Behind Enemy Lines: Messi's Champions League mission and how Barcelona plan to stop their pressing problem

Blood Red: The Liverpool FC Podcast

Reach Podcasts

News, Sports, Soccer, Sports News

4.4 • 1000 Ratings

🗓️ 1 May 2019

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It goes to show the season that Liverpool are enjoying that the Champions League has almost been an afterthought at times during this incredible campaign. But while the thrilling race for the Premier League is very much alive, the focus tonight will solely be on European football’s top club competition and a semi-final first-leg showdown with Barcelona. The bad news is Lionel Messi appears hell-bent on bringing the Champions League back to Barca and if he is at his magical best, there may be little Liverpool can do. The fact that Ernesto Valverde has been able to rest key players, like Messi, and still wrap up an eighth La Liga title in 11 years, doesn’t help the Reds either. Neither does the force of nature that is Luis Suarez or the improved form of another Liverpool old boy, Philippe Coutinho. But as the guest of this podcast explains, for all their undoubted strengths, Barcelona are not without their weaknesses. And Sam Marsden, who covers the La Liga champions for ESPN, believes the Reds could be the team to exploit them. Valverde is aware of that, too, and Sam reveals the Barca boss has actually been taking tips from one of his predecessors in how to halt Jurgen Klopp’s Red Machine – a certain Pep Guardiola. There’s loads more to get stuck into before Sam heads off to report on the press conferences that took place at Barcelona’s training ground on Tuesday night. It’s a bit noisy at the start, but it soon settles down, which is exactly what Liverpool will be hoping to do at Camp Nou on Wednesday. For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the Blood Red Podcast from the Liverpool Echo, giving you the inside track on all the big talking points from Anfield.
0:08.0	Hello, my name is Paul Wheelock and welcome to the Behind Enemy Lines podcast to get the inside track on the team standing in
0:15.3	Liverpool's way of making the Champions League final for the second season running.
0:19.8	Sam Marston is the Barcelona correspondent for ESPN and if you listen to the podcast we did with him in March
0:24.9	about Philip Catineo's time at the new camp since choosing to leave Liverpool then he
0:28.9	will know he certainly knows his stuff and I had the pleasure of catching up with
0:32.4	Sam again before he
0:33.5	attended the press conferences at Barcelona's training ground on Tuesday night and
0:37.3	Esto Valverdi's side secured their eighth league title in 11 years at the
0:41.2	weekend and Sam explains why it was crucial they wrapped it up
0:44.3	before these games in Liverpool in the pursuit of what has become the holy
0:48.0	grail for Leonel Massey his teammates and the Barcelona fans. As you can
0:52.1	imagine there's plenty more on arguably the greatest player ever to play the game,
0:55.8	plus the Red's reunion with Catino and Louis Suarez.
0:59.1	Sam also speaks about the real respect Barcelona have for Liverpool and why they have been taking inspiration
1:04.4	from Manchester City and their former manager Pep Guardiola in the lead up to Wednesday's first
1:08.8	like. Hope you enjoy our chat and we'll be back after the match with the post game podcast.
1:13.6	The Blood Red Podcast from the Liverpool Echo.
1:16.6	Well, hi Sam, thank you very much for joining me just ahead of Barcelona's press conference to talk Wednesday's
1:24.4	massive match with with Liverpool in the Champions League semi-final first.
1:28.2	Like sounds like the atmosphere is really building there already.
1:32.1	Hi Paul, yeah.
	...

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