Pep Guardiola is headed home to visit Lionel Messi and his Barcelona teammates in the Champions League semifinals.
The current Bayern Munich coach, who led Barcelona to 14 titles before heading to Germany and helped win more as a player, will face his old team in the first leg on Wednesday at Camp Nou.
Guardiola has already won the Bundesliga title this season and will next meet his childhood club and former teammate Luis Enrique.
Messi and Luis Enrique, who calls Guardiola his “friend,” both said Tuesday that the chance of reaching a European final was a greater motivation that facing the man already considered a club great.
Here are some things to know about Wednesday’s match:
No other coach besides former Real Madrid nemesis Jose Mourinho has left his mark on European soccer like Guardiola, who perfected Barcelona’s passing style and implanted it at Bayern.
The arrival of Luis Enrique to coach Barcelona, and, equally important, that of Luis Suarez to provide a traditional striker up front, has let Barcelona finally vary its tactics, which had atrophied since Guardiola left. Barcelona can now win through set pieces and long balls for Suarez, something rarely seen over the past decade at Camp Nou.
Barcelona and Bayern lead the four teams left in the competition in passing, with an eerily equal completion rate of 91 percent. Barcelona has made 6,308 total passes compared to 6,230 for Bayern. Real Madrid is a distant third with 5,183.
“I don’t think Pep has any doubts about what we will do,” Luis Enrique said. “He knows the players, and he knows me as a coach because I was with the “B’’ team when he was here.
Barcelona’s only loss in its last 32 Champions League matches at home came against Bayern in 2013, when the German side beat the hosts 3-0 to win 7-0 on aggregate in the semifinals before winning its fifth European Cup.
A right-hamstring injury had sidelined Messi for that second leg, and few expect a repeat of Bayern’s demolition with Messi back to his best.
Messi, who broke both the Champions League and Spanish league scoring records this season, has scored 51 goals in all competitions, with eight coming in the Champions League.
“The way he is playing now, no defense can stop him,” Guardiola said. “His team is used to (opponents) putting nine players in the area, to sending everyone at him to press him ... the way he is playing over the last 3-4 months he is unstoppable. There is no defensive system, there isn’t a coach. Talent of that magnitude can’t be defended.”
The injury-hit Bayern is hoping striker Robert Lewandowski will be able to play with a special mask.
Lewandowski, who suffered a concussion and fractures in his upper jaw and nasal bone in the German Cup semifinal loss to Borussia Dortmund a week ago, traveled with the team on Tuesday morning.
A bigger problem may be his shoulder and a bruised rib that are leaving the striker in pain.
Whether Lewandowski can play will be a late decision by the doctors.
“I am not afraid but I have to see if it will be possible,” Lewandowski said.
In addition to long-term injures to Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery, Bayern also will be missing useful midfielder Sebastian Rode, who has unspecified muscular problems.
“The injuries are not an excuse,” Bayern midfielder Xabi Alonso said. “We would have liked to be able to count on all our players, but we will still face the game with the same intensity.”
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