Barcelona's Champions League defensive crisis deepens before Aston Villa test
Barcelona face Aston Villa on Tuesday with their Champions League campaign overshadowed by a recurring problem: conceding the opening goal and failing to keep a clean sheet. The Catalan club are seeking a response to their 4-2 defeat by Paris Saint-Germain when they welcome an ambitious Aston Villa side determined to underline their credentials as genuine contenders for the competition this season.
For Hans Flick, the immediate priority is to find a solution to a weakness that has repeatedly left Barcelona chasing games. According to figures published by Mundo Deportivo, Barcelona have conceded first in nine of their past 12 Champions League matches.
The team have opened the scoring in only three of those games. This season, Raphinha scored first in the 5-1 win against Feyenoord.
In the previous campaign, Lamine Yamal put Barcelona ahead in the second leg against Atletico Madrid, which ended 2-1, while Raphinha again scored the first goal in the 7-2 victory over Newcastle. In the other nine matches, Barcelona fell behind before responding.
They conceded first against Paris Saint-Germain in the 4-2 defeat, with the opening goal scored by Doue; against Galatasaray in the 4-1 win, when Batrakov struck; and in the first leg against Atletico Madrid, which ended 0-2 after Julian Alvarez's goal. The same pattern occurred against Newcastle in the 1-1 draw, when Barnes scored; against Copenhagen in the 4-1 victory, after Dadasson's opener; and against Slavia Prague in the 2-4 defeat, following Kosegi's goal.
Barcelona also started behind against Eintracht Frankfurt in the 2-1 win, when Knauff scored, against Chelsea in the 3-0 defeat after an own goal by Kounde, and against Brugge in the 3-3 draw, with Tresoldi finding the net first. 18 consecutive Champions League games without a clean sheet Barcelona's defensive record extends beyond their slow starts.
They have conceded in 18 successive Champions League matches, a run that has not been halted since the first leg against Borussia Dortmund, when they won 4-0 in the quarter-finals of the season before last. That match remains the last occasion on which Barcelona kept a clean sheet in Europe.
Since then, they have allowed goals against Olympiacos in the 6-1 win, Paris Saint-Germain in the 1-2 defeat and Newcastle in the 1-2 loss. They also conceded in the memorable 2015 semi-final against Inter Milan, which produced scores of 3-3 and 4-3, as well as in the second leg of the quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund, a 3-1 victory.
Keeping Aston Villa out will be a major challenge. The English side have scored 12 goals in their opening three matches of the tournament and arrive with a potent attack.