PBP: UEFA CL | Matchday 5 | Spartak Moscow v FC Barcelona | 20 Nov 2012 [R]

Tuesday, the 20th of November 2012

| BARCELONA (CEST), 18:00 | LOS ANGELES (PDT), 9:00 | MONTREAL( EDT), 12:00 | LONDON (BST), 17:00 |MELBOURNE (EST), 2:00 (NEXT DAY)

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LUZHNIKI STADIUM

Moscow

Capacity: 78,360

Match Background

• Spartak's last Moscow fixture in the competition was a 2-1 defeat of Benfica, just their second victory in 16 home UEFA Champions League group stage games. All the same, four points adrift of second-placed Celtic, they retain only slender hopes of reaching the last 16 for the first time since 2000/01.

• Spartak's 12 previous home encounters with Spanish opposition have yielded the record W3 D6 L3. Their most recent visitors from Spain were RC Celta de Vigo for a 1-1 draw in the 2006/07 UEFA Cup round of 32 tie. Artem Dzyuba was on the bench and appeared as a substitute in Spartak's 2-1 second-leg loss in Spain.

• Víctor Valdés, Carles Puyol and Xavi Hernández were in the Barcelona side that won 3-1 at FC Lokomotiv Moskva in the 2002/03 UEFA Champions League first group stage – Barcelona's only victory from six trips to Russia. The five other matches all finished in draws, including trips to FC Rubin Kazan in the group stage in 2009/10 and 2010/11.

• Barcelona's defeat at Celtic was their first in 19 group stage outings, since they lost by the same score at home to Rubin in 2009.

Match Statistics

• Celtic FC's 3-2 win at Spartak on matchday two was their first in 21 away games in the UEFA Champions League.

• Rafael Carioca and Dmitri Kombarov have played every minute of Spartak's group stage campaign.

• Ari has been caught offside ten times; more than any other player.

• Nicolas Pareja serves a one-game ban following his red card on matchday four. Marek Suchý will incur a suspension with his next booking.

• Barcelona have scored 349 goals in the UEFA Champions League, group stage to final.

• Xavi Hernández completed 169 passes on matchday three, only 13 fewer than the whole of the Celtic FC team managed at the Camp Nou.

• Lionel Messi has been UEFA Champions League top scorer for an unprecedented four successive campaigns.

• Víctor Valdés, Javier Mascherano, Xavi and Messi have played every minute of Barça's group campaign.

• Sergio Busquets is available after completing a two-game ban following his red card on matchday two. Alex Song's next booking will incur a suspension.

Head to Head Results

Tue 01/03/94 ECL Spartak Moscow 2 - 2 Barcelona

Tue 15/03/94 ECL Barcelona 5 - 1 Spartak Moscow

Wed 19/09/12 ECL Barcelona 3 - 2 Spartak Moscow

Current Form

Tue 30/10/12 CDR Deportivo Alaves 0 - 3 Barcelona

Sat 03/11/12 PRD Barcelona 3 - 1 Celta Vigo

Wed 07/11/12 ECL Celtic 2 - 1 Barcelona

Sun 11/11/12 PRD Mallorca 2 - 4 Barcelona

Sat 17/11/12 PRD Barcelona 3 - 1 Zaragoza

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Visca el Barça

Squad List for the game:

Valdés, Pinto, Oier

Alves, Piqué, Puyol, Mascherano, Jordi Alba, Montoya

Fàbregas, Xavi, Iniesta, Jonathan dos Santos, Sergio Busquets, Song, Sergi Roberto

Villa, Messi, Pedro, Tello, Deulofeu

Another great thread started, thanks! Let's get the group over with here by securing first place and avoiding any injuries. Squad rotation seems like a good thing with Levante on the weekend.

FYI: Note the early kickoff for Spartak-Barca.
Benfica-Celtic will play at the customary 20:45 CET.

If Barca come away with a win, they would definitely advance from the group but that alone may not be enough to cement first place by night's end.

Barça ....... 9 pts
Celtic ....... 7 Benfica ..... 4
Spartak .... 3

A win coupled with a Celtic non-victory (draw or defeat) against Benfica would confirm Barca as group winners.
For their part, if Celtic win in Lisbon then they would definitely advance to the Round of 16 irregardless of the Moscow result.

Fortunately, Levante is on Sunday night - more than 5 days/120 hours after the match in Moscow ends - so I think they can just field close to their strongest lineup for both games. Especially with all the rest Busquets has been getting through suspensions.

Expect to hear some whining from Mourinho about LPB having to play Wed-Sat while Barca play Tues-Sunday.

If Barca draw this and Celtic win theirs..

Would Barca still be 1st and Celtic 2nd??

They have that head to head thing which I can't keep up with, since I don't know if they use GD at all..

Yes, head-to-head is first tiebreaker, but in this case** it goes to the next tiebreaker which would be GD.

** Barca and Celtic head-t0-head is 3 goals apiece and 1 away goal each.

Actually even a draw in Moscow would be enough for Barca to advance.

Hmmm...

Currently...

Barça ....... 9 pts

Celtic ....... 7

Benfica ..... 4

Spartak ..... 3

MD5: Barca draw, Benfica win...

Barça ...... 10 pts

Benfica ..... 7 (tiebreak: Benfica > Celtic)

Celtic ....... 7

Spartak .... 3

MD6: Benfica defeats Barcelona, Celtic defeats Spartak...

Barça ....... 10 pts

Benfica .... 10

Celtic ....... 10

Spartak ...... 3

*First tiebreak: head-to-head points (i.e. take out all games involving Spartak)...
Celtic draw Benfica
Barcelona beat Benfica
Barcelona beat Celtic
Celtic beat Barcelona
Benfica beat Celtic
Benfica beat Barcelona

Benfica .... 7

Barça ....... 6

Celtic ....... 4

Okay, repped.

I think the lineup we go with tomorrow should probably be our lineup at the weekend if it does well. It'd be nice to build some continuity ahead of a difficult schedule like the one we have upcoming as we wait for some of the unavailable players to get back into the fold.

This will be a difficult match, no doubt, but not just because of the conditions in Russia. Spartak is a quality team under Emery and they showed it Camp Nou where they led with just under twenty minutes to go before Messi produced some late magic. We'll have to be more careful and wary of their counters. I trust Alba but we need a strong performance from Alves too who needs to improve defensively this season. He hasn't been far too trustworthy there so far.

Valdes

Alves Puyol Pique Alba

Xavi Busquets Cesc

Villa Messi Iniesta

I'd probably go with that but it's a tough one. Don't want to leave Pedro or Villa out, but we can't have Cesc on bench again here. He should start and Iniesta is in good form right now. Maybe Xavi could come out but I don't see it.

Spartak are missing all three goalkeepers for this though! Will be a youth team keeper with not much experience in goal, that's a good sign for us and surely he won't be pulling off any Forster type of heroics with that kind of inexperience.

Let's just go there and play our game, hopefully get the win and seal the group ahead of Matchday 6.

He should put England's jersey inside

This group has been a lot tougher than I expected, I want Fabregas to start. No need to risk Xavi in the cold.

Tbh this season has been the toughest and most unpredictable I have ever seen..

Every group practically has 3 that can advance..
The big teams are dropping down and the small teams are shining..

The R16 is going to be the toughest it has been for a very long time..

Barca/Celtic
Porto/PSG
Dortmund/Madrid
Bayern/Valencia
Shaktar/Chelsea
ManU/cluj
Schalke/Arsenal
Malaga/Milan

Who would've thought teams like shaktar, schalke or Malaga would be kicking ass

Or that Dortmund would he 1st in their group when everyone wrote then off before the season..
Of course these are assumed teams, anything can happen in 2 MD..

Like Chelsea or Madrid not making it

All I know are 2 things, one I can't see the game because I am working late shift and two, my two bets are still on

P.S
I hope Messi scores again tonight

I'll miss the game as well. Just hoping Messi gets on the score sheet. I note there are a coule of Copa Del Rey games coming up, normally Messi would not play at this stage but it could be a chance for him to fill his boots goal wise.

Malaga started la liga well but now has dropped to 5th or 6th place, but they're currently on the top in their CL group. They must be focusing on that one.

Chelsea group is the toughest one, 7 , 7 and 6 points. It would be cool if Juventus kick their ass though

Man City have the toughest group, just as they did last season funnily enough. I hate Juve but I will be supporting them against Chelsea, whom I hate even more.

Considering the chaos behind the scenes at Malaga, and the fact that players are still not getting paid, what they have achieved already this season is remarkable.

I've never understood betting against your own team. It's like making sure you get a meh reaction, whatever happens. Always bet with no feelings attached, or if must, bet for your team to succeed imo.

Agreed that it's been some group stage.

That said, I think a decent amount of people don't see Shaktar, Schalke and even Malaga doing fine being that much of a surprise - let alone Dortmund.

But if you take the emotion out of it it does make sense. Because Barca are going to be strong favourites going into any match they play, so it would not make sense to back them. Not that I'm a gambling man myself.

You can still back Barca in other ways (e.g. predict the final scoreline, predict first goal scorer, over/under, etc). It doesn't really make sense to bet against Barca. They've lost 2 games out of about 25 this season, so unless you're getting 15/1 odds for the other team to win its not worth it.

Well, I'm only talking about small bets, that's what my mate does, he'll put on bets of a quid or a couple of quid, so if he wins great, but it's not big deal if he loses. We're not talking about high rollers here.

You can also bet small in those other ways.

He does it on a lot of stuff, horse races, cricket matches, EPL games, championship games, just the odd quid here and there, gives you an added interest in a particular event.