MADRID, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Wednesday night sees FC Barcelona entertain Liverpool in the first leg of their Champions League semifinal in what is shaping up to be a classic encounter between two of Europes historic clubs.
Barca go into the game after being crowned as Spanish Liga Santander champions for the eighth time in the last 11 years on Saturday night, while Liverpool, who are still battling it out against Manchester City for the Premier League, cruised past Huddersfield on Friday.
Even though the title was at stake, Barca boss Ernesto Valverde rested several key players at the weekend, with Leo Messi coming on at half time against Levante and Sergio Busquets also starting the game on the subs' bench.
The game will see Barca striker Luis Suarez and attacking midfielder, Philippe Coutinho both face their former club, although Coutinho's starting place may be in doubt following Ousmane Dembele's return to full fitness after a muscle injury,
One thing that is certain is that Valverde will pick what he considers his strongest available 11 and that with the league already assured he will also be able to rotate his squad ahead of the second leg.
The Champions League is Barca's main target this season after last season's quarterfinal exit to Roma and it is perhaps on his club's European campaign that Valverde will eventually be judged.
Liverpool reached last season's final where they controversially lost to Real Madrid, although their European campaign has also been tempered by the desire to end a 30-year wait for the Premier League title.
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp knows his side have to win their weekend Premier League game against Newcastle next weekend to stay in the title hunt but he also knows they will need a good result in the Camp Nou to keep their semifinal tie alive.
Key to the result will be the contest between Liverpool's attacking full backs Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander Arnold and Barca's duo on Jordi Alba and Sergi Roberto (or Nelson Semedo). Both sets of full backs push forward and the duo that come out on top will have gone a long way towards limiting their rivals' options.
Meanwhile Virgil van Djik, recently crowned as Player of the Year in England, will have to stop Messi, a man he called the best player in the world, although the Dutchman would expect to face no less at this stage of the tournament.
"The situation is that we are in the semifinal against Barcelona and we are going to face the best player in the world but it is not only him, the whole team has a lot of quality. We will prepare well and we have also a very good team so we can compete there. It is not like we are going there for a holiday," he said in the Guardian. Enditem
