Barcelona’s road to the CL final

As the curtain closes on 10 or so months of blockbuster Champions League action, it all comes down to this. With the treble on the line, arguably the two most consistent sides in Europe this season, Barcelona and Juventus, will scrap it out for the continental crown when the whistle blows in blows in Berlin.

In many ways, Berlin presents itself as an ideal backdrop for two sides whose background is draped richly in history. Like Berlin, the two sides set to take to the field have experienced eras of unrivalled success juxtaposed with scandals. Saturday’s fixture, though, presents a completely different theme. One of redemption, or as Pique put it, perfection.

As Gerard Pique noted, the Champions League final presents an opportunity for Barcelona to acquit themselves of recent bad publicity which has plagued the club off and on the pitch and to create history by becoming the first club to win their second treble.

Indeed, the final presents an opportunity for the club which, quite simply, could very well not have occurred. Just five months ago, La Blaugrana found themselves on the brink of collapse. The ongoing Neymar transfer scandal in culmination with Lionel Messi’s spat with Luis Enrique threatened to leave the club in disrepute.

While that proved to be the turning point of Barcelona’s season, it’s fair to say that single incident came as a result of accumulated pressure and frustration from the club’s unconvincing start. And Enrique’s rotation policy only left players even more demoralised and disillusioned.

Take the Catalan’s first Champions League game of the season, for instance. Enrique opted for a side filled with inexperienced youngsters, the likes of Munir El Haddadi, Sergi Samper, Sergio Roberto and summer arrival Marc-Andre Ter Stegen, against an APOEL side who had nothing to lose. The result saw Barcelona scrape through with a 1-0 win, a Pique header in the 28th minute proving to be the difference.

Two weeks later, at Parc des Princes, despite heading into the match as slight favourites, Barcelona fell short of their best as they were beaten 3-2. And despite many pundits arguing that Paris Saint-Germain had finally announced themselves as part of Europe’s elite, it was a performance which proved more a reflection of Barcelona’s incredible fall from grace than Parisian’s quality. After all, PSG were struggling in their domestic League, and talk of Laurent Blanc’s imminent departure was rife.

Barcelona, though, made amends for their earlier stumbles when they comprehensively defeated Manchester City in the round of 16 with a 3-1 aggregate win, thanks in large part to a Luis Suarez double in the away leg in early March, with former boss Pep Guardiola keenly watching from the stands. In retrospect, the score-line barely does justice to the Catalans’ ruthless display, and had it not been for Joe Hart, the result would have been somewhat different.

Weeks later, both Suarez and Neymar expertly dispatched of Paris Saint-Germain in the quarter-finals with a 5-1 aggregate win before Messi joined the action with two spectacular goals, including a classy dink over Manuel Neuer in their 5-3 demolition of Bayern Munich. Just two seasons earlier Bayern comprehensively defeated Barcelona 7-1 on aggregate at the same stage of the competition. For the Camp Nou outfit, the turnaround was complete.

On route to the final Barcelona have managed to comprehensively defeat the champions of Europe’s top Leagues, bar Serie A. PSG retained Ligue 1, as did Bayern in the Bundesliga. Manchester City were then Premier League champions, Ajax were Eredivisie champions and APOEL are still Cyprus’ top side. It could be argued that Barcelona, in fact, took the harder route filled with quality sides in their own right.

Much of the lead up to the final has been centred upon the fact that Xavi Hernandez could finish his career off at Barcelona as a European champion, with the legendary midfielder set to move to Al Sadd at season’s end. And yet, it seems not much has been spoken of the possibility that Enrique could also be on the way out after Saturday’s fixture.

In the midst of the chaos the club found themselves in, Enrique, who, up until then, had been criticised for his inability to stamp his authority in a star-studded dressing room, somehow managed to keep it all together despite the rumours that he himself could potentially receive the sack half-way through the season.

The Enrique that we saw in January was no longer the easy to manipulate figure, but the underrated figurehead of a side in which he successfully integrated Suarez into the team alongside egos the likes of Neymar and Messi, managed to shuffle the latter out from his ‘false nine’ position to the right wing, and in doing so, made him even more of a dangerous player, while shoring up Barcelona’s fragile defence and keeping Xavi content on the bench.

At the end of the day, it took a concerted team effort to pull through arguably Barcelona’s darkest period in recent memory, and his ability to galvanise a team which looked destined for the abyss is nothing short of spectacular.

On Saturday evening, Enrique and his men have the opportunity write history. They’ve defeated all the other League champions. Barcelona have the chance to add Juventus to that list.

La Liga - Club News