Barcelona’s defender Gerard Pique takes part in a press conference at the Sports Center FC Barcelona Joan Gamper in Sant Joan Despi, near Barcelona, yesterday. RIGHT: Bayern Munich’s German midfielders Thomas Muller (left) and Bastian Schweinsteiger give a press conference at a Barcelona hotel on the eve of the UEFA Champions League semi-final second leg match.
BARCELONA: Bayern Munich are anticipating Barcelona’s bid to overturn their 4-0 deficit to be led by an inspired Lionel Messi rather than the subdued version that turned up in last week’s semi-final, first leg.
Bayern take on the Catalan giants at the Camp Nou in today’s Champions League second leg with one foot in the final after the drubbing meted out to Messi and his men in Munich.
World Footballer of the year Messi produced an uncharacteristic limp performance in Munich, but Bayern striker Thomas Mueller believes the Argentine star will be back to his brilliant best today.
“In the first leg we barely saw him,” reflected Mueller, who scored twice and set up a third in the surprisingly lopsided first leg.
“That was down to us even if we know he was limited with an injury.
“We are going to see another Messi on Wednesday, even if we hope we don’t. I think we’ll have more work to do with him than the last time.
“Messi is a talisman for them. He’s a player who scores 50 goals in the season.”
The Germans, intent on atoning for last year’s final defeat on home turf to Chelsea, are mindful of letting any hint of complacency scupper their attempt to make it to the Wembley climax.
“We opened the door (to the final) but we haven’t gone through it yet,” cautioned midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger at the eve-of-match press conference yesterday.
“It’ll be hard on Wednesday (today), few teams can offer resistance to Barcelona here,” he added.
“We know they’ve got a lot of pride and we have to be concentrated as we were in the first leg.”
Mueller suggested Barca would try to upset their visitors “with their ball possession”.
“We’ve got to defend well, and leave the ball far away from our goalkeeper.”
As for last week’s surprise result, Mueller maintained that Barcelona had not played as poorly as the scoreline suggested.
“They didn’t play a catastrophic match,” he reasoned.
“We made the difference physically and mentally. We exploited the set pieces, and our size. And it was thanks to our good defensive work that Barca had few chances.”
Mueller added that if anyone was in any doubt as to Barcelona’s aptitude as escapologists then they only had to look back on what happened in the round of 16.
Barca looked down and out after losing the first leg 2-0 to AC Milan but ultimately sailed through to the quarter finals with a Messi-inspired 4-0 second leg success.
“I watched that match live. We know Barcelona can cause us harm if we don’t turn up. We also saw that Milan had a great opportunity but they weren’t able to capitalise on it.”
Meanwhile, Barcelona were dealt a blow as midfielder Sergio Busquets and defender Eric Abidal were ruled out through injury.
“Sergio Busquets and Eric Abidal will not feature in tomorrow’s match,” Barca said in a statement on their website (www.fcbarcelona.es) yesterday.
“The midfielder has not recovered from the (groin) injury that kept him from playing ... this weekend, while the Frenchman has picked up a calf injury,” they added.
Busquets is a crucial part of the Barca side in the often unsung defensive midfield role and without him their chances of overturning a 4-0 deficit from last week’s first leg in Munich are severely dented.
“We are Barca and we cannot give up on a tie, there are still 90 minutes left,” coach Tito Vilanova told a news conference yesterday.
“I don’t think Bayern believe it is over either though they are better off than we are,” he added.
“If we lose, at least we have to do it with our heads held high and playing on until the end of the match, not throwing in the towel and making our fans proud of us.”
Gerard Pique insisted that the mere presence of Lionel Messi in the Barcelona starting line-up at the Camp Nou will give the home side the belief that they can still win the tie.
“I know that it is complicated. But of course it can happen,” said Pique, 26. “I believe that the only team capable of overturning a four-goal deficit today.
“When I take to the field and I see Leo (Messi), Xavi, Cesc (Fabregas), Andres (Iniesta), of course I am confident.
“That is what says to me that it can happen. The supporters must believe too. And to have Messi with us helps massively. If we can score as early as possible, that would give us even more confidence. We need to be very attack-minded and play the ball through him as often as possible.”REUTERS
