FC Barcelona is facing a final, during which it also has to look elsewhere: with a defeat at FC Bayern, the proud club is eliminated from the Champions League despite huge investments. After all, you go into the game well prepared.
FC Barcelona remain the first pursuers of champions Real Madrid in the Spanish league. The Catalans beat Athletic Bilbao 4-0 (3-0) on Sunday evening and delivered a successful dress rehearsal for the Champions League game against FC Bayern Munich. After the eleventh day of play, Barcelona, second in the table, are three points behind the premier class winners Madrid. Early goals for Barcelona came from Ousmane Dembelé (12'), Sergi Roberto (18') and Robert Lewandowski (22') and Ferran Torres (73') - Dembéle was the man of the game with his goal and three assists. Robert Lewandowski has already scored his 12th goal of the season and the Pole leads La Liga's goalscoring charts by a wide margin.
The fly in the ointment of victory in front of 84,817 spectators from FC Barcelona's point of view was a pelvic injury sustained by golden boy Gavi after a nasty clash with Dani García, and then a nasty shoulder injury suffered by Sergi Roberto which resulted in Barça ending the final minutes with just had to play ten men. Coach Xavi Hernandez announced after the game that Sergi Roberto's condition was not a concern and that they were more worried about Roberto. Tomorrow's tests will bring more clarity.
This Wednesday (9 p.m.) Barcelona welcomes FC Bayern, former club of striker Robert Lewandowski. Then, despite a gigantic mountain of debt before the season, the noble ensemble, which had been reinforced with over 150 million euros before the season, is already threatened with a huge blow: A defeat by the German series champions would mean the certain end in the Champions League group phase. It would be the second time in a row for the proud club. However, the chances of progressing are minimal: if Inter Milan wins their home game against the pointless Czech representative Viktoria Pilsen at the same time, FC Barcelona is also eliminated.
At an event in Madrid, league boss Javier Tebas had previously put the spotlight on the financial problems of the club, which had pulled out all the stops before the season to be able to finance its stars in accordance with the league's guidelines: "You have to Massively cut payroll costs, they can't have more than €500m because if they don't, we'll face the 1/4 rule again next season."
Three days before the Champions League home game against Bayer Leverkusen, Atlético Madrid had previously clinched a narrow victory. Two goals by French national soccer player Antoine Griezmann (54th and 71st minute) were enough to make it 2-1 (0-0) at Real Betis Sevilla. Behind leaders Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, Atlético is now third with 23 points from eleven league games. On Wednesday (9:00 p.m.) Leverkusen will play the group game of the premier class in Madrid.
