BARCELONA’S can forget hopes of winning the Champions League again until they solve their shocking problem away from home. The Spanish giants were humiliated as they crashed to a 4-0 defeat to Liverpool which sent them spiralling out of the competition in the semi-finals. Barca believed their 3-0 victory in the first-eg in the Nou Camp […]
BARCELONA’S can forget hopes of winning the Champions League again until they solve their shocking problem away from home.
The Spanish giants were humiliated as they crashed to a 4-0 defeat to Liverpool which sent them spiralling out of the competition in the semi-finals.
Barca believed their 3-0 victory in the first-eg in the Nou Camp last week would be enough to book a place in the final in Madrid.
But they failed to take into account their dismal record in knock-out stage matches in Europe when they are playing on the road.
For despite possessing one of the most fearsome attacking units around, the La Liga champions have now scored just twice on their travels in EIGHT latter stage matches.
Ever more worrying, in those games Barcelona have shipped 17 goals.
It is a run which has been going on for four years now, and displays an alarming weakness in the side which continues to thwart their attempts to become champions of Europe.
Those list of worrying displays on their travels have also included the kind of beatings Liverpool inflicted on them, and until they find a cure for their away-day blues they can forget Champions League glory.
Last season the Spanish side went to unfancied Roma and were hammered 3-0 in the Olympic Stadium.
There was also been a 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain along with a 3-0 loss at Juventus.
So suddenly the prospect of facing Barcelona is no longer as daunting as it used to be because sides know they fail to show up outside of Spain.
Liverpool, like Roma, Juve and PSG before them, exposed the soft under-belly of a side which loves turning on the style but seems to lack that stomach for a fight.
It is an issue which runs through the whole side, but shows up hugely in the record of striker Luis Suarez.
Suarez scored the opening goal of the tie last week and proved a real thorn in the side of his former club.
But Suarez has had little to celebrate personally in the Champions League on away days – having failed to score a single goal in any European tie on the road since September 2015.
