FC Barcelona started the competition in the league phase of the Champions League badly, with a 1-2 defeat against AS Monaco. In the next matches, she made up for her failure and won as many as six victories. She had an absolutely crazy match last Tuesday, when she defeated Benfica Lisbon. They were chasing the result almost the entire match, which was caused by Wojciech Szczęsny's terrible mistakes. At the end, when the score was 4:4, the Pole mobilized himself and scored, among others: a brilliant intervention on Angel Di Maria's shot, and after a while Raphinha scored the winning goal.
Who will play against FC Barcelona in the 1/8 finals of the Champions League? Here are the potential rivals. Big hits on the horizon
Thanks to the 5-4 win, Barcelona not only secured direct promotion to the 1/8 finalbut also strengthened its second place in the overall Champions League table. After 7 rounds, he has 18 points and is only three points behind the leader, Liverpool, who have not lost a game this year. There is one round left until the end of the league phase, so the Catalans can still advance to first place or drop lower.
For now football players However, Hansi Flick is in second place. Who would be their rival in the 1/8 finals if the league phase ended at this point? This is the winner of the two-legged match between Juventus and Celtic Glasgow or Bayern Munich – Real Madrid.
Why these particular teams? UEFA has already presented the rules for the draw for the knockout phase, as reported by the Catalan “Sport”. And it turns out that the first and second teams of the league phase will face the winner of the two-legged match between the 17th and 18th teams or the 15th and 16th teams of the play-offs in the 1/8 finals. It will depend solely on which side of the ladder the first and second teams will be on.
So on fans an absolute hit may await you. Regardless of who of the above-mentioned pairs wins in the 1/16 finals, Barcelona may face a hell of a strong rival at the next stage. Celtic seems to be the easiest in the current ranking, along with Bayern, Juventus or Real Flick's team may have more problems, although this season they have already had the opportunity to face two of these four teams and successfully. She won against the Munich club 4:1, and against the Madrid club 4:0 and 5:2.
Of course, there is still one round of the Champions League league stage ahead of us, so Barcelona's potential rivals may change. We emphasize that these are the Catalans' possible opponents at the moment! This does not change the fact that the new competition format may provide great hits already at the early stage of the knockout phase.
What about Lewandowski and Szczęsny?
Barcelona will play its next Champions League match on Wednesday, January 29. Its rival will be Atalanta Bergamo. The meeting is scheduled for 9:00 p.m. Will two Poles play in it? There are no doubts about Robert Lewandowski. As long as he stays healthy, there is a high probability that Flick will choose him. After all, the striker scored two goals against Benfica Lisbon – both from penalties – to help them win.
See also: Media: New candidate for Jakub Kiwior. Top team.
Szczęsny's situation is definitely different. Despite the mistakes, the coach still has a lot of trust in the Pole, which he assured at the post-match press conference. – Which player doesn't make mistakes? It's normal. Szczęsny made a few mistakes, but all players make them. We win together, we lose together – we are a team. I liked what I saw in the second half. Wojtek saved us when he stopped Benfica's “clear chance” – emphasized the German.