Three talking points ahead of Chelsea vs Barcelona | UEFA Champions League MD5 | OneFootball

Days after their first game at the renovated Spotify Camp Nou, Barcelona return to the road, this time for a long journey to England to lock horns with Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League.

Enzo Maresca’s men, the reigning FIFA Club World Cup Champions, have been on a good run so far this season, and their position across competitions shows how much they have improved from the previous campaign.

After twelve games in the Premier League, Chelsea are only six points behind leaders Arsenal and have scored 23 goals in the competition.

In the UCL, they have two wins, a draw, and a defeat, just like Barcelona, and are only narrowly behind the Blaugrana on the standings, having scored three fewer goals.

Barça Universal brings you three talking points ahead of Chelsea vs Barcelona.

A record to forget

Over the past 20 years, Barcelona have not played many games at Stamford Bridge.

Barcelona have won only one game at Stamford Bridge. (Photo by Jamie McDonald/Getty Images)

Despite the late Andres Iniesta goal image being rooted firmly in the memory of Culers, even that game ended in a draw after 90 minutes.

Six games have been played between the Catalans and the London-based side at the venue over the years, and Barcelona have won just once. In comparison, Chelsea have won thrice, with two games ending in draws.

The English giants beat Barcelona by a comprehensive 4-2 margin in 2005, and a year later, Barcelona took revenge by taking away a 2-1 win over a ten-man Chelsea.

In October of 2006, Chelsea went one up on Barcelona with a 1-0 win, and the two teams then faced off only three years later when Iniesta scored the last-minute equaliser to take Barcelona through.

After that infamous debacle, the English side beat Barcelona by one goal in 2012 before settling for a 1-1 draw in 2018, and it is safe to say that the Catalans’ record at the venue is nothing promising.

Tomorrow night, Hansi Flick and Co. will look to undo that record and start on a fresh slate, especially given how they are rejuvenated both in terms of fitness and mental fortitude. A magnanimous game awaits.

No room for error

Barcelona will have to make every moment count. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)

The UEFA Champions League has not been particularly memorable for Barcelona so far this season, for their form in the competition has been nowhere close to what they showed last season.

Flick’s men got their season underway with the perfect start, taking all three points away against Newcastle and announcing that they are a force to be reckoned with.

Post the winning start, however, they lost to Paris Saint-Germain in a game where they were utterly dominated and saw the steam come off their boots.

A 6-1 win over Olympiacos served as consolation, but they again dropped two points to Club Brugge.

Four games into the league phase, Barcelona are in 11th place on the table and far from where they would have wanted to be.

They do indeed have four more games, but there is no room for error if they wish to finish in the top eight.

It is clear that Flick and Co. will wish to avoid an extra two games by finishing top-8, and it is thus crucial that they do not drop further points against Chelsea tomorrow night.

After all, they may well see their hopes of direct qualification collapse should they lose.

A win at Stamford Bridge, meanwhile, will leave them as favourites to take a top-8 place as their next three opponents are all relatively easy. Tomorrow’s game, thus, is massive from that standpoint.

Double trouble at the back

Flick has several decisions to make. (Photo by Jose Manuel Alvarez Rey/Getty Images)

Barcelona’s win over Athletic Club gave Hansi Flick several positives to take away, one of the biggest ones being how sound the defence looked on the night.

Despite Athletic Club’s pacey attack and counter-attacking threat, the Catalan back-line looked up to the task with Gerard Martin doing exceedingly well alongside Pau Cubarsi at centre-back.

Jules Kounde and Alejandro Balde, meanwhile, also put up good performances and held up their line well to enforce the offside trap to much better effect.

Adding to the stability at the back was Eric Garcia, who had a sensational game playing as the team’s pivot and controlled the proceedings to great effect while acting like an absolute machine with interceptions.

While the arrangements in the previous game were indeed makeshift arrangements to help fill the void created by Frenkie de Jong and Pedri’s absence, the manager now has a strong case to keep the same idea moving forward.

With Pedri still unavailable, Garcia could well join De Jong in the double-pivot in London, replacing Dani Olmo in the starting lineup. After all, he showed a great level over the weekend.

Concurrently, there is a reasonably strong case for Martin to continue as the centre-back alongside Cubarsi, especially if Garcia does indeed feature in midfield. The manager, thus, has massive decisions to make.