With FC Barcelona coach Josep Guardiola mentally preparing his team for their biggest game of the season so far against FC Internazionale Milano, the Spanish press have been raising the tension ahead of the crucial UEFA Champions League Group F encounter at Camp Nou.
‘Night of passion’
A defeat by Inter tonight combined with a victory for FC Rubin Kazan over FC Dynamo Kyiv in the group’s other game would signal the end of the road for Barça in their attempts to retain the trophy they won so memorably last season. “Checkmate” was the headline in national daily El País who explained, “Barcelona’s UEFA Champions League life is on the line against two exceptionally well-known figures at the club, Samuel Eto’o and José Mourinho”. Meanwhile, El Mundo Deportivo predicts “A night of passion at Camp Nou” as Barça going into the game “with injury worries, against Eto’o and with survival at stake”.
Messi concern
One of those injury worries concerns talisman Lionel Messi who is carrying a groin problem, but Catalan publication Sport issued a rallying cry for Barça fans concerned as to whether the Argentinian would feature tonight: “On to victory … with or without Messi,” the sports daily urged. So, can Guardiola’s men gain the desired result against Inter and maintain their hopes of a place in the tournament’s first knockout round or could Eto’o’s return prove fateful to the holders’ hopes? Click below to have your say.
— from UEFA.com