Barcelona boss Ernesto Valverde needs Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez to exorcise the ghost that haunts his tenure

Ben Hayward16 April 2019

For all he has achieved at Barcelona, Ernesto Valverde continues to be judged by many for one bad game.

Last season’s 3-0 defeat away to Roma saw Barca knocked out of the Champions League on away goals and it is brought up in every press conference ahead of a European game.

And while much talk around Manchester United has focused on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and the spirit of 1999, Valverde is leaving nothing to chance this time. “You have to write our own destiny,” he said yesterday.

Again, he was asked about Rome, just like last week and ahead of both last-16 matches against Lyon. “There comes a time when you have to stop beating yourself up,” he said before the first of those games in France.

In the pre-match press conference ahead of tonight’s clash at Camp Nou, he was asked if he has learned from the collapse at the Stadio Olimpico last April, but chose to talk about the difficulty of the game instead.

Tonight, memories of that painful loss can be banished: a win over Man Utd and passage to the last four would be seen as satisfactory in Europe this term, whatever happens next. And it would be an improvement on the past three seasons, in which Barca have exited in the quarter-finals on each occasion.

There are other lingering questions, too. Like Lionel Messi’s failure to score in a Champions League quarter-final since 2013, a total of 12 games. Because while the Argentine is clearly much more than a goalscorer, his inability to net in those matches has also been part of the problem for Barca in Europe.

“That means he is closer to scoring again,” Valverde said yesterday as he put a positive spin on the matter. “Statistics are all very well for analysing things," he added. "They tell you things about the past, but not the future. It’s another incentive.”

Valverde has also had to field questions about Luis Suarez, the Uruguayan without a goal on the road in Europe since 2015 and with none in the continental competition – home or away – this season.

Suarez did force the winner last week, though, when his header was diverted in by Manchester United’s Luke Shaw for the all-important goal at Old Trafford. “The value we give to Luis is not from whether he touches the ball last or not,” Valverde said afterwards. “It’s from what he gives us on the pitch.”

That, of course, makes sense and neither Suarez or Messi should be judged only on goals. But in La Liga, the two South Americans have contributed 53 of the team’s 81 strikes this term: 33 for the Argentine and 20 for the Uruguayan. It goes without saying that Barca’s Champions League aspirations will be enhanced if they are scoring in Europe as well.

In Pictures | Man Utd vs Barcelona, Champions League | 10/04/2019

1/58

In the meantime, Valverde clearly has learned from last season’s Roma debacle. Back then, he picked a strong side just three days earlier to face Leganes in La Liga. This time, he rested almost all of his starters for the trip to Huesca on Saturday.

In big games this season, the 55-year-old has got it right: Barca have won three out of four Clasico clashes, drawing the other; they have beaten Tottenham at Wembley and Manchester United at Old Trafford; and they defeated Atletico at Camp Nou in a key title test 10 days ago.

For the second season in a row, the former Athletic Club coach is on course for a domestic double and yet the feeling remains that the campaign will be assessed again by how Barca fare in the Champions League.

A win over United tonight would at least confine the Roma experience to the past. And if Messi and Suarez can score in the process, with Ousmane Dembele fit again to help stretch United’s defence and set up a possible semi-final against Liverpool, some of those unwanted questions might finally be replaced by belief and some recognition for Valverde and this team. Or at least, they should be.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in