The last time Barcelona captain Lionel Messi graced the monumental Wembley stadium, he left Manchester United and Sir Alex Ferguson gasping for air. Barcelona’s 3-1 domination of the Red Devils during Pep Guardiola’s era will always be remembered as one of the greatest UCL performances of all time.
Barcelona’s magic-trio of Messi, David Villa and Pedro Rodriguez all scored on the night in 2011 as Barcelona became champions for a fourth time in history.
Fast forward 7 years, Messi will be entering the Wembley again. This time, he will face a different opponent, in a different fixture and with a different squad. Moreover, the momentum would not be on Barcelona’s side since they have not managed to win any of their last 3 games.
Tottenham, on the other hand, have won all of their last 3 fixtures and will be riding high despite missing out on a few key players and despite losing their first fixture of the UCL group stage against Inter Milan.
The fixture is also vital for the two teams because in a potential group of death, all four teams (Barcelona, Inter Milan, Tottenham and PSV Eindhoven) will be looking accumulate maximum points possible to qualify for the knock-out stages.
However, all eyes will be on Barcelona captain Lionel Messi and Tottenham ace Harry Kane, who says he would one day want to emulate and even break goal-scoring records set by Messi. The battle between two of the very best footballers of their generations will be as exciting as it gets.
How Messi martials his troops is another important question that will dictate the terms of this contest. Given that Spanish press claims Messi and Pique’s relationship is in hot waters, it will be interesting to see how things play out if there’s any truth in such reports.
That being said, this game is not just important for the two teams, but for Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde, this is more than just a game.
The coach is under-fire for failing to produce results and patience is running out in the city. That Barcelona fail their Wembley test is no more an option. The water-levels are rapidly on the rise, and this flood of Cule emotions could well wash-away all that the Barca coach has left.
Barcelona face Tottenham at 12am on Thursday Pakistan Standard Time.