04 April 2012

A Champions League without Barcelona

This isn’t a belated April Fool’s story and we all know what Barca can do on the pitch. And it is so hard to neglect their impeccable record of trophies in the past three years alone. Not to mention winning as many championship trophies in all competitions and if you aren’t following Blaugrana’s games then I will spell it out.

Since Josep Guardiola took over as Barcelona’s manager in 2008 season, he became the all-time record holder of most titles won as a coach at FC Barcelona. It was an impressive achievement as Barca won their 12th trophy out of 15 possible in just three years. And it seems that they are not ready yet to relinquish their ways of winning more trophies as the 2011 season is nearing its conclusion.

12 May 2012 is the last day of La Liga games yet Barcelona is trailing 6 points from fierce rival Real Madrid with 8 more games left to play. It isn’t an impossible task considering that they haven’t lost a game since their last La Liga defeat against Osasuna. On the other hand, Madrid hasn’t lost a game either since their last defeat in the second El Clasico (Copa del Rey quarter-finals) at the Santiago Bernabeu. Although they slipped up with 2 successive draws mid of last month but they have demolished Osasuna at their own turf where Barca tasted its second loss in La Liga.

Then the elite of European football clubs reached for the last four. Barca will face the resurgent Chelsea while Madrid will go head to head against the surge of in form of Bayern Munich. Yet many have said that the latter is set up so perfectly that they are the only team who has a chance to upset the defending champions at their Allianz Arena. Mourinho already predicted that Chelsea has no chance of reaching the Champions League finals and it is very much unlikely to be a Real Madrid – Chelsea final. Perhaps, it could be Bayern – Barcelona but I am biased after all and I still want Madrid to be in the finals despite being the underdogs and have only won once against the Barcelona of Guardiola.

NB: Image from wikimedia commons.

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