With Champions Real losing in Moscow to Manchester City breaking their four match losing streak in Germany, Tuesday night brought many weird games and weirder results. Drab home draws for Manchester United and Bayern Munich in their respective groups also added more variables to seemingly straight and narrow equations.
With Liverpool and Tottenham playing on Wednesday, we are sure to get another rich diet of European football, goals and smattering of drama.
Here is the preview of those two matches:
Tottenham vs Barcelona
Spurs will host Barcelona in their first Champions League home fixture of the season. The Catalans will be back at the stadium where they produced probably their most impressive display, annihilating Sir Alex’s Manchester United in a one-sided 3-1 score line.
Tottenham Hotspurs
Form (all competitions): LLLWWW
Tottenham succumbed to their second loss at the San Siro last month when they conceded late goals to Icardi and Vecino. Spurs were coming off two straight losses against Watford and Liverpool and lost concentration in the last five minutes of ‘harakiri football’.
They host Barcelona on Wednesday night in a different frame of mind and vein of form. Coming off of three straight victories, the Lilywhites return to Wembley after three weeks of travel. The 2-0 win at Huddersfield on Saturday will also bring defensive assurance to a Spurs team without their talismanic captain Hugo Loris in goal.
Pochettino will be hoping to revive the spirit of last year when Spurs defeated Blaugrana’s archrivals Real Madrid 3-1. Their home form was the reason for their progression last year with accompanying victories against Borussia Dortmund and APOEL.
Tottenham’s dream run in 2010-11 to the quarter-finals remain their best showing in the competition and with three successive appearances in the group stages, it is the hour to pit their best against Messi and his Catalans.
Dele Alli is still recovering from his injury while Christian Eriksen, Jan Vertonghen, Mousa Dembele and Hugo Lloris are also doubtful for the match.
Michel Vorm’s injury may see third-choice keeper Paulo Gazzaniga make his fourth successive start in the white of Tottenham.
Barcelona
Form (all competitions): WWWDLD
Barcelona are coming off a mini-crisis with no wins in their last three matches. Their last victory was their 4-0 thrashing of PSV in the Champions League opener. It was Messi’s eighth Champions League hat-trick that made that match a breeze. They had a six-match winning streak at that moment
Home draws to s Girona and Athletic Bilbao and a 2-1 shock away loss to Leganes has certainly disturbed the script for the Catalans. The 1-1 draw against Athletic club on the weekend was severely criticized in the press for lacking the true Barca imagination. Messi and Busquets were rested for that match.
The La Liga outfit has struggled in Europe in recent years with three successive quarter-final exits. Domestically they have fared far better, winning two of the last year La Liga titles. Clearly, getting back their European supremacy takes precedence over the league, especially with arch-nemesis Real Madrid ruling the roost in the competition.
Barcelona will be without defenders Samuel Umtiti and Sergi Roberto. In their absence, Nelson Semedo and Clement Lenglet will be expected to fill the gaps.
Arturo Vidal may come in for an away fixture in place of more enterprising Ousmane Dembele to provide more defensive cover. Messi and Busquets will definitely not be rested for this match.