Author: Crazy

FC Barcelona, leaders of La Liga, will kick off its Champions League campaign this Wednesday with its sights set on the May 25 Wembley final

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FC Barcelona are unbeaten in their last sixteen European fixtures at the Camp Nou, but their last defeat was also against a team from the Russian Championship, Rubin Kazan

There are a number of interesting facts related with FCB’s first game in their Champions League campaign, and here we pick out some of the juiciest nuggets:

• This will be third time that Barça and Spartak have met. The last time was in the group stages of the 1993/94 season, when Barça won 5-1 at the Camp Nou and drew 2-2 in the Russian capital

• Barça’s record against teams from Russia is five wins, five draws and two defeats. Their home record consists of four wins and two defeats

• FC Barcelona have not lost any of their last 16 home fixtures in Europe, but the last loss was also against a representative of the Russian Premier League, Rubin Kazan (1-2), on October 20, 2009

• Barça are just four goals short of reaching 800 in UEFA competitions

• Barça have won seven of their last eight opening Champions league fixtures when they have been played at home. The only time they didn’t start with all three points was last season in the 2-2 draw with AC Milan

• Spartak Moscow won two and lost one of their three away matches in the group stages last season. They won at Marseille (0-1) and Zilina (1-2) but lost to eventual champions Chelsea (4-1)

• Spartak are currently seventh in the Russian Premier League with 13 points from eight matches. They started well, with three wins out of three, but this was followed by a hefty 5-0 defeat at Zenit, and they have only won one of their four matches played since

• Unai Emery did not beat Barça in any of 12 previous attempts as manager of Almeria and Valencia (five draws and seven defeats)

• In tonight’s match, David Villa and Jordi Alba will both be meeting up once again with their former boss at Valencia

• Another reunion will be that of Valeri Karpin, the executive director of Spartak, and José Manuel Pinto, who played together at Celta from 1998 to 2002

• Leo Messi, the top scorer in the last four editions of the Champions League, has never scored against a Russian team

• Dutchman De Zeeuw, who normally plays in the Spartak midfield, was sent off in the last game of the qualifying stages and is therefore suspended for tonight’s game at the Camp Nou

• This will be a doubly special night for Spartak’s Brazilian star Rómulo, because September 19 is also his 22nd birthday

• Tonight’s match official will be Milorad Mazic of Serbia, who takes charge of a Champions League game for the first time, although he has plenty of experience, having previously refereed 35 different games in UEFA sanctioned competitions.

Thiago Alcántra is back! The Azulgrana midfielder showed that he’s completely recovered from the injury that kept him on the sidelines this summer with a excellent performance against Getafe this Sunday

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The FCB manager doesn’t believe the team’s good form in the Liga will be a factor in the tomorrow’s Champions League match against Spartak Moscow

The manager highlighted the importance of winning at home

Tito Vilanova gave his first Champions League pre-match press conference as FC Barcelona’s first team manager this afternoon. The FCB coach noted that his team’s 100 per cent run in the Liga “should be given the importance it deserves,” but he quickly played down the idea that Barça have an insurmountable lead: “Win or lose, it’s of no use to look back.” He added: “The Champions League is another competition, I’ll talk about the Liga on Friday. We have to be on guard from the first moment in the Champions League. We know from experience because we’ve had to play complicated pre-tournament qualifiers before.”

Starting off on the right foot

Vilanova urged his players to give the team’s debut in the 2012/13 Champions League the importance it deserves: “The first match at home is very important. We won’t be trailing behind the other teams in the group if we win. Barça has been comfortable in the Champions League in recent years, but we know that it’s a very difficult competition.” Despite clinching five consecutive semi-final berths, the manager rubbished the “favourites” label. He did, however, say that Barça are “a team that should be kept in mind,” but not favoured. “It’s too soon to make any predictions, there are clubs that have reinforced themselves really well. Last year United and City were eliminated in the group stage,” he said.

The manager also played down the fact that the final of the Champions League will be at Wembley this year, a stadium where Barça lifted two of its European titles. “What’s truly important is that we take it a game at a time. If we’re lucky enough to play in that stadium, then we’ll talk. It’s too soon to talk about it now.”

A well-known rival

Vilanova then turned his attention to the challenge at hand, Unai Emery’s Spartak Moscow. “They have a good team, they’re very good on the counter and their reference point up top, Emenike, is dynamic. I’m sure they won’t make it easy for us,” he said. The FCB manager also talked about past matches against Emery: “He’s always been a very complicated manager, courageous. He always made his players pressure us high up the pitch and I have the impression that he’ll do that tomorrow.”

The Azulgrana president emphasises the importance of winning the first game of the Champions League, especially considering that Barça will play its opening match of the competition at the Camp Nou (Wednesday against Spartak Moscow)

Rosell is convinced that the upcoming Clásico on October 7 won’t be decisive in the outcome of the Liga

Sandro Rosell highlighted the importance of winning the first game of the Champions League group stage, especially seeing that Barça’s first match is at the Camp Nou. “Winning the first game is important. It’s the first step, if you do it right, the second game is more simple. It’s especially important because we’re playing at home,” said the FCB president.

Rosell, who made these statements after presenting the “Quit smoking with Barça” campaign in Brussels, also noted how difficult it is to win the Champions League: “In the world of football nothing is easy. That’s especially true when it comes to the Champions League, every team comes into the competition wanting to do well; teams want to show Europe what they’re made of.” He added: “We’re not overconfident, we never are, especially when we play Champions League games.”

“The Clásico won’t decide anything”

When asked about Barça’s eight-point advantage over Real Madrid in the Liga, Rosell said: “This just started. There’s still so much ahead, four games is nothing. There’s a lot left to be said, many pages will be written, from here until the end of the competition.” Rosell went on to talk about the upcoming Clásico at the Camp Nou, which is scheduled for October 7.The match against Madrid “won’t decide anything,” said the FCB president, “we won’t be able to come to any conclusions until March.”