It is paradoxical that a player as discussed and vilified as Ousmane Dembélé now presents himself as a kind of Blaugrana Moses, which has to take the culé to the promised land of the Champions League, after crossing a desolate desert wasteland. It says very little about the current squad, when you depend on a player who drags a ‘curriculum’ so plagued with injuries and irregular matches, but the situation that the club has faced is so limited that right now Dembélé presents himself as the ‘savior’ of Barcelona, the only one capable of making a difference, scoring goals and taking the team to the knockout stages of the Champions League.
What seems clear is that Xavi is not going to save anything for Wednesday’s game, so Dembélé will debut as a starter this season: 200 days after the last time, against Eibar in Ipurúa (0-1) on the last day of LaLiga.
You will not be accompanied by the young talent of the subsidiary, Ez Abde, not being registered in the Champions League, as well as Ansu Fati, despite the player’s desire and drive to reach Munich, his inclusion in the list has been ruled out as he was not fully recovered from his hamstring injury.
To these two casualties must be added those already known by Pedri, Braithwaite, Sergi Roberto and Kun. A worrying outlook for Xavi, who urgently needs the goal to beat Bayern. A goal that resists in this Champions League, where the team has only been able to score two in this league, with a sterile Memphis, which has not yet been able to launch its account in Europe, and a Coutinho that is still in free fall.
The truth is that the challenge is huge in every way. And not only because Barcelona does not arrive at its best moment of the season, especially after losing at home to Betis (0-1), if not that he plays against one of the main favorites to win the Champions League, the almighty Bayern Munich, a solo leader in the Bundesliga and in Europe.
The full list for the Munich miracle is as follows: Ter Stegen, Neto, Piqué, Dest, Lenglet, Mingueza, Eric, Umtiti, Araújo, Alba, Sergio Busquets, Frenkie, Memphis, Riqui Puig, Coutinho, Luuk, Dembélé, Demir, Peña, Gavi, Bucket, Ilias y Nico.