Although there were a few fresh faces in Barcelona’s starting line-up at Zaragoza, the end result was very familiar – a dominant performance and a 3-0 win. Carles Puyol and Leo Messi missed the match with injury, Andres Iniesta and Jordi Alba were rested, David Villa played just six minutes from the bench, while Gerard Pique and Pedro were unused substitutes.
Playing without a first-team centre-back or striker would seriously affect most teams, especially away from home, but Barca are not most teams. Cesc Fabregas played the false number nine role, while Thiago Alcantara and Christian Tello (2) came in to supply the goals. Youth-team product Marc Bartra played next to makeshift centre-back Adriano Correia, while Martin Montoya played at left back.
While Messi came on to influence Barca’s 1-1 draw with PSG that saw them reach the Champions League semi-final on away goals, he was playing through a hamstring pull and Barca, who have a 13 point lead at the top of La Liga, will now do everything to make sure he is fully fit to play Bayern in Munich a week tomorrow.
Bayern have an advantage in that former Barca manager Pep Guardiola has signed a pre-contract to manage them next season. However, Bayern have denied they will seek Guardiola’s assistance in how to stop the team he helped to build, and it is unlikely that he would want to give advice on defeating a club that mean so much to him.
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