• Controversy.Ter Stegen: "Neuer is not fair"
  • Calendar.The Barcelona group

Since Barcelona won its last European Cup in front of the marathon gate of the Berlin Olympic Stadium (2015), its continental trajectory piled up such a number of disappointments that this could only degenerate into trauma. For the government team, but also for the dressing room and for its great leader, Leo Messi. They were not dropped without more, but landslides that are forever stuck in the Barca imaginary. Namely, the 4-0 of the Park of the Princes in Paris, the 3-0 of Turin, the 3-0 of Rome or, of course, the last 4-0 in Liverpool . The return to the Barça Champions League, precisely in one of those fields (Dortmund's Signal Iduna Park and its yellow wall) that make bullying its raison d'être, demands redemption. And also rebellion against an endless dynamic.

It was Messi himself who admitted in his famous preaching last week that, without scoring goals away from home, little can be done in the Champions League. A tournament in which he has only emerged victorious in one of the last eight editions . The Argentine, who has not seen the Barca shirt for four months and has been injured for a month and a half, asked in case he enlisted and traveled to Dortmund. We will see what he agrees with Valverde, beyond which both established the zero risk policy after the relapse suffered in the soleus before facing Betis. Although in the club they are also aware of the treacherous premiere, at the home of Germany's runner-up, against a Borussia who has scored 13 goals in his first four Bundesliga games , and in a group in which Inter Conte, Series A leader, will also battle for one of the first two places.

True. Barcelona comes from taking the decrepit Valencia of Celades ahead. It also comes from celebrating the birth of his youth star, the boy Ansu Fati . The fans enjoyed the beauty of a center of the Crucifixist court (Busquets, Arthur and De Jong) and even thanked the recovery for the cause of Luis Suarez, who had been injured since the first day of the League and who emerged to score two goals with those who he insists on denying his twilight.

The opportunity of Paco Alcácer

Instead, there are also records that invite some distrust, beyond the former Barca Paco Alcacer has started the season as a shot in Dortmund (10 goals in his last eight games ). Barcelona, ​​with no more replacement in the central position than Todibo before a Umtiti screwed to the table, has conceded seven goals in his first four days of the League. Not only that. The Barca team has only been able to emerge victorious in four of their last 13 duels away from home in the Champions League.

Although nothing worries more than the offensive records. The Barcelona center forward, that is, Luis Suarez, turned four years old on Monday without scoring a goal away from home in Europe . The last, you know, was in Rome on September 16, 2015. In the group stage.

The poor record of Suarez

The data has even more travel. And he moves away from the mere anecdote by reviewing Suárez's total records in the tournament. The Uruguayan striker has counted a total of two goals in the last Champions. One last season. And another makes two campaigns. Three years ago his figure rose somewhat more. To three. Two of them were in the same game (at home against Celtic), in addition to another marked against PSG.

Barcelona, ​​despite how little he liked that Luis Suarez did not play the last Cup final before his obsession to operate as soon as possible to play the Copa América, did not hire a specific substitute for the Uruguayan this summer. He discarded in his day the now Madridista Jovic, still spectral in the Bernabéu. Abel Ruiz, captain of the Spanish Under-19 team that won the European past, does not count for the first team. And in the coaching staff they thought that Griezmann, if necessary, could perform the functions of nine . A position in which the Frenchman is demonstrating that nothing is comfortable.

Griezmann is World Champion, but he is still looking for the appropriate path that will lead him to a Champions League that has also troubled Barcelona for years.

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