Barcelona Vs Liverpool

Liverpool will face off against Barcelona in the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League. This is one of the biggest matches of the season with both teams dominating their domestic competition and searching for European glory. Messi's Barca have reached their first semi final in last 4 years. Liverpool will be looking for their consecutive UEFA Champions League final and most probably winning it this season. Barcelona are heavy favourites over the two legs to advance, but Liverpool are also playing some exicting football. Here's some insight on how Liverpool can stop Barcelona and especially Lionel Messi.

It will be interesting to see if Liverpool would keep a high defence line and press high to counter Barca's attack. As seen in the first leg of both Round of 16 and Quarter Final, Liverpool tend to play slightly defensive and look to catch teams on counter attack. Against Bayern Munich, Liverpool played very defensively maintaining their defensive line and not allowing Bayern Munich a shot at goal. Same was seen against Porto in quarter final.

Liverpool deploy Gegenpressing, a type of pressing where, after a quick concession of possession the opposition player having the ball is closed down by players near him. This creates pressure on the player having the ball and he is forced to play a long ball over the players pressing him or force an error out of him. This is perfect for Liverpool as Barcelona tend to move the ball in their own half trying to create opportunities and any slip up would encourage Liverpool to counter attack. Liverpool players not only press intensively but intelligently as well. They would keep a low defensive line and would start to press at the half way line.

Messi has terrorised defenders with his skills this season. He single handledly destroyed Lyon's defence in the Round of 16 and bossed United defence like they were a bunch of children. He was running around Phil Jones and nutmegged Ashely Young on couple of occasions. But story will be different against Liverpool. They have the strongest defence in Europe and they have conceded only 2 goals in last 4 Champions League matches. Bayern were not allowed a single shot on goal in the first leg of round of 16. Virgil van Dijk is considered as one of the best defender in the world right now. He is a leader who leads the Liverpool defence consisting of Matip, Alexander-Arnold and Robertson. World's Best Defender Vs World's Best Attacker. May the best man win.

Jürgen Klopp has always opted to play a 4-3-3 defensive formation in the recent years. Liverpool's back five (including the goalkeeper Alisson) is set. Liverpool's front three is superb. The only problem they have is in the middle. Klopp is yet to find his perfect trio in the midfield and has tried a lot of combinations. At the start of the season he started with Henderson, Milner and Wijnaldum, and then changed Wijnaldum with Fabinho, Milner for Këita and so on. He was even playing Shaqiri in the midfield. It will be crucial to select the perfect midfield trio against Barcelona. It will be the midfielders job to stop Messi on its track and block possible ways of him getting the ball in dangerous areas.

Liverpool has one of the best attacking trio in Europe right now. Salah, Mane and Firmino can cut open any defence on their day, and when they get going Liverpool are most exicting team to watch. Liverpool's front three pressing technique might become to much for Barca's defence to handle.

Blue - Barcelona

Red - Liverpool front three

Firmino presses the player who has possession of the ball while Mane and Salah stay behind him to maintain a triangle formation. So this will force the player to do a back pass or clear the ball and kick it far away from the goal. In case of a back pass, Firmino traces the ball and Salah and Mane cover the potential forward passing lanes. This will force Barca's full back to fall back and support their defence instead of attacking. So the ball stays in the Barca's half only.

If Liverpool try to attack Barcelona then this will turn into an end to end stuff with both teams throwing blows at each other. Liverpool will try to defend and handle the waves of Barcelona's attack in the first and try to catch them on quick counter attack. If things stay 0-0 at half time Liverpool might look to attack to get an away goal and have an advantage. Barcelona are facing their biggest challenge this season in shape of Liverpool. But Barca are clear favourites to win this one over the two legs. It is very difficult to keep Messi quiet over two legs. This is first semi final in last 4 years for Barcelona, so nerves might play a big role at this stage. However, it seems that the team who will draw first blood at Camp Nou would win the first leg.

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