Wondering how to stop Guardiola's superstars

Finding a way to beat star-studded Barcelona is becoming increasingly difficult, KEVIN McCARRAreports ahead of their visit to London

LET MISANTHROPES rejoice. Barcelona can go wrong, if only a little. Following Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Sporting Gijon, the team have now won only six of the last 20 games that have followed a programme of international matches. There was splendour in any case at the weekend. Pep Guardiola’s side were 1-0 down and there was no sense of inevitability about the equaliser with 10 minutes remaining.

It would be amusing to say that the team needed to scrap their way to a goal and Lionel Messi did indeed battle for possession, but once he had the ball the calibrated through pass was outdone only by the chipped finish David Villa sent over the head of the goalkeeper Ivan Cuellar. The scorer had achieved little until then, but innate talent had its say.

Arsene Wenger ought to have had feelings of admiration mixed with those of regret. His Arsenal side should never have got themselves into a contest this week that will delight a continent. Unlike the other English clubs, they came second in their Champions League group. Defeats at Braga and Shakhtar Donetsk have led Arsenal to a tie they would rather have delayed if it had to be endured at all. They also met Barcelona last year, coming from 2-0 down at the Emirates to draw 2-2 in the first leg of the quarter-final.

The return was lost 4-1, with Messi scoring all of Barca’s goals. Arsenal, the one mildly plausible challenger to Manchester United for the Premier League title, are improving, but there have also been adjustments to Guardiola’s side that heighten the idealism. He spent €40 million to take Villa from Valencia last summer, although the forward will have turned 30 by the end of this year.

The manager had paid even more for Zlatan Ibrahimovic in 2009. Despite his great efficiency as a striker, the Swede did not look complementary to the streamlined Barcelona style. Having fallen out with Guardiola, Ibrahimovic, scorer of both goals at the Emirates last year, is now on loan to Milan.

Ideas for stopping them can soon seem misguided. It is a modern habit to press when the opposition approach, but Barcelona are sure of themselves while encountering that sort of supposed confrontation. They are very likely to retain the ball and send someone into the space behind players who have pushed up too far. If there is any answer to them at all, it is an old-fashioned one.

When Barcelona failed last season in the defence of the European Cup, they came up against an Internazionale line-up in the semi-finals that had a touch of 1960s’ catenaccio about it. Rather than press, the Serie A side sat deep. Even so, each football match has its own quirky individuality and Barcelona did open the scoring that night before Inter responded with three goals and then coped well enough with the return.

The visitors, although they made light of the matter, had been obliged to go to San Siro by road because the volcanic-ash problem of the time prevented them from flying. Little was in their favour and least of all the identity of the opposition’s manager, who went on to get the better of Bayern Munich in the final. Jose Mourinho is now in command at Real Madrid. His side were trounced 5-0 at Camp Nou in November, but that may simply tell us that he needs more time to school his players, as he did Inter.

Despite Mourinho’s scheming to establish a dominant Real we could still come to see the present Barcelona as a team for all-time, fit to stand beside those whose feats are treasures that belong to everyone who cares to recall them. The side may yet be bracketed with the Real Madrid of the European Cup’s early days, with Fabio Capello’s Milan team that trounced the 1994 Barcelona in the final or, most aptly, with the total football of Ajax, who won it in three consecutive years from 1971.

The parallels can become warped because this is another era, one in which players keep their next move in mind and clubs have to sell stars before they walk away as free agents. It is a tribute to the millionaires of Barcelona that when they are on the field the only wealth that anyone cares about is the opulence of their gifts.

Guardian Service

Playing Barcelona: Two right ways and one very wrong

1 Inter Milan

Champions League – April 20th, 2010.

MUCH IS made of Jose Mourinho’s ultra-defensive approach to the semi-final second leg against Barcelona last year but Inter did actually lose that game and, but for a poor decision from the referee in the final minute, would have lost the tie. A far better display came in the first leg at San Siro. Mourinho’s team combined tight defending with physical pressure, quick counterattacking and an awareness, above all, of the space behind both Barcelona full-backs. They were helped though by Barcelona’s marathon coach trip to Milan.

Result:Inter 3 Barcelona 1

2 Sporting Gijón

La Liga – February 12th, 2010.

AS DAVID Villa put it: “Sporting managed to do to us what no one else has done to us and stop us playing.”

“It can be hard,” Pep Guardiola said, “when a team puts nine or 10 men behind the ball and denies us space.”

Manolo Preciado built two solid lines, close together, ceded territory and possession and funnelled Barcelona into traffic.

They had not so much parked the bus, one newspaper noted, as parked the airbus. Sporting got the opener on a swift break from the edge of their area but were pinned back in the second half.

Barcelona were also stymied by the absence of Sergio Busquets and, in the first half, Pedro

Result:Sporting Gijón 1 Barcelona 1

3 Real Madrid

La Liga – November 29th 2010.

ON THE morning of the game at the Camp Nou, Gonzalo Higuaín could be seen hobbling round the team hotel. Most assumed that Mourinho would take the opportunity to replace him with an extra defensive midfielder and play deep.

Instead, emboldened by Madrid’s results until that moment, his team played high. But they did so without the pressure that makes that approach work and, once Barça got the first, they were sunk.

Lionel Messi sliced them open, finding space behind for David Villa to punish them. Madrid couldnt get a kick. Of the ball or, even, of their opponents legs

Result:Barcelona 5, Real Madrid 0