FC Barcelona has been paired with Bayern Munich at the semi-finals of the 2012-13 UEFA Champions League. The first leg of the tie will take place at the home of Newly crowned BundesLiga Champions on the 23rd of April. The return leg at the Camp Nou will be held on the 1st of May. The other semi-final is between Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid with the first leg taking place in Germany. The winner of this tie will be seeded as the Home team in the Final at Wembley on 25th May 2013.
What will we do without this Guy - Lionel Messi. There were debates going on about how much this Barca side depends on him. Going by the stats it looked like they could do without him, having a 78% win record when Messi does not start. But Jesus this match showed why we depend on him so much. he may not have scored but when we went down a goal, the first thing Vilanova did was to ask him to get ready. The moment he entered the entire tempo of our game changed. We started pressing well, there was more space to operate, Villa and Pedro suddenly appeared back in the game and that the MVP trio combined to make it 1-1. Without Messi we were so poor that it is not an under statement to say "PSG was winning most of the midfield battle". Cesc Fabregas contributed the most of that inept performance. He was all over the place without actually occupying the zone he was given. He looked at times occupying the same position of Villa or Xavi.
I don't think we have ever taken as many hit in Europe as we took when we visited Paris last week. The two goal conceded and the last minute draw was not only the bad thing, what worried us more was the injuries to Messi and Mascherano. With Mascherano out we don't have any proper center back option to chose from for tomorrow night, assuming that Abidal don't start. But then this is not the first time we have faced scenarios like this, we usually do well in adversities. There is no arguing that we remain in the best position to proceed further because of the two away goals and also the advantage at home. There are doubts about Lionel Messi's participation. Everyone expects him to start on the bench and would only be called upon if we really need him. That means we could see a similar line-up like the one we saw against Mallorca. And that was a really good performance especially considering the number of absentees. And always remember we usually have a tendency to carry on with our results and performance in League to Europe, that's indeed is a good news.
