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Barcelona’s first game after their elimination from the UEFA Champions League is scheduled for Wednesday night, roughly a week after the heartbreak in Madrid.
Having faced the biggest blow of the season, the Catalans have had some time to reset and regroup ahead of the clash tomorrow. The opponents coming up, however, have a reputation for being tricky to deal with.
Celta Vigo enter the game sixth on the league standings with 44 points after 31 games and have been in good form for most of the season. Recent weeks, however, have been unforgiving for them.
The Galicians have lost three straight games across all competitions – all in the span of a week – and head into the game against Barcelona looking fairly out of touch.
Barça Universal brings you three talking points ahead of Barcelona vs Celta Vigo.
One remaining objective
There is only one objective that now remains in the season for Barcelona, simply because they now happen to be alive in just one competition.
Freshly out of the UEFA Champions League, Barcelona’s remaining games this season are all in La Liga – seven to be precise.
At this point in the campaign, the Catalans have already played 31 games in the competition and have won 26 games, four games more than Real Madrid, who have won just 22.
The gap on the points table, thus, is significant as the Blaugrana have a nine-point lead over their arch-rivals, who are also out of the European race.
With just seven games to go, it would appear that the league title is decided. As Hansi Flick pointed out in his pre-game press conference, however, the reality is far from the comfortable situation that is being projected.
One Clasico remains to be played this season, where Real Madrid can potentially take points off Barcelona directly, meaning even two other slip-ups will make the race extremely tight.
At this point, what Barcelona must do is not slip up in the games to come. A few more wins under the belt and a win in El Clasico will seal the title as matters stand.
Need for a mental reset
Barcelona need to start afresh. (Photo by Angel Martinez/Getty Images)
An elimination from the UEFA Champions League is heartbreaking in any situation, let alone one where the referees appear to be against the team from the very start.
Barcelona’s exit from the UCL last week, in that sense, was a very painful one, especially for the young dressing room, which was buzzing with excitement at the time of the draw.
After the heartbreak against Inter Milan last season, Barcelona’s party in the competition was cut short by two red cards in two legs against Atletico Madrid, and it is clear that the result is very harsh on Hansi Flick’s side.
What is crucial for the management at this stage, thus, is to ensure the dressing room does not go on a tilt and stays together through the complicated moment.
If the morale of the team stays high, they will undoubtedly celebrate the league title not too far down the line. If they fail to reset mentally and psychologically, however, they will pave the way for unnecessary twists.
The duty of the management and the veterans in the team, thus, will be to keep the morale of the young players high and ensure that they dish out strong performances starting tomorrow night.
The No. 9 dilemma
The No. 9 battle between Ferran Torres and Robert Lewandowski has been ongoing since the beginning of the season, with neither player particularly coming out on top over the other.
Ahead of the clash against Celta Vigo, however, the manager finds himself at a special crossroads and will find it hard to make his pick between the two. Both players have strong cases to start, after all.
For Ferran Torres, his case is built based on his recent form, which has much improved. The ‘Shark’ scored a brace against Espanyol and then racked up a goal and an assist in the second leg against Atletico Madrid, after all.
For Lewandowski, however, the case to start is linked more with his record against the opposition in question – Celta Vigo.
The Polish star, after all, has eight goals in seven games against the Galicians, including two braces and a hat-trick, the latter of which he scored in their most recent meeting.
It thus remains to be seen which of the two stars Flick opts to hand the start to tomorrow night.
