Barcelona can strike seemingly at will
The serpent in the weeds has three fangs.
Their names are Lionel Messi, a shaggy-haired soccer genius from Argentina; Thierry Henry, a mercurial maestro from France; and Samuel Eto’o, a volatile finisher from Cameroon.
There is, simply put, no stopping them.
On Wednesday, in front of an enthralled throng of 97,000 at Barcelona’s Camp Nou and a worldwide television audience, the trio demolished Bayern Munich, the defending German champion and four-time European champion.
The final score was 4-0, but it just as easily could have been double that. Messi scored twice, and Henry and Eto’o had one goal apiece, all in the first half.
“We were rabbits caught in front of a snake,” said Uli Hoeness, the former German international who has been Bayern Munich’s general manager for the last 30 years.
“What I saw in the first half was without a doubt the worst football Bayern have played in their entire history,” fumed Franz Beckenbauer, Bayern Munich’s president. “It was an exhibition. Almost a humiliation. Barcelona gave us a lesson in football.”
On Tuesday, the teams face each other, this time in Munich in the second leg of the European Champions League quarterfinals. No one gives Bayern a prayer of overturning its four-goal deficit.
“Perhaps if they bring only eight men to Munich then we have a chance,” said Mark van Bommel, Bayern’s Dutch midfielder.
Messi, Henry and Eto’o have combined to make Barcelona the most dynamic and the most feared soccer team on the planet, never mind what Manchester United or Inter Milan or anyone else might say.
Together, they have helped Barcelona score more goals than any other team in Europe this season. The three have scored more goals than any other top-flight team.
Barcelona, however, is more than simply a trio of high-scoring strikers. Its midfield boasts the Spanish creative attacking duo of Xavi, the most valuable player at Euro 2008, and Andres Iniesta. Its defense features the world’s top right back, attack-minded Daniel Alves of Brazil.
In short, Barcelona carries the game to the opponent. There is hardly a weakness in the squad, and when the team is on song, Coach Josep “Pep” Guardiola’s side is a joy to watch.
“We were taken apart in the first half by a team that is currently setting the standard in Europe,” subdued Bayern Coach Jurgen Klinsmann said after Wednesday’s defeat.
All of this suggests that Barcelona will hold aloft the Champions League trophy May 27 in Rome and bask in the club’s third European Cup title after similar victories in 1992 and 2006.
But, discounting Bayern Munich, there are six other teams still more or less alive in what is unquestionably soccer’s most fixating club tournament.
There is, for instance, Manchester United, the defending champion, which is in search of five trophies this season but whose coach, Alex Ferguson, would consider holding on to the Champions League the most significant of the five.
United has stumbled of late, however, with its defense looking especially porous. When it gave up a late goal to two-time European champion FC Porto in a 2-2 quarterfinal tie in front of 74,517 at Old Trafford last week, it set up an intriguing second-leg game in Oporto, Portugal, on Wednesday.
“No British team has won there, so it’s going to be difficult,” Ferguson said.
In a later interview with CNN, British soccer’s most successful coach said the world’s wealthiest team should have won more than only two European Cup titles.
“There have been years when we’ve been unlucky and years we’ve been disappointed, and there have been years when we’ve thrown games away,” Ferguson said. “And that sort of gives a kaleidoscope of what football’s like really in a way.”
Meanwhile, Chelsea, last year’s Champions League runner-up to Manchester United, goes into its second-leg game at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday coming off a 3-1 upset of Liverpool at Anfield last week.
Liverpool, a five-time European champion, had not lost a game at home this season in any competition before that startling reversal. Its chances of beating Chelsea by three goals in London on Tuesday are slim.
“I would say it is more or less 85-15 against us qualifying now, and it is going to be tough,” said Liverpool Coach Rafa Benitez, “but we won, 4-1, at Old Trafford three weeks ago and we have it within us to do that again.”
The fourth quarterfinal match is more evenly poised, with Arsenal having grabbed a 1-1 tie against Villarreal in Spain last week and now returning to its Emirates Stadium with that precious away-goal advantage.
Arsenal is Henry’s old club and the Frenchman is not looking forward to playing the Gunners should Barcelona and Arsenal each get to Rome in May.
But as Henry said, that is looking too far ahead.
“In the Champions League, one bad performance -- or even a bad 10 minutes -- can put you out,” he said. “We’ve won nothing yet.”
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