A prominent leader in La Liga after 4-0 beating Real Madrid less than two weeks ago, FC Barcelona faces the Red Star in Belgrade on Wednesday (20h00 GMT), where he will seek to sneak into the top eight in the Champions League.
Bara and Red Star will see the faces again 28 years later, which adds more attractiveness to a meeting in which Hansi Flick will probably continue with his defensive strategy of playing to the limit 13 goals (against) nullified and 99 out of play in 15 matches.
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The Azulgrana coach repeats the same players who imposed themselves on Espanyol (3-1) in the Catalan derby last weekend and announced that defenseman Eric Garcia will not play again until after next week’s international stop.
He also indicated that Uruguayan Ronald Araujo, Ferran Torres, and Danish Andreas Christensen will still need a few more weeks to recover from their injuries.
Flick’s pupils will play the duel in a state of grace, after they haven’t let any games escape since the return of the last stop of October selections, with a spectacular victory against Real Madrid by 4-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu in LaLiga and another important triumph against Bayern Munich by 4-1 in Montjuic on the previous Champions League day.
The duel in the so-called Little Maracana stadium in the Serbian capital is important for the Catalan entity to get between the eight head teams of the 36 league, which would give it direct access to the eighth-finals.
In terms of the maximum European competition, Bara has achieved six points, losing only the match against Monaco in the Principality by 2-1.
Since then, Flick’s have deployed their game to the thousand wonders and showed their power around their attacking trio, Polish Robert Lewandowski, Lamine Yamal and Brazilian Raphina, all in a great state of shape.
The recovery began with the blunt victory over the Young Boys by 5-0. If Barcelona beats the Red Star in Belgrade, it will mean its first triumph outside its stadium and its confirmation as an aspirant to get far in the tournament.
In front, the Azulgrana will be measured to a team in low hours as demonstrated by their ranking on the table, the third by the tail. He is among the six teams that haven’t scored any points in the first three days.
Less against Benfica, which fell by 2-1, the other clashes were tough defeats. The Serbs lost to Inter Milan by 4-0 and Monaco by 5-1.
These results contrast with the excellent performance in his domestic competition where he stands out as leader with 37 points in 13 matches, having ceded only one draw.
To try to get a good result against Barcelona, Vladan Milojevic’s men will grab their best, their hobby, known throughout Europe for their unwavering encouragement to their team.
After the clash, the team will stay overnight in Belgrade and will not return to Barcelona until the next morning, this being one of the novelties introduced by Flick, compared to previous seasons, in order to improve the rest of the players, avoiding the early morning travel.
