Stuttgart Vs Barcelona, The Champions League Battle between the Poets and the Machines.

Stuttgart Vs Barcelona 2007 Highlights

December 18, 2009 was the day. Champions’ league draw destined Barcelona to play against VFB Stuttgart in the first knockout round. Barcelona fans were celebrating, Stuttgart fans were (quoting): “praying to God for some Russia-esque type weather for that first leg in Stuttgart”, how is your faith Pete? And ehh…as predicted, Madrid fans were pointing out “The fact” that Barcelona always get an easy draw. As usual, being more focused on Barcelona than their own team made another fact pass unnoticed: Real Madrid were drawn against the same team Barcelona played last season in the same round, Lyon. And based on their league performance, this Lyon is weaker than the 2009’s Version. Anyways…

My initial reaction was the same as I feel now, a mixed of comfort and caution. The comfort that comes from the quality of Barcelona squad, and the concern is the consequence of playing against a team that may not have the hype that increases the Barcelona players’ sense of danger, but a team that have the quality to cause an upset in a good day. Starting from my comment that day in the Champion’s league draw post:

“VfB Stuttgart is no doubt a “less complicated” team (I don’t want to use the word: Easy). Even though they changed their coach recently and the outcome was an unexpected qualification in the CL keeping in mind their position in the group before their last game. It’s an indication that they may get better till we meet them. But will they improve enough to cause troubles? It depends on how we will improve till then. But again, we cant wish a better draw.”

Since then, Stuttgart improved dramatically. Before the Champions league draw they played sixteen games in the Bundesliga. They lost seven, drew Seven, and won only two games against Freiburg and Eintracht. Since December 19, they played seven games in the league, losing one against Hamburg and winning the rest. Now that’s an improvement. No surprise then, their fans’ expectations are higher and the confidence is as good as visiting Barcelona page and posting a comment promising to beat Barcelona 5-0. Dude…I am shaking…

They won their last game 1-5 against Fc Köln. Pep while watching that game, called Vilanova in the 13th minute asking him to check the name of the player who scored Stuttgart’s first goal, and Vilanova told him the commentary called him Cacau or something (Pep listens to cold play CDs while watching the games, so he keeps his TV mute). Eighteen minutes later, Stuttgart scored again, and Pep dialed Puyol number this time, asking him to call Vilanova and check again that player’s name who scored the two goals for Stuttgart and make sure that he organizes with Pique and Milito a plan to mark the guy on Tuesday, even if it requires using half the squad to do so. Eight minutes later Stuttgart scored again and this time Pep called Txiki asking him to find a way to sign that Cacau for Barcelona before the game on Tuesday! Txiki said he can’t, and Barcelona prints will take that as a reason to question the sports director quality to sign the best players for Barcelona. Sandro Rosell was right all the time…

Cacau, the Brazilian player who will most probably take a spot in Joachim Löw squad next summer, made his comeback after an injury problem and the game against Köln was his opportunity to demand a place in the selection against Barcelona. He is not a consistent player but when he is in the right set of mind he can cause lot of troubles.

Beside Cacau, Stuttgart will be counting on Pogrebnyak in the offense line. Regardless of Cacau hatrick hype, Pogrebnyak is the threat. He is a hell of a striker. He is not scoring for fun this season for Stuttgart, but he can create lot of spaces the way he moves upfront, his headers are clinical whether he is assisting or trying to score. Pique must keep an eye on him. If Barcelona contain the threat of this player, then things will go a bit easier.

THEN

The Hleb!

For not being exactly the popular player for Barcelona, the team has one of two choices:
1) Make sure to mark him well. If Stuttgart will have any intentions to move the ball smoothly forward feeding the offense, they will no doubt need the Help of Hleb. Our own dear player who will try to teach Pep a lesson or two.
2) Mark all Stuttgart players Beside Hleb. Let him score a Hattrick or two. Barcelona leaves the Champions league early but they get rid of Hleb permanently. No doubt Stuttgart will buy the player after the game if he led them to qualify.

So, is it better for Barcelona to qualify to the following round, or to get rid of Hleb? Tough call, I know…

Jens Lehmann is another name we know. Now you can bet on your good luck. Sometimes he is a Casillas, Buffon and Julio César mixed together (Which almost match the quality of Valdes?). He can save two shots targeting the two opposite angles of his goal and taken at the same time from the penalty spot. In some other days you don’t need to bother trying to score in his net, he will humbly do it for you.

On the down side (for them), they will miss the injured Arthur Boka. Molinaro is a decent replacement. Good job Barcelona, you send Caceres to Juventus so they can afford passing Molinaro to Stuttgart in return. Now Molinaro has to decide if he prefers getting outrun by Alves, or denied by Messi.

Barcelona Camp now:

After an “Ok Performance” against Racing, The team is yet to hit the peak performance, but there are plenty of good signs. Last weekend, Iniesta, Henry, and Marquez earned themselves a boost of moral, scoring crucial goals for the team. Yaya performance showed some positive signs as well and Maxwell is improving all the time. In an irregular occasion we saw the boy Bojan as a man who can. And Busquets demonstrated his quality once again, though as a box to box playmaking midfielder this time (Take that Cesc!). Barcelona prepares for this game with three big names joining the group, Ibra, Xavi and Alves. It’s yet to be seen if any of them will be ready to start in Germany, and it’s not a certainty yet that Messi will take the nod as well.

As an initial platform, my favorite selection is almost the same selection we started against Racing, with two little modifications: first one is a must, having Pedro instead of Bojan, and the other one is recommended, using Milito beside Pique. You get the following:

Valdes, Puyol, Pique, Milito, Maxwell, Yaya, Busquets, Iniesta, Pedro, Henry, Messi.

Marquez is a quality defender, but I don’t like to have two identical center backs partnering in the heart of the defense. That’s the main reason why I favor Milito over Marquez for this game. I doubt that Messi injury was that serious, he wasn’t substituted against Racing, though the signs of discomfort were obvious.

If all the players mentioned above will be available, then the selection will most probably be:

Valdes, Alves, Puyol, Pique, Maxwell, Yaya, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Ibra, Messi.

Busquets will have to play in a more conservative way than he did against Racing, giving Yaya the chance to cover deeper, so that Maxwell and Alves move forward more often, contributing offense wise on the flanks. Having Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, and Ibra lead to dominating possession and Squeezing Stuttgart in their defense third for as long as possible.

If Pep decided to inject an additional Dose of scoring potentials for the offense line, going for an offense oriented approach rather than a possession oriented strategy, either Yaya or Busquets will be benched for either Pedro or Henry to play beside Ibra and Messi, with Iniesta moving back to the midfield.

I prefer keeping Henry and Pedro on the bench for the start. Playing on the road, it’s essential that we control possession first, absorb the hosts initial enthusiasm, make sure –by keeping the ball- that they don’t counter attack often while they are still fresh enough to do so, and try to get advantage of any defense mistake they may commit to score. Afterwards, we can modify our tactics using the game changers we have on the bench.

An upset will be a surprise. But this is the champions’ league. It may end up being similar to last season’s battle against Bayern, or will be as complicated as this season’s matches against Kazan. No doubt, Barcelona will have a message to send for the rest of Europe, and based on their performance in this game, future bets will be taken.

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Category: Barcelona, Champions League 2010, Preview, Team News