mascherano

The FC Barcelona Manager believes that his players need to go into tomorrow's match against Bayern Munich with cool heads: “we have to play a good game and be the better team, then the goals will come”. “We have to hold our heads high if we are eliminated, we cannot give up; we need to make our fans proud”, he said. “We have to be ourselves and try to play a good game of football. We need to score goals through our style of play”, Vilanova added. “If we are going to mount a comeback we need our fans at the Camp Nou”, he concluded.

Bayern and Barça meet on Tuesday in the Champions League semi final first leg in Munich (20.45 CET). It’s Spring’s Catalan national day, Sant Jordi, people are flocking on the streets to buy books and roses for those they love, and in the evening they will sit down together to enjoy one of the greatest games of the year. All four of the last Champions League finals have included one or other of these two clubs, FC Barcelona or Bayern. Barça won the title in 2009 and 2011, while Bayern finished runners-up in 2010 and 2012. And after they were drawn together in the semi finals this year, we already know for sure that one or other will be back in the final at Wembley next month.

Barça’s Assistant Manager, Jordi Roura says that Barça will be ambitious against PSG on Wednesday’s second leg game. Roura, who take care of Barça during Tito Vilanova’s absence, notes that only victory would guarantee a spot in the semi-finals of the Champions League. On Messi, Adriano and Pedro's fitness, Barça's assistant manager says that “we have to wait and see how they feel and we especially have to see the results from their latest medical tests”. Nevertheless, Messi trained on Tuesday with the rest of his team-mates, although he has not received the medical all-clear yet.

A 94th minute goal from Matuidi gave Paris Saint-Germain a draw after Messi and Mascherano had both come off injured. Barça went ahead in the first half thanks to a goal from Messi, who failed to reappear after the break after picking up a hamstring injury, before Ibrahimovic brought the teams level with ten minutes left to play. Xavi then slotted home a penalty on 88 minutes which appeared to have given Barça a win, only for Bartra to get the slightest of ricochets on a Matuidi shot in the dying seconds and help it past Valdes.

Two first half goals from Leo Messi (2) and two more from David Villa and Jordi Alba cancelled out AC Milan’s two-goal head start. Things looked bleak after the 2-0 reverse at the San Siro, but AC Milan were simply no match for the Catalans on Tuesday. Barça thus gain spectacular revenge for the 4-0 defeat in the Athens final of 1994 and go into Friday’s Champions League quarter finals draw.