What can Barcelona expect against Inter Milan?

With a crunch tie coming up ahead for Barcelona against Inter Milan in the UEFA Champions League, the harrowing prospect of getting knocked out of Europe’s biggest competition for a second season running is becoming increasingly real.

If the Catalans fail to win against Inter in the reverse fixture at the Camp Nou, they will be in a very dire situation, staring down the Europa League barrel again. Since the 1970s, Barcelona have never featured in the second tier of Europe in successive seasons.

So what can the Blaugrana expect from the Nerazzuri in matchweek four of the UEFA Champions League? Barça Universal take a look.

A resilient deep block

Inter will likely deploy a three-at-the-back with Alessandro Bastoni, Stefan de Vrij and Milan Skriniar, with Federico Dimarco and Matteo Darmian as the wingbacks who will start pushed up, but in the game will drop back to form a five-man backline.

Similar to the previous game, they will try and hold a very tight and compact line to mark Robert Lewandowski out of the game, minimising his ability to make runs in behind and try to hold play up to create space on the wings.

A packed midfield

Simone Inzaghi’s men will know that neutralising Barcelona’s potent midfield is vital, and they will do so by having either one of Lautaro Martinez or Edin Dzeko drop into the middle of the park to effectively create a 5-4-1.

This will allow them to cut off passing lanes and crowd out the Catalans after already jamming up the final third with their deep block, and prevent them from creating numerical superiorities.

Nico Barella’s energy and creativity can help evade the press if Barcelona lose the ball and launch a swift counter-attack with the wingbacks pushing up quickly in support.

Major threat on the break

Much like the reverse fixture, Inter will likely have the ball far less than Barcelona, but as soon as they regain possession, they will drive into the space to catch their opponents off guard.

With their two strikers Lautaro Martinez and Edin Dzeko both capable of playing off each other, and the former particularly adept at making runs in behind to draw defenders towards him, it opens up space around the penalty area.

And when that happens, someone like Hakan Calhanoglu always poses a threat even if Barcelona get bodies back. The Turkish midfielder is a major threat while shooting from distance, with incredible accuracy and technique.

Aside from his superb goal, he stung the gloves of Marc Andre ter Stegen from even farther out very early in the game. It will be essential for Barcelona to not allow him any time to shoot.