Can Barcelona Return To The European Summit

With the latest La Liga season underway, Barcelona will have every reason to be optimistic. They go into this campaign as defending champions, after winning the previous edition of the Spanish top flight at a relative canter.

The win was so dominant that their perennial arch-rivals Real Madrid finished all the way back in third, some 17 points off the pace. That said, the team that was sandwiched by the two Goliaths of Spanish football fared little better, as Diego Simeone’s Atletico found themselves a sizeable 14 points behind in second.

In addition to that, it is fair to say that Real Madrid are in a state of flux this season, what with a change of managerial personnel as Julen Lopetegui takes the reigns from Zinedine Zidane. That’s also not forgetting the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo to Italian giants Juventus.

Many column inches have been written about how this is the end of the cycle for Los Blancos. However, they have at least silenced their critics in the first three weeks of the season as, like Barcelona, they have managed to pick up a maximum points haul.

However, the matches that they have played will come with the expectation of victory. It is the real measures such as in El Clasico and the Champions League where will we find out if this new era for Real Madrid is going to be a successful one.

After winning four Champions League titles in the past five years, they have certainly been the gold standard in European club football, which is something that has gone a large way to softening the blow that Barcelona have dominated on the domestic front.

You could even argue that the club from the Spanish capital would prefer the continental trophy haul that they have earned to the multiple La Liga titles that Barcelona have earned over the same time period.

And although Barcelona did reach the summit of the Champions League back in 2015, the fact that they have had to sit back and watch Real Madrid win the next three in a row is undoubtedly a bitter pill to swallow and one they are still getting a taste of.

However, there is a way to remedy this. That, of course, being picking up a sixth Champions League in the club’s history come the end of this season. Not only would it put them back at the top of the mountain when it comes to this competition, but it would also end Real Madrid’s incredible run of success.

Sometimes you have to question if the two clubs want to win silverware for themselves, or just to spite their nearest rival. Perhaps it is a feeling that lies somewhere in the middle. Whichever way you look at it, though, Barcelona are desperate to end their European trophy drought.

Should they fail to conquer Europe this season, that drought will extend to four seasons, which, for a club the size of Barcelona, is far too big. Ernesto Valverde may have eased his side to domestic dominance last time out, but he will only truly be judged on whether he can deliver a Champions League also.

Looking at the group that the club have been placed in for this season’s edition of the competition, it is not a particularly kind one. They are one of three clubs to have won the tournament, with both Inter Milan and PSV Eindhoven alongside them.

In the case of the former, they have bought big over the summer as they are ready to return to the European elite, while also looking to mount a challenge to win the tournament for the first time since 2010, when they were under the stewardship of Jose Mourinho.

While PSV Eindhoven are perhaps not the club they once were due to the diminished stature of the domestic scene in the Netherlands, they will still be a tough nut to crack, especially in their own surroundings of the Phillips Stadion.

And, of course, one should not overlook the fourth and final team in Barcelona’s group. That comes in the shape of Tottenham Hotspur. The English outfit were in a supposed ‘group of death’ last year when paired with holders Real Madrid.

However, they earned a respectable 1-1 draw at the Santiago Bernabeu, before blowing Cristiano Ronaldo and co out of the water in the return at Wembley, as a Dele-Alli-inspired side saw the London-based outfit earn a historic 3-1 victory.

And it is those kind of results that will give Tottenham every confidence of being able to do something similar when they not only welcome Barcelona to Wembley in October, but also when they make a trip to the Nou Camp just before Christmas.

Barcelona have been installed as one of the favourites to win the competition, but it could be a man that they know very well that stops them from doing so. And that’s someone who has led the club to Champions League success in both 2009 and 2011.

The man in question is Pep Guardiola, who now has designs on repeating that feat with his current club, Manchester City. After a first season in charge that failed to return a trophy, last season, the Cityzens managed to earn both the Premier League and the Carabao Cup for their efforts.

And they picked up where they left off when they got the better of Arsenal on the opening weekend of the current campaign. This was expected, though, with even Oddschecker stating that City were likely to be the first team “to retain the Premier League for the first time in a decade”. However, like Barcelona, Manchester City find themselves in a situation where being head and shoulders above the rest at home is simply not enough.

Manchester City for all their largesse have repeatedly failed to conquer the Champions League. Although, with that said, you do get the feeling that this could be their year – the only team capable of stopping them are City themselves.

They say the Premier League is hard to win but even harder to defend, a point that is reinforced by the fact that no club has managed to do so since City’s crosstown rivals United did so under Sir Alex Ferguson in 2009.

Therefore, it could well mean that the former Barcelona boss Guardiola puts more of his eggs in the basket labelled Europe. That is ultimately a decision that he will have to weigh up after Christmas when the competition landscape is a lot clearer.

While the same can certainly be said for the current Barca boss, Ernesto Valverde, it’s clear that Real Madrid’s strategy of focusing fully on the Champions League as of late has borne an incredible amount of fruit. The question remains as to whether this will now be a vintage crop for the Catalan giants.