Do Barcelona still need to sign a top-level center-back in order to win the Champions League?

Gill Clark Gill Clark is the site manager of Barca Blaugranes and joined in 2017. She has worked in sports media as a writer and editor for the best part of two decades and has been in love with the beautiful game for as long as she can remember.

Barcelona have made a fine start to their 2026-27 Champions League campaign, enjoying big wins over Feyenoord and Galatasaray. The victories will provide optimism that Hansi Flick's side can go all the way this season, although Abelardo has warned that Barca still need one more signing if they are to clinch the European Cup.

"I think that to aspire to win the Champions League, Barcelona needs a top-level center-back. I hope I'm wrong," he told Onda Cero.

"In the end, you're going to have to win defensive duels with Kvaratskhelia, Harry Kane. I think that Barça, at the back, still lacks, in my opinion, top-level players to be able to aspire to win the Champions League, which they can win, but I think they still lack something.

Recent seasons have seen Barcelona leak goals in painful defeats to Inter and Atletico Madrid in the latter stages of the competition. Indeed you have to go all the way back to a game with Dortmund in April, 2015 to find the last time Barcelona kept a clean sheet in the competition.

So today's Barca Blaugranes Question of the Day is: Do Barcelona still need to sign a top-level center-back in order to win the Champions League? Feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and answers in the comments section below!"