Barcelona dressing room confident about the Champions League this season – report

Barcelona player their first game of the 2023-24 UEFA Champions League tomorrow night at Estadi Olimpic de Lluis Companys. They will take on Royal Antwerp in their first UCL game of the season.

Recent years have not been kind to the Catalans in Europe. A combination of injuries, poor preparation and insufficient mental resilience saw them knocked out in the group stages for two consecutive seasons. The objective this season is to turn their fortune around.

Voices in the dressing room

According to reports from Alex Pintanel, players in the Barcelona dressing room insist that they are ready for the UCL this year.

There is renewed faith in the squad’s ability to progress deep into the competition and perhaps even go all the way.

The first step, however, is to get out of the group stages and book a spot in the knockout stage. With Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk and Royal Antwerp in their group, the odds are the Barcelona’s favour. Yet, there are no minnows in the UCL and every game will be an ordeal.

A renewed squad

Purely from a perspective of the quality of the squad, not many clubs across the world can boast of being better than Barcelona.

Xavi has all that a manager can dream of at his disposal. Pedri, Gavi, Ronald Araujo, Alejandro Balde, Jules Kounde, and Lamine Yamal are just some of the numerous young stars who are still raw, but already look settled and firing.

At the same time, the manager has seasoned pros in Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Robert Lewandowski, and Andreas Christensen to steer the ship.

Barcelona only improved their squad in the recent summer transfer window by signing the treble-winning captain Ilkay Gundigan. With the German adding his Champions League experience to the roster, Barcelona have no excuses this time around.