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Writing this blog a few hours from kick-off I can’t help but get excited about the possibility of taking on FC Barcelona in the Champions League tonight at the Grove.
The Catalan giants are a formidable proposition on the park. They lack little and have the best player in the world in Lionel Messi. Wherever you look there’s quality in their side. They’re also very organised tactically, something for which they’re not given the credit they deserve. Even where they’re not world class they’re competent, such as goalie Victor Valdés. He’s not world-class but he’s steady and competent.
I just hope we give the best possible account of ourselves tonight. We didn’t do ourselves justice against them last season, especially in the first half of the first leg at home. We gave them far more of a game in the second half. Out in Catalonia we were undone by the genius of Messi who played all over us, especially Mikaël Silvestre, a player whose signing wasn’t Arsčne Wenger’s finest capture.
We have to believe we can beat Barça or we won’t. Going out and bowing down to their undoubted qualities as individuals and as a team will guarantee we end up on our rear end. I still worry about our tactical weaknesses and mental brittleness. We panic far too easily, as was graphically demonstrated at St James’ Park recently. We can’t afford either if we’re to go into the draw for the quarter finals after the second leg in the Camp Nou.
All that said, we have to have the confidence to go out and have a go at them. And we have a role in the stands too. We need to drive on the team with waves of sound and passion cascading down from the stands onto the pitch, especially when we’re under the cosh. At some stage we have to have the ambition and desire to break through the glass ceiling which has seen as plateau as the eternal bridesmaids.
We have to combine art with a hard, ruthless edge. That doesn’t mean clogging the opposition or cheating. It means standing up to them. Spurs beating Milan in the San Siro last night should push us on. Do we really want to go out of a competition before them in which we have more than a decade of experience when they’re Champions League virgins? No, thought not.
Let’s do our part in the stands to turn the Grove into a fortress tonight.
Keep the faith!
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