Taking a point from their past three La Liga games and losing back-to-back league fixtures for the first time since November 2014 suggests Barcelona are in ‘crisis’ but has a side ever been in a better position to repeat a historic treble? No.
Nevertheless, the aura of invincibility that had surrounded Luis Enrique’s group as recently as 10 days ago has begun to waver, if only slightly.
Barca were on the rocks in the Camp Nou before Fernando Torres’ naïve sending off but made their extra man count in bad-tempered clash from the Camp Nou. The Catalans remain in the driving seat to a semi-final place but I’d expect another thrilling content in the cacophonous capital atmosphere of the Vicente Calderon on Wednesday.
Atletico know what’s required. In the duos one and only previous European encounter, Los Colchoneros sneaked a second leg 1-0 win on home soil to seal a 2-1 aggregate victory at the quarter-final stage in 2014. It was the last time that Barcelona failed to score in Europe’s premier club competition.
The away goal is a major boost to the typically tenacious hosts and although Diego Simeone’s side have pocketed just one success in 19 against Barcelona – including defeats in all seven fixtures since Luis Enrique arrived at the Camp Nou – Atletico have scored in eight of their last 10 head-to-heads.
Los Colchoneros have fired blanks on only three occasions at their Calderon home this season and boast a fierce W11-D3-L1 record in their past 15 Champions League home fixtures. Go back further and Atletico have W23-D3-L2 in 28 when entertaining continental clashes.
With Barcelona shutting out just three of their last 11 hosts, I expect Simeone’s side to grab a goal and make a game of this tie. But could you really oppose the superstar Blaugrana front-three from netting here?
Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez are responsible for 44 of the Catalans’ 53 Champions League goals since last season (83%) and although Messi has gone 362 minutes without scoring in all competitions (his worst run for Barcelona in five years), I’m unwilling to wager against the Catalans from grabbing a goal.
The visitors haven’t failed to score in back-to-back games since April 2014, have W18-D2-L2 in Champions League games since the start of 2014/15, scoring in all 22.
It’s bound to be another nick-and-tuck encounter but I’ll happily support Both Teams To Score at 1.80 in what’s expected to be another thriller in Madrid.