By Ian King
Non-Historical past
There isn’t any earlier between these two groups. That is, to offer them their full title, Stade Brestois 29’s first ever season of European soccer. They’ve by no means bought previous the quarter-final of the Coupe de France and their solely league title got here in Ligue 2 again in 1981. Barcelona, by comparability, have 27 Spanish league titles and 5 Champions League titles underneath their belt, although it’s now a decade since they final received Europe’s most coveted trophy.
Contrasting fortunes of late
Brest go into this match in twelfth place in Ligue 1 with 4 wins and 7 defeats from their first twelve video games, and so they’ve misplaced their final three in a row within the league, too. However within the Champions League, they’ve shone. Three wins and a draw from their opening 4 matches have left them in fourth place within the sprawling 36-team ‘league’, really two locations on one level above Barcelona for now.
Barcelona had a little bit of a nasty shock on the weekend, when two targets within the final six minutes of their match away to Celta Vigo pegged them again to a 2-2 draw, though they do nonetheless lead LaLiga by 4 factors. They’re in sixth place within the Champions League desk, with three wins and a defeat from their opening 4.
Key gamers
The principle man for Barcelona up to now this season has been Robert Lewandowski, with 15 targets in 14 in La Liga and 20 in 18 in all competitions. There have been some raised eyebrows when the 36-year outdated went to Camp Nou in 2022, however his kind this season has demonstrated that there’s life within the outdated canine but.
There are few such celebrities within the Brest squad – their summer time spending in preparation for the brand new season amounted to solely simply over €10m – although followers of the Premier League could also be to know that there are two gamers of their squad at the moment on mortgage from golf equipment from England’s high division; Romain Faivre (Bournemouth) and Abdallah Sima (Brighton).
Workforce Information
Barcelona have properly documented damage issues. Ronald Araújo, Ansu Fati, Andreas Christensen, Marc-André ter Stegen and Marc Bernal are all unavailable, whereas Lamine Yamal, Eric García and Ferran Torres are additionally unlikely to play.
Such issues aren’t significantly better for Brest. Massadio Haïdara, Faivre and Soumaïla Coulibaly are all prone to miss out, whereas Bradley Locko is out for the long-term with Achilles tendon injury. And there was a recent headache of their 3-2 loss at Monaco final weekend with an damage to Pierre Lees-Malou. The aforementioned Sima faces a health take a look at.
Prediction
Barcelona’s damage scenario isn’t nice and there are inquiries to be requested over the sloppy method through which they turned a 2-0 lead right into a 2-2 draw at Celta Vigo final trip. However Brest have their accidents too and have had a reasonable begin to their league season. Their Champions League wins have come towards moderately modest opposition – Sturm Graz, Salzburg and Sparta Prague – and it’s troublesome to see previous a cushty dwelling win on this event. So Barcelona by three.
(Cowl picture from IMAGO)
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