademark, that muscle withered.
So in Paris, when they needed it, when Unai Emery’s team turned on the turbo-boosters they didn’t have the nous or the resources to pass their way out of trouble – or get the ball to the front three.
You may think that with a four goal deficit Barcelona are already out. If there’s anything like the same blocking of the supply chain as in Paris then they are indeed.
But Enrique compensated for the issues his tactics (and Xavi’s departure) caused by dropping 4-3-3 and returning to the 3-4-3 of Johan Cruyff ’s Dream Team.
When this system functioned it was as scintillating, as powerful and as dangerous as you’ll see anywhere. Against Sporting they won by six. At the weekend it was five. But it wasn’t PSG or the Champions League.
If they manage to hit four against a powerful, smart, confident PSG it’ll be one of the all-time great football nights. Don’t put your hard earned cash on it. But, also, don’t miss it.