Two European heavyweights go head to head in a mouth-watering Champions League semi-final on Wednesday night as Barcelona welcome Liverpool to the Camp Nou for the first leg.
Barcelona will need to be at their very best to get past Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League semifinal as it pits the two favorites to win the competition outright.
Both are five-time winners of the competition and are enjoying campaigns which could rank alongside any others in the illustrious histories of either club.
Kick off: 21:00 CET, Wednesday
Good & Bad for Barcelona
Barcelona have a near full-strength side to select from with Rafinha the only player missing with a long-term knee injury.
Lionel Messi and Philippe Coutinho both only played 45 minutes on Saturday to keep their legs fresh for this encounter.
This match will have special significance to Coutinho and Luis Suarez, who both signed for Barcelona from Liverpool.
Good & Bad for Liverpool
Roberto Firmino appears to be winning his race to be fit after a muscle tear, but a late decision will be made.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is available after returning against Huddersfield following a serious knee injury earlier this season.
Young striker Rhian Brewster was included in the 23-man travelling party.
A head injury kept Fabinho out against Huddersfield but Jurgen Klopp will hope to have the Brazilian available here.
Probable Line-ups
Talking Points
Messi vs Van Dijk
The newly-crowned PFA Player of the Year has shackled strikers all season long but this, without question, is his biggest challenge.
Van Dijk has played at the Camp Nou once, for Celtic in the 2013-14 group stage of the Champions League, and highlights of his impressive performance have been widely replayed on social media this week.
Messi commands the spotlight and he is going to take Van Dijk out of his comfort zone. His double against Manchester United in the quarter-finals took him to 24 Champions League goals against English opposition – twice as many as any other players.
And Messi has never scored against Liverpool before - will he break his duck on Reds tonight?
Will familiar faces hurt Liverpool?
Suarez has been a consistent scorer for Barca in his five years with the club, hitting at least 20 goals in every season. He will be keen to end a scoring drought in the Champions League that has seen him fail to find the net since April 2018 and score only two goals in his last 26 matches in the competition.
Coutinho has struggled to secure a regular starting spot since joining Barca, but did score a superb goal in the quarter-final win over Manchester United. He said recently that he is "very excited" to be facing Liverpool.
Klopp's amazing knockout record
Klopp struggles in finals but he's never lost a two-legged European knockout tie as Liverpool manager.
From 2015 to now, Klopp has led Liverpool to beat a bunch of powerful teams in two-legged ties such as Man Utd, Man City, Bayern Munich and Dortmund.
Barcelona should be worried about that.
VanishPrasad
322
Suarez is going for the bite with his teeth. Firmino is shining the light on the door with his teeth 😂😂😂 The battle of the Teeth is on
Moomin17
255
Comparison: Piqué vs Van Dijk. Piqué: ➡goal contributions this season: 9 ➡passing accuracy: 91.58% ➡ lost posession: 218 ➡tackles won: 36 Van Dijk: ➡goal contributions this season: 9 ➡passing accuracy: 89.5% ➡lost posession: 315 ➡tackles won: 32 Cool 👌 In short Clash of Titan's.
CityzenPep
253
Van Dijk will regret facing Messi
TenzinApo
175
may Liverpool win
Naimurrahmansiam
154
Dembele will start for Barca.Because Arnold is often caught out of position and Dembele can exploit the space where Coutinho is slow to do that job.But my problem is Jordi also gets caught and even though he has the pace there is Sallah for Liv.I hope Valvarde comes well prepared than ever so that we can survive those counter attacks and also don t have to face many of them.Visca Barca.We got this one.
captmmarwel
152
supporting liverpool today not because im a real madrid fan but just want to see liverpool bag double this season. Im not typical fan boy who hates Barcelona. i respect them and its going to be very difficult to stop barca this season in ucl. Messi has been in terrific form and stopping him for 180 mins is next to impossible. and apart from messi we dont talk much about a player who has been so solid this season, pique. he has been phenomenal in that back four setup. he has shown you can neutralise pace of opponent with vintage defending. i really respect the way pique has played in last 4-5 months. he was incredible during those 3 el classicos against us. i can totally see mane firmi n salah not able to gain much just with presence of pique.
Fulldosw
69
The Whole World will stop for a while. Don't Miss it ..It will be better than the Final. I guarantee
Jayrol1111
53
Am I the only person who thinks Liverpool will kick Barcelona out of the champions league?