FC Barcelona and Red Star Belgrade face each other tonight in a match on the fourth day of the Champions League that, on paper, seems favorable to the Catalan team.
Both teams arrive as leaders of their national leagues, but their performances in Europe show a big difference: while Barcelona continues to maintain an extraordinary scoring level, the Serbian team continues without finding a goal in the top continental competition.
Barça, the highest scoring team in the major leagues
Barcelona, led by Hansi Flick, is recording a historic offensive performance. With 40 goals in their first 12 LaLiga games, the Blaugrana team leads the scoring average among the five major European tournaments, with an impressive average of 3.33 goals per game.
Recent convincing victories such as the 4-0 against Real Madrid and the 3-1 against Espanyol show the offensive power of a team in a state of grace.
This start to the season is the second best in Barcelona’s history, only surpassed by 1950/1951, when the club scored 42 goals in the same period.
In Europe, Flick’s team maintains its scoring power, with 10 goals in the group stage of the Champions League, only behind Borussia Dortmund, which has 12. The connection between players like Lewandowski and Raphinha has been crucial, especially in their victories convincing against Young Boys (5-0) and Bayern Munich (4-1).
Red Star: domestic efficiency, drought in Europe
Despite their leadership in the Serbian league, where Red Star shows an impressive statistic with 43 goals for and only 8 against in 13 rounds, their European performance is a very different story.
Vladan Milojevic’s team has been unable to score points in this phase of the Champions League, and its three games in the continental tournament are counted as losses. The negative streak includes a 1-2 against Benfica, a resounding 5-1 against Monaco and a 4-0 against Inter Milan.
With only two goals in three games, Red Star is one of the least effective teams in attack in this edition of the Champions League, surpassing only Sturm Graz and Slovan Bratislava, who have only scored one goal each.
On the defensive side, the situation does not improve either, since with 11 goals against, it is placed alongside Dinamo Zagreb and Slovan Bratislava as the teams that have conceded the most goals in this phase.
Will Barcelona be able to maintain its good scoring streak?
Barça has the opportunity to continue demonstrating its good offensive momentum against a team that, although dangerous in its local league, has shown weaknesses in the European context.
Although Red Star has the need to seek a victory to break its points drought in the Champions League, Barcelona will seek to reaffirm its candidacy to become the leader of the group, with a squad that, despite the rotation at times, does not lower the level.
