Champions League favourites Barcelona welcome last year’s finalists Borussia Dortmund to Montjuic in the first leg of their quarter-final tie on Wednesday.
Hansi Flick‘s side have been steamrolling their way through this competition so far, playing undoubtedly the most eye-catching attacking football, justifying their position at the top of the markets.
Match preview
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With a place against Inter Milan or Bayern Munich on the line, for both of these sides there is added incentive to reach the last four.
Barcelona will still want to exercise the demons of their semi-final defeat to Inter in 2010, while Dortmund could make up for years of torture at the hands of Bayern as they seek to reach back-to-back finals.
The task for the German side looks huge though, given the scintillating form Barcelona are currently in, having gone unbeaten in 22 games, winning 18, but they were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Real Betis over the weekend, with Natan cancelling out Gavi‘s early opener.
A quadruple remains in sight though for Barcelona, who have already won the Spanish Super Cup, and advanced to the Copa del Rey final courtesy of their 5-4 aggregate win over Atletico Madrid last midweek.
Ferran Torres got the only goal in the second leg at the Metropolitano, after an extraordinary 4-4 draw in the first meeting, but before an El Clasico final in that competition, Barca have both legs of this Champions League quarter-final to play, as well as three winnable La Liga fixtures against Leganes, Celta Vigo and Real Mallorca.
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The fact that a Clasico final could occur in two separate competitions, while the two are still battling for the title, suggests this could be one of the finest seasons of all time in Spanish football, but the race for the La Liga crown took a huge turn at the weekend with Los Blancos losing to Valencia at home.
Flick will only be focused on his own team’s exploits though, and attention will shift to this first leg with Dortmund, with the two now meeting in Spain after facing off at the Westfalenstadion during the league phase.
Ferran was the hero again for Barca, netting two late goals in a 3-2 victory after Serhou Guirassy had equalised twice for BVB, and they will feel confident of taking a lead back to Germany next week, with the view of reaching a first semi since 2019.
Barca have never lost in five previous meetings with Dortmund, and manager Flick has a perfect 100% record against them, with six wins from six across his time with Bayern, and including the league phase success.
The odds are even further stacked against Dortmund when you consider they have won on just three of their 20 trips to Spain, with a 5-2 defeat at Real Madrid earlier this season adding to that poor record, even though they did briefly lead 2-0 at the Bernabeu.
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Barca will know they cannot take Dortmund lightly though, because despite a very poor domestic campaign, the Yellow-Blacks have been a force in Europe recently.
Dortmund’s only knockout-stage defeat in their last eight was in last year’s final at Wembley to Real Madrid, and they have won three in a row on the road in such matches.
It is a good job their form in Europe remains good, because winning this competition will surely be the only route back into the competition for Niko Kovac‘s men next season.
A weak Bundesliga means, somehow, Dortmund’s top-four hopes are still alive, after back-to-back wins against Mainz and Freiburg, but currently lying in eighth, five points off fourth, those chances remain slim.
Team News
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Raphinha was kept in reserve at the weekend with this game in mind, and should rejoin Lamine Yamal and former Dortmund man Robert Lewandowski in a clinical, three-pronged Barcelona attack.
Dani Olmo is set to miss out with a muscle problem, while Inigo Martinez is a big doubt, but even though he also had to pull out of international duty last month, the central defender is in line to return here.
Marc Casado, Marc Bernal and first-choice stopper Marc-Andre ter Stegen are all out with season-ending injuries, but the form of veteran Wojciech Szczesny has alleviated that problem between the sticks.
Marcel Sabitzer is set to be the only absentee from the Dortmund squad for this clash, with the Austrian midfielder currently sidelined with a knee injury.
Defender Niklas Sule missed the win over Freiburg with a knock, but should return, while Nico Schlotterbeck and Yan Couto are both available again at the back after missing the weekend fixture through suspension.
Manager Kovac is therefore spoilt for choice all over the pitch with an almost fully-fit squad, but it is likely Guirassy will be in the starting XI, after he was rested on Saturday.
Barcelona possible starting lineup:
Szczesny; Kounde, Cubarsi, Inigo Martinez, Balde; De Jong, Pedri; Yamal, Ferran Torres, Raphinha; Lewandowski
Borussia Dortmund possible starting lineup:
Kobel; Ryerson, Anton, Schlotterbeck, Svensson; Can, Ozcan, Brandt; Adeyemi, Guirassy, Beier
We say: Barcelona 3-1 Borussia Dortmund
Well worth their favourites tag, it would be a huge surprise to see anything but a Barcelona win in this first leg, and they should extend their dominant record over Dortmund ahead of next week’s return.
Dortmund have scored in each of their previous 11 Champions League away matches, but even then that is unlikely going to be enough for them against this Barcelona machine, that can score goals at will past any team.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
