Friday night sees arguably the tie of the Champions League quarterfinals, as former winners Barcelona take on Bayern Munich, the only other side in the competition to have also conquered Europe in this competition.
It’s truly a match up of two European heavyweights and with one in much better form than the other.
The Bavarians haven’t lost a match this year, and in their last 24 matches in all competitions, they’ve won 23, drawn one and conceded just 17 goals.
Barcelona, by contrast, allowed a two-point advantage over Real Madrid to slip post-lockdown, meaning Los Blancos overhauled them for the La Liga title.
Were they to lose against Bayern, it would be the first season in a while where the Blaugranes finish empty-handed.
To that end, one might’ve expected Quique Setien to go with an all-out attacking XI to combat the likes of Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Muller et al.
Instead, he’s gone with a predictable 4-4-2 formation which means that Antoine Griezmann, the club’s third most expensive ever signing, drops to the bench.
The starting XI is as follows: Ter Stegen, Semedo, Pique, Lenglet, Alba, Busquets, Vidal, De Jong, Roberto, Messi and Suarez.
It’s safe to say that these fans are none too enthused about it either.
Disappointed but not surprised.
— Zoé ? (@imaginiuss) August 14, 2020
Oh wow as if it’s hasn’t been in the news for the past week
— mido (@masrmido2001) August 14, 2020
We played 4-4-2 in rome and Liverpool pic.twitter.com/7aVkmQOmnU
— Ron™ (@ron_fcb) August 14, 2020
Why so defensive? Griezmann in instead of Arturo or Sergi.
— STATUE_FOR_ZORC?? (@CedricSchuhler) August 14, 2020
Congrats @QSetien you’ve officially let us all down
— Messiola (@messistaleo) August 14, 2020