Barca’s memories of Wembley highlight European failure
MESSI AND CO DESPERATE TO RECLAIM CHAMPIONS LEAGUE TROPHY
When Barcelona play Tottenham today it will bring back fond memories for the Catalan football giants.
With continuing uncertainty over when the rebuilding of White Hart Lane will be finished, Tottenham are still playing their home matches at Wembley — England’s national stadium.
Barcelona won the Uefa Champions League title at Wembley in 2011, beating Manchester United 3-1.
Surprisingly they have triumphed in Europe just once since then — in 2015 — highlighting the failure of Lionel Messi and their host of other stars to fulfil their potential fully in the Champions League.
Moreover, their bitter rivals Real Madrid have won the title four times in the same period.
Another Spanish side in action, Atletico Madrid, have lost two of the past five finals — being beaten both times by Real Madrid. They host Brugge.
Real Madrid’s final success last year came against Liverpool, the English power that this week travels to Napoli. Here is a look at the four Champions League groups today:
Group A
Atletico Madrid have only lost once in nine matches across all competitions this season.
They won their Champions League opener 2-1 at Monaco and are coming off a satisfactory 0-0 draw at Real Madrid, extending their run in La Liga to six consecutive visits to the Santiago Bernabeu without a loss.
Goalkeeper Jan Olbak has been particularly miserly of late, having not conceded a goal in three successive matches.
Borussia Dortmund will be in an even more buoyant mood when they host Monaco, after seizing the Bundesliga lead from Bayern on Saturday.
Group B
Tottenham and Barcelona are meeting for only the third time in a competitive match, having previously faced each other in the semi-finals of the European Cup Winners’ Cup when the Catalan club advanced. Tottenham lost their opener to Inter Milan 2-1 after the Italian side scored two late goals to complete a dramatic comeback.
That reignited Inter’s season, with Luciano Spalletti’s side winning their next three Serie A matches and they will be hoping to continue that run at Eindhoven.
Group C
Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson knows just how tough it will be at Napoli. Seven months ago before moving to England, Alisson was part of the Roma side that won 4-2 in Napoli when he had to save 11 of 13 shots on target. “It was one of the toughest games of the season for us in Serie A,” Alisson recalled ahead of the trip back to Italy.
A daunting trip to Paris StGermain has been made harder for Red Star Belgrade, who will be without fans after trouble in the second leg of their play-off at Salzburg.
Group D
After comfortably beating Lokomotiv Moscow 3-0, Turkey’s Galatasaray know they can take control of the group with another victory at Porto. Galatasaray are without a victory on the road in Europe in 13 matches, since a 3-2 success at Schalke in the Champions League round of 16 in March 2013.
Porto drew their opener against Schalke, which ended their five-game losing start to the Bundesliga with a 1-0 win over Mainz on Saturday and will hope to kick on from there at Lokomotiv Moscow.