35 matches for hope

Ruthlessly beaten away from home in recent years in Europe with historic defeats in Paris (4-0), Turin (3-0), Rome (4-1) and Liverpool (4-0), Barça have also started to lose weight from Barcelona this season in the League with defeats in Madrid, Bilbao twice, Granada, Valencia twice … However, remains firm at the Camp Nou, where he still feels happy and powerful except in very specific episodes. Although there is no public, the feeling with the Estadi (which he certainly hopes will give him a surname for the first time in history) exists.

Namely, Barça have not lost in the Champions at the Camp Nou since May 1, 2013, when it fell overwhelmingly against Bayern (0-3) on the return leg of the competition's semifinals. Since then, he has played 35 games. The result of 33 of them would qualify the Barça team for the final phase of Lisbon. And only two, a 1-1 against Atlético in the 2013-14 season and a 1-1 against Tottenham when it was no longer played on the last day of the first phase of last season, would send the game to extra time. None of Barça's last 35 European results at home would eliminate it.

On that 35-game route (second best streak in all history, behind that of Bayern Munich, who chained 43 games without loss between 1969 and 1991), Barça have crushed Celtic (7-0), Roma (6-1), Bayern (3-0), City (4-0), Liverpool (3-0), Juventus (3-0), Chelsea (3-0), Juventus (3-0) . However, the most iconic game was 6-1, which helped them come back from the 2016-17 Champions League round of 16 against PSG with a memorable display by Neymar in the last ten minutes of the game. He has scored 119 goals in this streak and has only conceded 17.

Against the imposing number in Europe are the hesitations of Barça at home in the final stretch of the season, behind closed doors in LaLiga. After drawing 2-2 against Atlético de Madrid, he left the three points against Osasuna (1-2) in a spooky match in which he lost all his hallmarks and left his fans and his star seriously worried. “So we are also going to lose against Napoli,” Messi said bluntly after that game the day Barça mathematically lost LaLiga. He is warned, of course.