Tuesday, December 10, 2024
This Wednesday Barcelona has one of those infirmary or front door games. The team led by Hansi Flick visits Borussia Dortmund in the midst of a slump in results with the aim of achieving three points that will allow them to establish themselves at the top of the group stage of the Champions League. A victory would fill the group with morale after the recent setbacks, while a new setback would set off all the alarms and put a direct pass to the next phase of the top continental competition in serious difficulties.
«We are going to play in a fantastic stadium with an incredible atmosphere. It will be an extra motivation. We have shown the quality we have, but it is normal to fail throughout the season but I have complete confidence in the team and what we do. “We want to demonstrate our full potential,” said Flick at the press conference prior to his team’s match against Borussia Dortmund. The German coach knows that his squad is going through a rough patch, but also that winning in a fiefdom like Signal Iduna Park can be a boost to the group’s morale.
And the new reality for Barça is that of a team that has had many doubts. From sweeping during the first months of the competition we have gone on to forgive too many chances in the rival area and also concede too many in our own area, an unsustainable burden if we want to fight with the greatest. These errors have taken their toll on a Barça team that arrives in Dortmund to play matchday six with just one win in the last five league games. The bad streak weighs and will float in the atmosphere of a team that is risking it and that will look for a turning point in one of the most complicated places.
And visiting Signal Iduna Park is often like going to the dentist. What should they say to Atlético de Madrid or PSG, who fell last year in the quarterfinals and in the semifinals respectively, or what should they say to the rest of the Bundesliga clubs, incapable of winning there so far this year. Borussia Dortmund is also a team that comes to the event with the possibility of leaving a direct rival behind. The pupils of Nuri Sahin, the team’s new coach, have started the Champions League with an air of revenge after the final loss against Real Madrid and have managed to add twelve of the first fifteen points at stake to place themselves in the noble zone of the classification. They have only lost at the Santiago Bernabéu and have the option of reaching the next phase directly.
They share that objective with a Barcelona team that will be able to put practically all of its artillery on the immaculate lawn of Signal Iduna Park, including Ronald Araujo who returns to the squad after four months in dry dock. Flick will, therefore, have everyone at his disposal except for the injured Ter Stegen, Andreas Christensen, Marc Bernal and Ansu Fati. These absences will not affect an eleven that will be similar to that of important appointments. Cubarsí and Iñigo Martínez will continue at the back, Marc Casadó and Pedri will be the reference in the midfield and there will be no surprises up front. Raphinha, Lamine Yamal, Dani Olmo and Lewandowski will play, four players who will be in charge of silencing a stadium that rarely calms its roar.
Important losses for Sahin
Borussia Dortmund arrives well for the event, after four consecutive games without losing, but will have to face the loss of important players due to injury. Waldemar Anton, Filippo Mane, Maximilian Beier and, the most common, Niklas Sule and Julian Brandt, will not be there. Without these last two, Sahin will have to reinvent himself with an eleven in which Sabitzer, Nmecha and Gross will put the muscle in the midfield and in which Guirassy will be the great threat for Hansi Flick’s advanced defense.
-Probable alignments:
Borussia Dortmund: Kobel, Ryerson, Emre Can, Schlotterbeck, Bensebaini, Sabitzer, Nmecha, Gross, Malen, Guirassy and Bynoe-Gittens.
Barcelona: Iñaki Peña, Kounde, Cubarsí, Iñigo Martínez, Balde, Casadó, Pedri, Lamine Yamal, Dani Olmo, Raphinha y Lewandowski.
Referee: Francios Letexier (France).
Time: 9:00 p.m.
Stadium: Signal Iduna Park.
TV: Movistar Champions League.
