Preview: Barcelona aim to get back on track in the Champions League
Barcelona can climb the Champions League table by beating Olympiacos at their temporary home on Tuesday evening.
By Graham Ruthven
Home away from home
The hope was that Barcelona would return to their spiritual home at the Camp Nou for Tuesday’s Champions League fixture against Olympiacos. This could have been their long-awaited homecoming.
Instead, Barca will play another game at Montjuïc where they lost their last Champions League match to Paris Saint-Germain, putting Hansi Flick’s side on the back foot in the League Phase.
Barcelona can return to winning aways by beating an Olympiacos side that has drawn to Pafos and lost against Arsenal in this season’s Champions League. The Catalans are firm favourites.
Flick’s team needed a stoppage time goal to overcome Girona at home on Saturday, highlighting how fragile Barca continue to be in certain matches. Their high defensive line will be targeted by the Greek champions.
Nonetheless, Barcelona will fancy their chances of beating Olympiacos as they have done in every home meeting with the club from Piraeus.
Key players
Pedri scored the opener for Barcelona against Girona on Saturday and is expected to start on Tuesday as the midfielder through which so much of the Catalans’ attacking play flows.
Lamine Yamal played over an hour in the same match. Barca are clearly a stronger team with the teenager on the pitch, but with El Clásico looming this weekend there’s no guarantee he will start again on Tuesday.
Marcus Rashford is a good bet to keep his starting spot on the left side with the on-loan Manchester United attacker firmly in his groove after a slow start to life at Barca.
Ayoub El Kaabi bagged a brace in the league win over AEL at the weekend and will pose a threat as Olympiacos’ attacking focal point against Barcelona. Daniel Podence and Chiquinho could also trouble the Catalans.
Realistically, though, the Greek champions will need their defensive figures to be solid in order to achieve a positive result, meaning goalkeeper Alexandros Paschalakis and centre back Panagiotis Retsos must stay focused.
Team news
Robert Lewandowski will miss out again after sustaining a hamstring injury while on international duty with Raphinha still a doubt having missed the last four Barcelona games.
Joan García and Marc-André Ter Stegen are both sidelined, meaning Wojciech Szczesny will continue in goal, while Gavi and Dani Olmo will also be missing for the visit of Olympiacos to Montjuïc.
In an ideal world, Flick might have chosen to rest some of his most important players before Sunday’s Clásico against Real Madrid. However, injuries could restrict his freedom in that regard.
Gabriel Strefezza and Rodinei are both expected to miss Tuesday’s match for Olympiacos. The latter’s injury means Costinha is likely to step up on the right side of the Greek outfit’s defence.
Otherwise, José Luis Mendilibar has a fully fit and available squad to choose from for his return to Spain to face an opponent he came up against many times in LaLiga.
Prediction
Form suggests that this will be the game that Barca use to get back on track in the Champions League, but as always, you can’t always count on Flick’s side keeping a clean sheet, so we’ll go with a confidence building home win: Barcelona 3-1 Olympiacos.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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