Moment of truth

Moment of truth,

by Graham Hunterfrom - Barcelona

It is understandable that FC Barcelona's Matchday 6 meeting with Werder Bremen has been described as an "all or nothing" encounter. Victory or elimination - Barcelona's stark reality.

No defending champion has been dethroned in the group stage, enormous extra revenue is at stake for progress through the last 16 and Barça covet sustained UEFA Champions League success in light of Real Madrid CF's status as nine-time European champions.

Opportunity

So it's facile to pretend that exit from the UEFA Champions League in December could be anything other than painful, costly and embarrassing for the Spanish champions. However, even failure was always going to leave Barça with the FIFA Club World Cup, Spain's Prímera División and the Copa del Rey for which to compete. Win two of them and it would be an historic three trophy season (with the Spanish Super Cup already banked). Win three and it might constitute one of Barcelona's best seasons in their 106-year history. Stay in the UEFA Champions League and 2007 suddenly glows with opportunity.

Demanding schedule

So how did the all-conquering European champions get themselves in such a risky UEFA Champions League situation? It is obligatory to take context into account. First comes the impact of their gruelling post-FIFA World Cup pre-season tour which started in Denmark, whisked through Mexico, the US (West Coast, Texas and East Coast) and Spain before finishing in Monte Carlo. Barça have been at, or near, the top of the Prímera División all season, they won the Spanish Super Cup and lost to Seville in the UEFA Super Cup - demanding under any circumstances.

Pre-season concerns

Several of Rijkaard's players openly warned during the summer and autumn that they would pay the price for the fitness problems stemming from brief pre-season training followed by huge international journeys, changes of time zone and four promotional matches where stars such as Ronaldinho played irrespective of optimum fitness. "Our pre-season was not as it should have been," Rafael Márquez says. "There were lots of flights, lots of games and too few hours of rest for those of us who were working hard to reach our peak physical level." Nor was his view unique. "Some of us were sleeping only three or four hours a night due to time differences and that was also after I opted to use sleeping pills," confirmed Samuel Eto'o. Most recently, Víctor Valdés agreed that: "Perhaps our pre-season was less than ideal if reaching form and fitness were our main objectives."

Marrying growth off the pitch with victory on it, that has been Barcelona's key challenge this season

Hitting form

The exceptional economic performance at FC Barcelona since president Joan Laporta took over carries implicit commercial realities – as does the laudable decision to forfeit important revenue from a shirt sponsor and adopt the UNICEF logo instead.

The freedom to take such a visionary decision and the money to buy and pay player salaries must come from somewhere. Marrying growth off the pitch with victory on it, that has been Barcelona's key challenge this season. It is also a reality that much of Barcelona's schedule has aimed at the team "peaking" in December before re-tuning during

Spain's mini winter shutdown.

Eto'o blowMoving from the fiscal to the physical it becomes clear injury has also handed Barça's Group A opponents an enormous advantage. Samuel Eto'o's knee injury was always going to blemish Barcelona's winter. This time the statistics were to prove a reliable guide as to how badly. Eto'o has hit 67 competitive goals in two seasons and six games since moving to the Camp Nou.

Last season he scored priceless goals in three of Barcelona's four knockout ties in the UEFA Champions League (Chelsea FC, SL Benfica, Arsenal FC). He has never been on the losing side in any UEFA Champions League game in which he has scored for Barcelona and with eleven goals in 20 games has experienced a competition defeat just once with his current club - at Chelsea. Indeed, after six matches against Chelsea in three seasons Barça have not beaten their current Group A opponents without Eto'o scoring the winner.

Ronaldinho stretched

With Lionel Messi and Javier Saviola also long-term absentees, added to several players grasping for form and fitness, Ronaldinho is shouldering the burden of scoring. At least in the Prímera División. His ten goals by round 12 not only made him Spain's top scorer, it was a career-best yield at that stage.

Yet Ronaldinho has struggled for prime fitness. "I've worked very, very hard and now I'm finally feeling the benefits," he admitted of his individualised and gym-based training schedule last week after scoring an amazing overhead kick goal against Villarreal CF. However, by Matchday 5 last season the Brazilian had scored five UEFA Champions League goals for Rijkaard's team.

This term his equivalent tally was only one - even genius can only stretch so far.

Down to the wire

Such are the intense demands on 'world' properties such as FC Barcelona, Ronaldinho, Eto'o and Frank Rijkaard. Meet commercial imperatives, cope with physical demands, raise club and individual profiles, feed the voracious media, avoid debilitating injuries, stoke the hunger of the team. Oh, and stay in knockout trophies (while juggling five other competitions) long enough to win them come the end of the season. Wonder why Group A went down to the wire for the European champions? There are your answers.
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