Barcelona's resurgent form ominous for Celtic's ambitions

Celtic fans could be forgiven for wishing Thursday night's UEFA Cup fourth-round tie with Barcelona had been scheduled for mid-January.

Eight weeks ago, Barcelona were tottering on the edge of the abyss, eliminated from the Spanish Cup and looking out of the hunt for a Champions League place as they languished in seventh place in the Primera Liga, 16 points behind then leaders, Valencia. In 60 years, the Catalan side had never performed so badly in the first half of the season.

According to the Catalan grapevine, it was only a matter of time before coach Frank Rijkaard was replaced. A new coaching team of two former Barca legends, Dutchman Johan Cruyff and Bulgarian Hristo Stoichkov, was allegedly on standby, ready to "rescue" their season.

Now, that crisis seems light years away with a revived Barcelona underlining the old cliché that nothing does a football team so much good as winning. When Barcelona saw off Real Majorca 3-2 at the Camp Nou on Sunday night, they won their seventh consecutive league game in a 10-match unbeaten run that also included two UEFA Cup wins over Danish side Brondby as well as an Italian Cup draw.

Barcelona lie fourth in the league, just one point behind Deportivo La Coruna and 11 points behind leaders and rivals, Real Madrid. More importantly, even with 11 games to play, Barcelona would appear to have wrapped up that fourth-place, Champions League berth.

Even if eliminating Brondby from the UEFA Cup last week hardly represents earth-shattering form, it is worth bearing in mind amongst the "scalps" picked up by Barca in the Spanish league in the last six weeks are those of Atletico Madrid, Deportivo La Coruna, FC Sevilla and Valencia. Barca's injured Dutch striker Patrick Kluivert has warned all forthcoming opponents that confidence in the Catalan camp is "sky high" at the moment.

In many senses, Barcelona's poor form represented an enigma. After all, this is a team built around two of Latin American football's most talented sons in Brazilian Ronaldhino and Argentine Javier Saviola. And there is the familiar, ever-resident Dutch colony comprising Michael Reiziger, Philip Cocu, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Marc Overmars as well as Kluivert. They also have the experienced Spaniards, Carlos Puyol, Hernandez Xavi and Luis Enrique.

Not for nothing, it was the last mentioned trio that featured largely in Sunday's win when Barcelona were 2-0 up after a quarter of an hour and in which the final scoreline probably flattered Real Majorca. Their two goals came in the 89th and 90th minute. With Kluivert and Saviola ruled out, Luis Enrique stepped into his old centre-forward role, scoring the second Barcelona goal.

Obviously, no single factor explains just how and why Barcelona have turned things around. Yet, it is tempting to suggest the arrival in late January of Dutchman Edgar Davids, off-loaded by Serie A champions Juventus, may have been the catalyst for the Catalan revival.

Davids's fiery temperament, his ball-winning skills and his ability to fill the 90 minutes with 5,400 seconds worth of running have transformed Barcelona. In particular, his partnership with Cocu in a central defensive midfield role has steadied Reiziger and van Bronckhurst behind him and given more space to Ronaldhino and Xavi in front of him.

Given Davids is cup-tied, having played in the Champions League for Juventus, it remains to be seen how Barcelona fare without him against Celtic. (Juventus have been struggling without him in the Champions League and Serie A.)

Celtic manager Martin O'Neill has suggested the winner of this tie might go reach the final. Given Celtic made it to the final last season (losing to Porto), O'Neill should know. What O'Neill may not know, however, is how much it might have suited him to have played Barcelona two months ago.