adminMADRID. — Before their Champions League soccer clash with Chelsea in London, Lionel Messi and Barcelona put their unbeaten record in the Spanish La Liga on the line against Eibar in the rather less glamorous surrounds of Ipurua today.
The modest 7 000-seat ground in the Basque Country welcomes a Barca side who have laboured to draws against Espanyol and Getafe in their last two outings.
Those results have allowed Atletico Madrid to cut Ernesto Valverde’s side’s lead at the top of the table to seven points, with the clubs due to meet at the Camp Nou early next month.
Barca’s advantage is still significant, and they have no major injury worries, but the danger is that the return of the Champions League is a distraction for them.
“We will need to proceed with caution because a bad result can mean that you suddenly go from having a very good year to not such a good one,” Gerard Pique warned this week at a sponsor’s event, where the talk was of Chelsea rather than Eibar.
The Basque side, though, have lost just once – a narrow 1-0 defeat to Atletico – since the start of December, and are in contention to qualify for Europe. — AFP.
Online Reporter