Barcelona and Atletico Madrid to play with away jerseys in the Champions League
In an effort to improve visibility and to ensure that the spectators can clearly differentiate between the two teams, UEFA has requested both Barcelona and Atletico Madrid to wear their second kits for the Champions League quarter-finals. Barcelona will be wearing their red and gold kit, while Atletico will be sporting a dark blue one.
A similar situation had occurred in the women’s Champions League when Barcelona were forced to play with their away kit at home against Twente since the Dutch side only had red and blue kits.
This is not the first time the men’s team is wearing the gold kit at home. Strangely enough, it was the first official match of Pep Guardiola as Barcelona manager and it was against Polish opposition, Wisla Krakow. They won that match 4-0 and it set them on the path to the Champions League title in the 2008/09 season.
Barcelona will be hoping that the gold and red kit proves lucky for them once again.
Luis Enrique feels Barcelona need to pick themselves up after Clasico loss
Catalan football giants Barcelona's head coach Luis Enrique has work to do ahead of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final at home against Atletico Madrid on Tuesday.
Saturday night saw Barcelona lose to Real Madrid 1-2 at the Camp Nou Stadium to end their record-breaking run of 39 games without defeat, reports Xihhua.
More worrying than the defeat itself was Barcelona side filled with players who had flown back late from South American World Cup qualifying matches looked flat and tired against their rivals.
"As a rule I don' t talk about this (tiredness) because I don't like to look for excuses. You have to play and you have to accept the circumstances," said the Barcelona coach, who now has just two days to prepare for Tuesday's game.
"I have to look at what went wrong, but we have to pick ourselves up. This game (Saturday) doesn't exist for us anymore and it doesn't hurt," added Enrique, who will be looking at possible solutions.
"Defeats teach you things. They teach you that every title is hard to win and the players all know that."
In contrast to Barcelona's difficult night, Atletico Madrid enjoyed a placid afternoon on Saturday as they cruised past Betis 5-1 in a game which was under control with over half an hour left to play.
Although Atletico could be without first-choice central defensive duo Diego Godin and Jose Gimenez in the Camp Nou, coach Diego Simeone was able to rest players such as Saul and Fernando Torres, who will quite likely take to the pitch on Tuesday night.
Barcelona have already beaten Atletico twice in the La Liga this season but on Tuesday tired legs could be a factor.