It’s with an underdog status that Barça will come to the clash. Having barely managed to win over Napoli in the 1/8th of finals, there’s little hope for Barcelona against Bayern – apart from the Messi factor, Puig & Ansu inspire hope as well. Bayern, on the other hand, is having amongst the best time in a while. They won comfortably the Bundesliga, but more importantly, have defeated Chelsea on the impressive aggregate score of 7-1! The monster is not to mess with.
Current form
FCB form: WWLWW
League standings: 2nd| 82 pts| +48 It’s with an underdog status that Barça will come to the clash. Having barely managed to win over Napoli in the 1/8th of finals, there’s little hope for Barcelona – apart from the Messi factor, Puig & Ansu inspire hope as well.
FCB expected XI: Mats• Alba•Lenglet•Piqué•Semedo Busquets•FdJ•Vidal Messi•Suarez•Griezmann
BMU Form: WWWWW
League standings: 1st| 82 pts| +68 Bayern, on the other hand, is having amongst the best time in a while. They won comfortably the Bundesliga, but more importantly, have defeated Chelsea on the impressive aggregate score of 7-1! The monster is not to mess with.
BMU expected XI: Neuer• Kimmich•Boateng•Alaba•Davies Thiago•Goreztka Coman•Müller•Gnabry Lewandowski•
T A C T I C S
There are two approaches: The pragmatic approach – which I dislike and therefore won’t cover – and the more enthusiastic but also more dangerous approach – and the one I would prefer us to use.
Knowing that Bayern would win on the wings – due to problems in our personnel, may it be wingers or fullbacks, we have no choice but to push through the centre. We know it’s our strength considering all the central profiles we have. To add to that, we have Busquets once again.
Frenkie would be the one with progressive passed, and a creative midfielder is needed next to him – which I’ll discuss later today in my XI. Thus, if you occupy Bayern in your strength – aka the centre – they will have no or little time to impose their own gameplan.
It’s in the Boateng-Alaba link that superiorites will have to be achieved. In fact, we need someone to do runs of the ball. Bayern’s backline tends to stay very high, just like ours. If you can attract Bayern to press and then offer a killer pass behind, chance are there.
On the other hand, a high line isn’t the solution for us. Considering the Bayern’s cohesion along pacy players such as Davies, Gnabry or Lewa, it’s unwise to do so with the lack of pace in our personnel. However, they will be likely to press. And we want them to press.
With press resistant players, you can afford to be pressed. Those players can overcome the press where superiorities and overloads have to be achieved, as seen yesterday against Atletico from Nagelsmann’s side. It’s for me the plan that should be tried.
A risk that Setien probably won’t take
It’s a very risky plan – if it fails, we get clapped. If it works, we’re about to clap them ourselves. There’s no middle ground and that’s how I would describe best the game. Subs will be needed from Setien between Min 50-70, which is Setien’s weakness.
Positional play expressed through all phases of play, a football fan that fell in love with the Beautiful Game over 10 years ago. Occasionally writes about FC Barcelona for Barca_Buzz, on tactics and attempts to explain the game to the casual eye.
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