Barcelona and PSG head to head again

Once upon a time, in fact, until four years ago, few in the country were familiar with the term “remontade.” But then it happened, and struck with all its might. What happened in the quarterfinals of the 2017 Champions League has long since entered the history books as well as the record books.

The history of Spanish football is laden with glorious comebacks, glorified remakes, but most have occurred in the distant past and are mostly related to the Real Madrid of Juanito and Carlos Santina. Barcelona’s big opportunity to do its big remontade came on March 8, 2017.

Anyone who was at Camp Nou that magical evening will never forget it. And certainly not the crazy euphoric moments of the 95th minute. And yes, that also includes Paris Saint-Germain fans who were shocked and unable to recover from what they had experienced for a long time. Those feelings united that evening hundreds of millions of TV viewers all over the world. Quite a few of them reacted in real madness. You did not have to be a Barcelona fan that evening to go crazy. At least for a few minutes.

True, there were serious misjudgments, and it is likely that if the VAR had existed then, it could be that this whole event would not have happened. But like Diego Maradona’s (illegal) goal against England in the 1986 World Cup, this game is already a historic event that cannot be erased. It became folklore, a legend that really was.

Four years after that memorable game that made the whole world understand the meaning of the term “Remontada”, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain are returning to the “crime scene” – Camp Nou. So the stadium is the same stadium, the two teams are the same two, just like then – but so much has changed in the past four years.

First of all, unlike that game, in the presence of 96,290 spectators, who filled every seat in the huge stadium, this time the stands will be empty. The corona has changed the world and so has football. Equally important, this time the first match in the quarter-finals will take place in Barcelona and the rematch will be in three weeks in Paris. So it was PSG who hosted the first game, gave a huge performance and won a poor 0: 4 Barcelona who kicked only once to the frame. This time PSG goes out for the first game and the rematch will be hosted at the Parc des France.

True, in the age of the Corona and the games without an audience homeliness is of less importance, although the law of foreign exchange is alive and well. Who knows, maybe that’s also what will decide the fate of the fight for the ticket to the quarterfinals.

But there is another thing, no less significant. As Barcelona fans know full well, their team has a pretty dismal record in away games away. In 2018, Barça beat Roma 1: 4 in the quarter-finals at home – and were relegated after a 3-0 loss to Olimpico. A year later she defeated Liverpool 0: 3 at the Camp Nou in the semi-finals and there seemed to be no force to stop her from qualifying for the final. Then came the embarrassing 4-0 defeat at Anfield.

Let’s start with Barcelona, ​​who won the Champions League in 2015 showcasing the “Holy Trinity”, Leo Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar, the best attacking trio in history. Coach Luis Enrique, the successor to Pep Guardiola, was then seen as continuing the dynasty.

A year later Barça were eliminated in the quarter-finals by Atletico Madrid, which was then accepted as a kind of “mishap”. In retrospect it was clearly not a mishap, but the first sign that something was creaking in the team. PSG and the slack and embarrassing game. It was another sign that there are root problems in the team. But in the euphoria of the 1: 6 no one noticed, or did not want to pay attention. Became the moment when the great collapse of Barcelona as a club began.

Substitute Sergei Roberto was the one to score the dramatic rise in the 95th minute, but the big hero of the epic victory was Neymar. Leo Messi had a mediocre game that evening, certainly by his standards. The one who took command and proved leadership and composure was the 24-year-old Brazilian.

Until the 88th minute, the result was 1: 3. That means Barça needed three more goals. It seems hopeless. The one who was seen at the time as the only player on Luis Enrique’s side who believed it was still possible was Neymar. Not Messi. Neymar scored with a wonderful free kick in the 88th minute, and also calmly took the penalty in the 91st minute, even though Messi is the regular kicker.

Barcelona needed one goal to make the crazy, inconceivable turnaround. And the one who took the initiative again was Neymar. In the fifth minute of extra time, he bounced the ball with incredible composure and a wonderful touch into the extension, and Sergi Roberto was there to sign a game that at that moment went down in history. Neymar was supposed to be the big hero of the evening. He knew this game was his founding moment. The moment that should make him the new king of Barcelona.

But as the fog dissipated, Barca’s king was and remains Messi. The iconic image from the moments of victory was of Messi, waving a winning hand to the sky, with the fans dusting at his feet. Neymar then dropped the token. He realized that he could never be Messi’s successor in Barcelona, ​​he could never be deprived of his sacred status. Less than five months later Neymar decided to leave Barça and join Paris Saint-Germain – the team he won.

Josef Maria Bartomeu, the president of Barcelona, ​​went into a frenzy. He tried to do everything to keep Neymar, but could not prevent the move, after Passage paid the monstrous release clause, 222 million euros.

Neymar’s all-too-unexpected departure has put Barcelona’s management in a spin and systems frenzy, and a string of bizarre decisions that in less than four years have made the world’s highest-income club almost bankrupt. It’s inconceivable. In the next three years the club acquired new players for over 700 million euros. The three biggest acquisitions were from Osman Dembele for 105 million, Felipe Coutinho for 120 million and Antoine Griezmann for 120 million. Coutinho totally failed and the two Frenchmen are very far from the expectations that were placed on them. None of them come close to what Neymar gave the team in his four years there.

The excessive financial expenses and replica contracts given to the players have put Barcelona in a not-so-simple economic turmoil. Then came the corona – and gave the final blow. The problem was not only on the executive floor but also on the lawn it looked bad. Barça lost the championship last season to Real Madrid and then were humiliated in the Champions League quarter-finals when they stunned 8-2 against Bayern Munich. This was a historic low point, which was witnessed by a thousand witnesses to the depth of the crisis.

Bartomeu has made all the possible mistakes in recent years, including the hallucinatory release of Luis Suarez for free at Atletico Madrid, and the feud with Messi. So much so that Messi asked last summer to leave. Meanwhile Bartomeu has resigned, elections will soon be held and a new president will be elected, apparently former president Joan Laporta. But he will face a very difficult task: to rescue the club from debts valued at more than a billion euros, while trying to maintain a competitive team.

By the way, since the beginning of the Pep Guardiola era, in the 2008/9 season, in the last 12 years it has not happened that two consecutive years have passed without Barça winning the championship. But if there is not a huge turnaround in the top of the Spanish league, this time it will probably happen. And here, another sign of the group’s deterioration.

The 6: 1 defeat was not an easy low point for the team that became the private toy of the royal family in Qatar. When the Qataris acquired the club in 2011 the goal was to take over French football (they did that quite easily) – and also to win the Champions League. In the early years, when the big star was Zlatan Ibrahimovic, it went hard and PSG were eliminated season after season in the quarterfinals. But after the 6-1, which came to mind in the quarterfinals, President Nasser al-Khalafi not only did not give up – but a more determined reverse.

In the summer of 2017 Passage brought in Neymar for € 222 million and Killian Mbabane, the prodigy of French football, for € 180 million (although this was initially initially the loan from Monaco and the purchase was made only a year later). Although even before that the Qataris had spent hundreds of millions on procurement players, the double signing of Neymar and Mbabane was something else. It was the most obvious statement of intent of the club and the owners, that nothing would stop them until they won the trophy with the big ears.

After a few more disappointments, like the relegation against Manchester United in the quarter-finals in 2019, came last season and PSG has finally reached the well. At the “bubble” tournament held last summer in Lisbon, the French champion qualified for the final – the greatest achievement in its history.

Just 90 minutes separated her from fulfilling the big dream, exactly 50 years since the club was founded. But unfortunately for the Parisians Ambape reached a completely incompetent final, a reminder of an injury in the French Cup final and Neymar suffered from bad luck. Bayern Munich was superior and won 0: 1. But for the French, the glass ceiling was finally smashed.

And so, four years after the great remontade in the history of football, Barcelona and PSG meet again in the quarter-finals. True, the injured Neymar, the hero of that game, will be absent. Too bad, as it was a great story to see Neymar arrive at the Camp Nou for the first time since leaving Barcelona, ​​and for the first time since also playing against Barça. And yet, even without Neymar’s presence on the pitch, the story is huge because it is much bigger than the story of one player or another.

How symbolic that the very historic 1: 6, in which Barcelona humiliated Paris Saint-Germain, was a turning point in the history of the two clubs. And not just a turning point, but one that went in completely opposite directions from what we all thought that chilling evening of March 8, 2017.