FC Barcelona vs Bayern Munich Preview, Eternal Hope make us Dream

“Barça!, Orgull, Barça!“, that will be the message displayed on Camp Nou Mosaic ahead of the Champions League semi-final second leg against Bayern Munich. In the end it all comes to that - The Pride. The pride of representing FC Barcelona, the pride of playing in Barca way and the very pride of not giving it up till it over. As Alexander Pope said in An Essay on Man "Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never Is, but always To be blest: The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home, Rests and expatiates in a life to come". And it will be that Eternal Hope that keep every Barça Football Club fan Up and Kicking when this match start. Forget the 4-0 drubbing and the scoreline, this match is all about Pride. Last week at the Allianz Arena Fingers were pointed on this team, Questions were raised about our identity and Doubts were evoked about the legacy of this team. Tomorrow that has to be answered. Like majority of the fans, I don't care what will be the final outcome after tomorrow night; but I do care a lot how we play tomorrow night. Tomorrow it's all about playing the Barca way, imposing our game on opponents and reminding them clearly that we are not that spent force they are portraying us to be.

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Barça Football Club's Title Celebration Put on Hold after Bilbao Draw - Barça - , Bilbao - 1

Barça Football Club will not be having a title celebration tonight. When the match started there was as chance - if we win and Madrid dropped points late on. But it will never be happening as we were held on to a last minute equaliser against Bilbao. Once agains it was the lack of aerial defense at the center back position which put us in this mess. Bilbao went ahead in the first half and we struggled to find any decent response till Messi came in. Once he came in we were in for a sweet victory but that was not to be. A look up at the line-up gave you the indication that Barça football club is not going to go down quietly against Bayern at Camp Nou, they were prepared to make a fuss about it. Majority of the expected starters were on the bench. The starting eleven had Valdes, Alves, Pique, Abidal, Alba, Song, Xavi, Thiago, Pedro, Cesc and Sanchez. Pinto, Bartra, Adriano, Iniesta, Messi, Villa and Tello started on the bench.

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Humiliated in Munich , Barca - 0, Bayern Munich - 4

It was sheer humiliation, there is no other word to describe what happened at the Allianz Arena. In the end there was a sheer releief that they put only that many goal against us. Bayern with this sensational victory not only paid rest to all our Wembley hopes but may be they have clearly emerged as the Next Big Thing in Europe. May be it's the end of Barca's domination in Rurope and it's a very sad end if it is. We were over powered in every department by the German Champions. We were struggling to stay in the match and a dream of goal never came into any of our minds at anytime. With Adriano suspended for the match, Vilanova placed his faith in the youngster Bartra to be a part of the defense. Alves, Pique, Bartra and Alba formed the four man defense infornt of Valdes. The midfield in big games choses by itself and that meant it had the usual suspects - Iniesta, Busquets and Xavi. Pedro, Messi and Alexis formed the front trio. The bench had Pinto, Montoya, Abidal, Song, Thiago, Cesc and Villa . Montoya made into the line-up due to our defensive injuries, that meant we had no place for Tello. Meanwhile Bayern lined-up in a very exciting and expected form - Neuer, Lahm, Boateng, Dante, Alaba, Martinez, Schweinsteiger, Muller, Robben, Ribery and Gomez.

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