Barça avoided the Freudian drama of meeting Leo Messi with a different shirt in the group stage of the Champions League, that of PSG, but, eluding the fire, it ended up in the embers. Bayern Munich, the Barça team’s executioner club in recent times (goleada and trauma in Lisbon and double defeat and subsequent elimination in the last group stage), will be a test of maximum demand to verify the reliability of Xavi Hernández’s new Barça .
The one from Terrassa will count for the exam with Robert Lewandowski as an ally, precisely one of the usual executing arms of the Bavarians. Now the Polish gunner scores goals at the Camp Nou, that battle was carried out by president Joan Laporta in the face of resistance from the German board. We will see if it is or not a first sign of international compensation for the Barça entity.
Overcome the impression of measuring himself with Bayern Munich, the ball from the third pot did not seek relief but rather the desire to run from the Haliç Congress Center in Istanbul, venue of the final where the draw was held. Vice-president Rafa Yuste and technical secretary Jordi Cruyff, Barcelona emissaries, stood firm in their seats when Yaya Touré, who was the one who recited the names of the teams, pronounced the name of the Inter Milan coached today by Simone Inzaghi. Bayern and Inter, a former European great with Lukaku and Lautaro as threats, to begin with. Not bad. The fourth ball acted as a muscle relaxant: Viktoria Plzen from the Czech Republic. The first two will qualify for the round of 16. “It’s time to suffer, enjoy and test yourself with the best”, analyzed Jordi Cruyff in Movistar about the Barça group. “We are a different team. We will compete one on one”, he promised.
Next to Barça and its wild group, Real Madrid, defending champion, enjoyed a parade of apparently affordable opponents. In this order: Leipzig, Shakhtar Donetsk, a Ukrainian team that has played its games away from home for several seasons due to the war with Russia (it did so in Kyiv and will do so in this Champions League in Warsaw) and the historic Scottish club Celtic Glasgow. Carlo Ancelotti, awarded at the gala, and Emilio Butragueño, usual emissary, breathed easy. They are not stressed either one or the other.
Regarding Atlético and Sevilla, mixed luck. The Andalusians will not have it easy. They will face each other with Guardiola’s Manchester City, an eternal contender now reinforced by Erling Håland, with Borussia Dortmund, precisely the last team of the Norwegian striker, and with Copenhagen.
Atlético de Madrid, meanwhile, had better fortune: Porto was the top seed and the other two opponents will be the German Leverkussen and Bruges of the Catalan Ferran Jutglà.
