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Barcelona have had a rather forgettable season. And tonight, they will take on an in-form Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League. Bayern Munich go into the game as the odds on favourite to win the tie against Barcelona and progress to the semi-finals
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After sacking Ernesto Valverde when the team was on top of the La Liga table, Barcelona's form dipped and they lost the title to arch-rivals Real Madrid. Barcelona have not been on a convincing run and they'll have to outdo themselves to overcome the challenge posed by the Bundesliga champions.
With games from the quarter-final stage now being restricted to a single leg in order to expedite this long season's conclusion, Barcelona cannot afford to slip up tonight and if they do, they had better prepare themselves for all the stick they're about to receive subsequently.
#5 Bayern Munich have been in excellent form
While Barcelona have been struggling on a lot of fronts, Bayern Munich have been thriving. The Bavarians have been in free goalscoring form and their attack that is led by Robert Lewandowski, who has scored 54 goals from 45 games this season, has been simply unstoppable.
Lewandowski has scored 13 goals from 7 Champions League appearances and he alongside Gnabry and Muller have become perhaps the most feared attacking trio in Europe.
Bayern Munich come into the quarter-finals against Barcelona after having dispatched Chelsea 7-1 on aggregate in the Round of 16. Alarm bells are surely ringing for the Cules.
#4 Barcelona do not have the pace to trouble Bayern Munich's high line
Holding a high line is key to Bayern Munich's attacking game. As such, teams have looked to break them with pace on the counter by utilizing the space left behind by the advancing centre-backs.
However, an ageing Barcelona side simply does not pack enough pace to take advantage of the situation. Most Barcelona attackers are in their 30s and even if they circumvent Bayern Munich's high-press, motoring into the final third and leaving the opposition defenders behind is not something they are capable of pulling off.
As a result, in order to cause problems for Bayern with pace, Barcelona will need to turn to Ousmane Dembele, who hasn't played in a while, or Ansu Fati and thereby take off Antoine Griezmann. That would surely be a gamble that Setien will think several times over before taking.
#3 Barcelona's over-reliance on Lionel Messi
The 3-1 scoreline from Barcelona's win over Napoli is flattering to the Cules more than anything. Though the scoreline suggests that it was a comprehensive win, it was simply anything but. Napoli came too close on several occasions and Barcelona were lucky to hang on. Bayern Munich will have definitely caught on to this.
In fact, if it was not for another Lionel Messi master-class, the Serie A side may have even gotten the better of them. Lionel Messi scored a spectacular solo goal and won a penalty out of nothing to help Barcelona cross the line.
Quique Setien will be hoping to see more of that individual brilliance against Bayern Munich. Without it, Barcelona could be without a chance in this game.
#2 Quique Setien not convincing yet
Since taking over from Ernesto Valverde, Quique Setien has not yet pulled this Barcelona team through an impressive phase. Against Napoli, he seemed a bit out of sorts and made only 2 substitutions, leaving 3 go unused. His first substitution only came in the 84th minute and there were a lot of tired legs out there by that point.
Against a free-scoring Bayern Munich, Setien will need to be able to come up trumps from a tactical standpoint. He needs to set up his team in a manner that will help them negotiate Bayern's attacks and then break them on the counter.
However, he has not been entirely convincing with his in-game management and tactical flexibility and this could prove to be too costly for the Cules.
#1 Barcelona will need to switch formations to contain Bayern Munich
Barcelona will need to step out of their comfort zone while not being in the best of shapes, if they are to have a chance of containing Bayern Munich. Setien likes to go for the standard 4-3-1-2 but has used a 4-4-2 in games against the likes of Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid.
Bayern Munich are reliant on their full-backs and wingers to create chances in the final third and as such, Barcelona could use with the extra protection that a winger can provide for his wing-back. As such, it has been rumoured that Barcelona will adopt a 4-4-2 with Sergi Roberto and Frenkie De Jong partnering Sergio Busquets and Arturo Vidal.
However, this means that Antoine Griezmann won't feature as the front 2 will comprise of Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez. As a result, Barcelona's attack could suffer.
