CL Preview: Barcelona - Sporting Clube

CelticKing · Sep 15, 2008

CL Preview: Barcelona - Sporting Clube

VS.

UEFA Champions League, Group C Barcelona v Sporting Clube
20:45 CET - Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Camp Nou, Barcelona

Barcelona will be hoping that Sporting Clube de Portugal arrive at Camp Nou with a more ambitious game plan than to play nine men behind the ball and leave one up front after facing those tactics in their first two domestic matches of the new Spanish league season.

The fact that in both those games, against Numancia and Racing Santander, the Blaugrana have been frustrated and picked up only one point and scored only one goal, from the penalty spot, makes the arrival of the Champions League group stage a welcome one.

Away teams going to Camp Nou with the intention of playing spoiler tactics is nothing new and only becomes a debatable issue in the media when Barça fail to perform themselves and that is exactly what has happened so far this term and why the rumblings into a full-blown enquiry have been heard.

Pep Guardiola's team thrived in pre-season against sides that were not concerned about the scoreline as they looked towards fitness and rhythm and the Castalan outfit enjoyed various goalscoring sprees against defences only manned by four players.

Even Wisla Kraków did not shut up shop when they visited in the Champions league qualifier in mid-August and the home team were able to net four times to secure their passage to this stage of the competition, despite then being beaten in Poland in the second leg.

Samuel Eto'o scored six goals in all before things began in earnest and all the newcomers, such as Dani Alves, Seydou Keita, Gerard Piqué, Mart?*n Cáceres and Aleksandr Hleb all looked set to aid the smooth transition to the Guardiola era at Barcelona.

Being Creative

Instead, the same problems that existed under Frank Rijkaard reared their heads in the opening league game of the season when Numancia netted early and went on the defensive leaving Barça having to be very, very creative to find a way through.

Against Racing at the weekend it was the opposite as the visitors were content to play for a goalless draw, despite claims afterwards that a late goal was all part of the plan, and they did end up taking a share of the spoils when Barça missed chance after chance in front of goal.

Sporting will know that this encounter will be a huge step up from their opening league matches, but they can take heart from their start in Portugal as they are one of only two teams, along with Nacional, to have garnered six points from their opening two league matches.

After easing past Trofense, 3-1, on the opening day, Braga were then beaten 1-0 away last weekend and there are high hopes for the club this season, especially after they were able to hold on to several key players over the summer, including João Moutinho.

While Barcelona will no doubt have to face a defence containing at least seven players, they should also expect to be called upon to defend more often than they have done in their first two matches because Sporting will certainly use the break when possible.

The Portuguese giants qualified directly for the Champions League and have not had such a busy schedule as their hosts in the build-up to this game or the intense scrutiny and pressure that constantly surrounds Camp Nou.

RECENT FORM

Barcelona

13/09 H 1-1 Racing Santander
31/08 A 0-1 Numancia
27/08 A 0-1 Wisla Kraków
16/08 H 2-1 Boca Juniors
13/08 H 4-0 Wisla Kraków
06/08 A 6-2 New York Red Bulls

Sporting Clube

01/09 A 1-0 Braga
23/08 H 3-1 Trofense
09/08 H 2-0 Sampdoria
02/08 H 1-1 PSV
27/07 H 2-0 Benfica
26/07 H 2-1 Blackburn

TEAM NEWS

Barcelona

TBA

Squad: TBA

Sporting Clube

TBA

Squad: TBA
Click to expand...

CelticKing · Sep 15, 2008

lol, the Barca pic looks bigger but I didn't do it on purpose.

Barcelona 2 - 1 Sporting Clube

Messi 1
Bojan 1

agoo · Sep 15, 2008

With the way that Barcelona has blown of late, I wouldn't be surprised to see them drop points here.

CelticKing · Sep 15, 2008

Yeah it could happen Agoo. I'm not sure that Sporting Clube is the one to beat them during the group though.

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