Ego wars and various fortunes, what you need to know before Barça-Bayern

From our special correspondent in Lisbon,

The Final 8 is growing in tension. On the eve of the long-awaited reunion between Maxwell Cornet and Pep Guardiola, the Champions League will be able to revel in a poster almost as exciting: Barça-Bayern. Ten C1 between them, five on each side. A sixth will perhaps wait for the winner of this fight that we hope will be epic, even if we still have to beat OL and PSG before that. We laugh, but we would almost be tempted to believe that the prospect of settling accounts with Paris in the final motivates a little more these eaters of major titles. Bayern, proud representative of the old world, by its hatred of pushiness and its desire to give lessons and Barça to take revenge for the loss of Neymar.

In short, let's stay serious and talk about real issues. The Germans are running behind their first hat-trick since Jupp Heynckes' 2013 vintage and Barça are counting on Europe to keep up appearances, while Quique Setien, 45th coach of the season at Camp Nou, is already in the hot seat. That the amateurs of declass with the con kind: “at this level, it is 50-50” forgive us. FC Barcelona has for him only his prestigious name and Lionel Messi. Bayern Munich are favorites, and seeing them out on Friday would be a huge surprise.

Bayern history chamber, Barça only half appreciates

If the Bavarian legends had wanted to bite the Catalan players to the heart, they would not have done it otherwise. Giovane Elber, Lothar Matthaüs and even Rummenigge himself made not very flattering remarks for an opponent of the caliber of FC Barcelona.

Elber: “Today Lewandowski is better. I love the way Messi plays, he's a genius. But this year Lewandowski is sensational. "

Matthaüs: "Bayern will have to make a mistake or overall do things very badly to lose against Barça"

Rummenigge:  “Germany are fortunate to have this pair of goalkeepers, although Neuer is really world class Ter Stegen is on the right track to be. "

Sétien: "The statements of Bayern? It is one thing for people to talk about, and quite another what happens. "

Well, not everything is to be thrown in there, but you can imagine that Quique Setien's players were a little surprised by the speech made by the former Bayern players. Except Arturo Vidal, who knows the house from having played there. “I know the Bayern dressing room doesn't think that. And then I remind you that they will not play against a Bundesliga team, but against the best team in the world: Barça, ”he warned at a press conference. As for Quique Setien, he coldly put Elber in his place. “Lewandowski is a great player, but he is not up to Messi. " That's done.

Setien in the hard, Flick on a cloud

The Barca coach is indebted to the Argentine and knows that the feat will come through a big game of his best asset. This is how it works in Barcelona. We close our eyes and pray that Messi will solve the problems. Appreciated by balloon hipsters, Setien has yet to find any other collective answer to his team's ills. If the end of the post-covid season was a little better, it is not said that he is recovering from his failure in La Liga (for which he is only partially responsible since he arrived in January). The rumor Xavi has already had time to circulate, although Bartomeu

Also arrived during the season, things are going better for Hansi Flick, his Bayern remains on a surrealist streak of 19 consecutive victories, and sticks torgnoles to anyone who dares to cross his path. Ali Farhat, journalist and connoisseur of the Bundesliga, explains that his success was somewhere programmed by Bayern.

“Flick arrived last summer as an assistant. All his life he has been a deputy, or an official or technical director. But in reality, he's always been a coach. His time had not yet come, but he was always on the radar of the leaders [because known for his work as deputy to the Mannschaft]. When Kovac jumps, Flick basically tells the team “my plan is to play offensively, to be hyper domineering [Kovac was more cautious]. We must not win, we must crush the opponent. The guys immediately completely bought into his speech. "

A collective success embodied by Robert Lewandowski, top scorer in the competition with 13 pawns in the bag. Great Lord, Flick played the firefighter by extinguishing the controversy of the day. “You can't compare them. Robert is a world-class striker as a number 9. Messi has been by far the best player in the world for many years. I don't know if there will be a player like that again. "

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• Robert lewandowski
• Sport
• Lionel messi
• Bayern Munich
• FC Barcelona