Barcelona may have made it through to the Champions League final on May 27 after a heart stopping victory over Chelsea thanks to Andres Iniesta’s late late goal but it came at a price. Many neutrals have been hoping for a Manchester United versus Barcelona final and the sheer number of attacking superstars on either side will hopefully make it an entertaining one. In the first leg of the semi-final the Catalans lost Rafael Marquez for the rest of the season to injury. The Mexican centre-half is one of their most experienced defenders and the loss of the 30-year-old will be a massive blow for the Spanish side as they look to keep tabs on Manchester United’s forwards.

Clipping of the wings:

The bad news doesn’t end there for the Spanish champions elect – French left-back Eric Abidal received what was perhaps a harsh red-card for a foul on fellow Frenchman Nicolas Anelka in the second leg and he too will miss the final. The loss of Abidal will be another bitter blow for Barca with the former Lyon man one of their most experienced defenders.  If losing Marquez and Abidal wasn’t enough Barca are also going to have to line-up without the influential and brilliant right-back Dani Alves. The Brazilian schemer is one of Barca’s best players causing all kinds of problems for defenders down the right-flank. Interestingly, losing the two wing backs will also mean that United manager Alex Ferguson will not have to deploy Rooney or Park down the wings in order to negate the full backs going forward.

A makeshift defence

So Barca’s defence is going to be somewhat of a makeshift one with  Puyol and Gerard Pique in the middle with maybe midfielders filling in the left and right-back positions.  Sylvinho might probably slot in for Abidal at left back- but he has hardly featured in a big game for a long time. For a Champions League final this is not an ideal situation by any stretch of the imagination and it will be a huge task for coach Josep Guardiola to form a decent defensive unit out of what he has available.  I’m still fairly confident of a Barca victory myself, though I wouldn’t use my Champions League bet to back them with mega-money given the defensive crisis. They will probably spend most of the game attacking but midfielders like Xavi and Iniesta will have to track back more than usual to help out the defence.

With a seven point lead at the top of the table Guardiola may risk putting out the defence that will line-up against Manchester United in one of their three La Liga fixtures before the final. If he does that it should give us some indication of how they’ll cope against United. Whatever the circumstances leading up to the game I can’t wait for the final. Both teams play exciting football – Barcelona love to hog all the possession and United are probably the best in Europe at counter- attacking and we should be in for a high-tempo game full of quality, let’s hope so anyway.

Posted by Gareth on Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at 9:59 am.