Lliga | Round 24: Eibar - FC Barcelona 0-2

[FC B]

Rest, prioritize CL, domestic league is far from over, many games remaining. Considering the advantage taken it won't be catastrophic 2 -3 points lost but losing vs. Chelshit big time might just be. Plus nobody would guarantee a full strenght lineup to beat Eibar given current form, increased tiring from jan-feb and the little remaining time till Stamford Bridge.

 

[Altomonte]

This could very well be our toughest remaining away match until the end of the season and it comes in the worst possible time.

If Valverde pulls a win here, I think the title is close.

I repeat my question: did Barça try to move the match to Friday? If not, why not?

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

I repeat my question: did Barça try to move the match to Friday? If not, why not?

How often teams are able to move these matches? It would make a lot of sense.. We have so much time off and then we have to play Saturday. It's just bad for us..

 

[soul24rage]

I would seriously consider resting the core players for this match. I'm sure other teams are going to drop points and I don't think that we'll lose this game even without our core players. Also there's little time between the Eibar game and Stamford Bridge so I hope to see some rotation. But I wouldn't be surprised if EV went all in on the Eibar game.

 

[Antimadridista1]

This is exactly the kind of game when we need the subs/players who won't start again Chelsea (Paco, Coutinho, Vidal, Semedo, Dembele) to perform big time and win us the game.

If we need to rely again on Messi and Suarez then I say we are fucked.

 

[Barcaman]

From Barca website

Old friends

Ernesto Valverde and his Eibar counterpart José Luis Mendilibar go back a bit! Back in the eighties they played for the same team in the Basque Country, Sestao Sport Club, as did Valverde's current assistant, Jon Aspiazu.

Their manager at the time, Jabo Irureta, spoke to El Mundo Deportivo this week, remembering how "Valverde wasn't only interested in football. He liked photography, reading, art ... He was a very good listener and you never had to tell him off”.

Both men went on to manage Athletic Bilbao, although Mendilibar was sacked after just a few months.

The Eibar manager, who celebrates 100 games in charge this Saturday, has faced Barça 16 times with four different clubs over the years, but has only beaten the blaugrana once - in February 2012 when his Osasuna won 3-2.

 

[serghei]

This is a very important game. Don't want to lose points here, Atletico would come dangerously close.

La Liga is the no1 priority like it has always been. Bird in the hand is always more important that what may or may not happen in CL.

A smart man would start a great first 11, win the game in the first half and take out Messi, Suarez and Busquets in the 2nd half.

 

[Barcaman]

Sure. Against one of the best defensive teams in La Liga and Europe we can plan to win in 1st half. As if we are winning games in 1st halves this season at all.

 

[vlad]

Cant afford to slip here, just 7 points from atletico, lose or draw here and they are 4 or 5 points away, la liga should be absolute priority.


About rest factor, pretty much every top team in CL arenot more rested then barca players, except psg and bayern, so pulling out tiredness card if barca dont do well in CL is not acceptable



Edit: valverde now has pretty decent bench, so he should do some changes without major bad impact on gameplay

 

[Barcaman]

I would leave Messi on the bench for 1st half no problem. We are heading to 0-0 HT either way and better to bring him on when Eibar tires a bit.

 

[soul24rage]

http://www.marca.com/en/football/barcelona/2018/02/15/5a847ee4e2704ee25a8b466e.html

I think Messi might be rested for this game

 

[ThwiX]

Don’t agree at all with people saying the league should be priority. Considering how Real Madrid has absolutely dominated CL in recent years and made what we did in the same tournament the last 10 years look average, I just can’t accept it. This is the trophy people write and talk about, not La Liga. They can’t be allowed to win again. Not for many, many years. It’s already a big shit stain on our supposedly “golden era”.

 

[soul24rage]

Don’t agree at all with people saying the league should be priority. Considering how Real Madrid has absolutely dominated CL in recent years and made what we did in the same tournament the last 10 years look average, I just can’t accept it. This is the trophy people write and talk about, not La Liga. They can’t be allowed to win again. Not for many, many years. It’s already a big shit stain on our supposedly “golden era”.

agreed, and it's not like the other teams are not going to drop points in in the league. We should have done much better in the Champions League in the past 2 years and by the looks of it we might be the only team that will not bottle against Real.

 

[Cule4life]

Can't believe some of the ppl here. What's the point of a big lead and expensive bench if we can't rest players for an important CL match. Atletico aint catching upto us. They'll drop points and also go hard for the Europa league too.

 

[Stoichkov1]

Don’t agree at all with people saying the league should be priority. Considering how Real Madrid has absolutely dominated CL in recent years and made what we did in the same tournament the last 10 years look average, I just can’t accept it. This is the trophy people write and talk about, not La Liga. They can’t be allowed to win again. Not for many, many years. It’s already a big shit stain on our supposedly “golden era”.

La liga is the absolute priority because we have a good advantage there and we're likely to win it this year.

CL is too unpredictable and there's no guarantee we'll win it even if we consider it our priority.

Do you prefer watching Real win the 3rd CL in a row and finish the season trophyless or watching Real win another CL and Barcelona win the league+CDR?

And if Real wins the CL this year they can't claim to be the best team in Europe if they finish 10 points behind us in the league.