Sport

Barcelona's Luis Enrique the reason behind the Camp Nou miracle

Brendan Crossan

Brendan Crossan

Brendan is a sports reporter at The Irish News. He has worked at the media outlet since January 1999 and specialises in GAA, soccer and boxing. He has been the Republic of Ireland soccer correspondent since 2001 and has covered the 2002 and 2006 World Cup finals and the 2012 European Championships

Barcelona's head coach Luis Enrique - the man who made the miracle happen
Barcelona's head coach Luis Enrique - the man who made the miracle happen Barcelona's head coach Luis Enrique - the man who made the miracle happen

FOR long swathes of this season it looked as though Barcelona were running on empty. They were still winning games but not with the same verve as before.

While they easily dismissed the likes of Eibar, Osasuna and Sporting Gijon, the Catalan giants just weren’t clicking.

You only had to scan individual performances for evidence.

There were a couple of mistakes in Javier Mascherano per game. The Catalan fans would be fawning over Gerard Pique’s consummate displays one week and scratching their heads the next.

Marc-Andre der Stegen’s erratic displays in goal was also having an unsettling effect on the Barca back line.

Jordi Alba’s perpetual runs down the left flank had lost their pizzazz.

Dani Alves, now with Juventus, left a terrible void at right back.

And midfield had become a real problem area for a club that spawned the wonderful careers of Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta.

Ivan Rakitic brought higher energy levels to the midfield but the Croat had the misfortune of coming after Xavi and wasn’t the type of player who dictated the conditions or tempo of a game.

Sergio Busquets is arguably the best holding midfielder in the modern era but he too has suffered dramatic dips in form.

And to Iniesta, the eighth wonder of the world, whose creative powers have been cruelly blunted by injury and rarely plays a full 90 minutes these days.

Barcelona’s recruitment policy has also been slightly odd, illustrated by the addition of Portuguese international Andre Gomes who doesn't look or feel like a natural fit at Camp Nou.

Of course, these are post-Xavi times.

Possession used to be 10 tenths of the law but not any more.

Philosophies change.

Under Luis Enrique, Barcelona play a more vertical style.

The tactical shift to a counter-attacking style was entirely understandable, especially with Luis Suarez and Neymar adept at stretching defences.

Lionel Messi was still scoring goals and Suarez too - but Neymar was contributing less and his performances had been lacking their usual sparkle.

While the vast majority of La Liga teams could be easily contained, Barcelona’s flaws were spectacularly exposed in their 4-0 first leg defeat to Paris Saint Germain a couple of weeks ago.

They could easily have lost 7-0.

But, even at 4-0 it made the second leg barely relevant.

Messi, the world’s imperturbable genius, posted his worst-ever game in a Barcelona shirt in Paris, coughing up possession on countless occasions while Barcelona’s reliable metronome, Busquets played like an old man.

But that’s what happens with serial champions over time.

Intensity inevitably drops.

You do just enough to win games.

Motivation becomes an issue too.

You stop making that extra run.

You don’t close down your opponent the way you once did.

You lose that crucial half yard.

And, as with all seasoned champions, you start to view form like turning a light switch on and off.

But you will unravel at some point – just as Barca did in Paris.

Barcelona have been going through the motions for most of the season.

Enrique’s managerial position has been constantly under the spotlight.

But then, everything changed in an instant.

After cruising to a 6-1 win over La Liga strugglers Sporting Gijon at the beginning of March, Enrique surprised everyone in his post-match press conference by announcing he would be leaving at the end of the season.

Enrique’s timing seemed odd.

An “absolute disaster” was how Alex Ferguson described his declaration to retire at the end of the 2001/02 (later to be reversed).

Manchester United surrendered their league title to Arsenal that season, with Ferguson later acknowledging his pronouncement was a contributory factor in the side’s decline.

Quite clearly, it’s had the opposite effect at Camp Nou.

Messi and co have been galvanised by Enrique’s impending exit.

In their very next game, at home to Celta Vigo, Barcelona played their best game of the season.

Busquets rediscovered his form and Messi scored two sublime individual goals.

Tempo had returned to Barca’s play.

The performance raised hopes ahead of Wednesday night’s second leg against PSG.

Indeed, Enrique deserves the lion’s share of the credit for pulling off what will be forever known as the ‘Miracle of Camp Nou’.

The manager’s tactics were superb.

Given the width and over-lapping dimension they often provide, deciding not to play full-backs against a defensive wall seemed an outrageous notion.

But it allowed Enrique to station more pieces in PSG’s half of the field and re-calibrated Barcelona’s famous high press.

It was the most ruthless spider’s web imaginable.

It meant the game would be played almost exclusively in one half of the field – a philosophy first established by Pep Guardiola.

PSG simply could not get out of their half of the field.

They couldn’t string more than two passes together before the ball was stolen off them.

For PSG, Wednesday night’s second leg became more psychological than physical.

If Barcelona imploded in the first leg, PSG did likewise, and more, in the second leg.

And yet, ironically, Barcelona lacked their usual fluidity throughout this memorable encounter.

The key foundation of the greatest comeback in the history of football was Barcelona’s execution of the ugly, less romantic things of the game.

The amount of turnovers Barcelona won in PSG’s half of the field was astonishing.

That alone was the glowing parable of an unforgettable night in Catalonia.