The situation
The first decisive day that could mark the season in terms of Barcelona has already arrived. Tonight at the Camp Nou (9:00 p.m., Movistar Champions League) Barcelona hosts Inter Milan in a match in which Xavi’s team comes between a rock and a hard place. Barça has no other option but to win (if possible by two goals or more) if they don’t want their adventure in the Champions League to end before the round of 16. Against this background, it is not surprising that the “magic night” catchphrase traditionally reserved for higher events came up repeatedly yesterday at the pre-match press conferences given by Xavi and Pedro . Barça is desperately looking for a way out of a labyrinth they got into last week when they fell at the San Siro after losing earlier in Munich . The defeat against Inter eliminated any safety margin for a team that if they don’t win today and Bayern, as seems more than likely, score points in the Czech Republic against Viktoria Plzen, they will be in the Europa League for the second consecutive year. A circumstance that would be a tragedy at a sporting, image and economic level, especially after the investment made so that Xavi (another who plays a lot) had the best possible team. In the eyes of the board of directors, being left out of the knockout stages of the Champions League on matchday four of the group stage would be reason enough to call more than one to order.
The details
Xavi is aware of the significance of the match and also that his team is not finding the rhythm it had after the national team break. Since then, Barça has played three disappointing games: they won the League against Celta and Mallorca by the minimum and fell in Milan in a duel very marked by the arbitration controversy , which made a timely fog to hide the bad game of the Blaugrana. Looking ahead to the magical night, Xavi continues with the same casualties as the weekend. De Jong could be ready to start as a central defender to try to give the Catalans more presence in attack against the wall that Inter is preparing. This is a final and finals are not played, they are won.