PREVIEW | Royal Antwerp v FC Barcelona

Thanks to to the win against Porto a fortnight ago, FC Barcelona are already assured of a place in the last sixteen of the Champions League after missing out in the previous two seasons, and they have done so with a game in hand.

That takes a lot of the sting out of the final fixture, away to Royal Antwerp this Tuesday at 9pm CET, for the Belgians also have nothing to play for. Having failed to win any of their five previous games, they can no longer even aspire to a consolation Europa League berth, but would certainly like to avoid being the only team to exit the competition without managing a single point.

Managed by former Barça man Mark van Bommel and champions of Belgium for the first time since the 1950s, there was considerable expectation surrounding Antwerp before this season’s Champions League started, but things haven’t worked out the way the Reds might have hoped. So far, they have conceded 15 goals and scored just three of their own, two of those when they took a 2-0 lead against Shakhtar Donetsk but ended up losing 3-2.

Things aren’t going quite so well for them in their domestic championship either, where they are currently fourth and 11 points away from the leaders, Royale Union Saint-Gilloise, another historic club enjoying a resurgence as they chase their first league title since 1935.

Barça are also fourth in their league after the disappointment of losing 4-2 at home to Girona on Sunday, and with nothing in particular at stake in this game, coach Xavi can be forgiven for using it to rest players and experiment, for right now the biggest concern is the visit to Valencia at the weekend.

But although he originally chose to leave Ronald Araujo, Robert Lewandowski and Ilkay Gündogan at home, he decided to take them anyway following the decision to extend the stay in Belgium by an extra day. Frenkie de Jong has a fever and stays at home with the injured Gavi, Ter Stegen, Iñigo Martinez and Marcos Alonso.

Despite taking such a big squad, Xavi is likely to give run-outs to some of the younger players in this one, with Angel Alarcón, Marc Casadó, Diego Kochen, Pau Cubarsí, Aleix Garrido, Marc Guiu and Héctor Fort all in the travelling party.

Antwerp have problems of their own, with all of Ondrejka, Anthony Valencia, Engels and Bataille injured, while Vines and Muja are both serving suspensions.

Barça have not been to Belgium since 2002, when they shared a Champions League group with Club Brugge, and haven’t lost to Belgian opposition since 1989, when Anderlecht knocked them out of the Cup Winners’ Cup way.

The reverse fixture at the Estadi Olimpic was a comfortable 5-0 win for the Catalans, with João Félix (2), Lewandowski and Gavi all scoring, while the other goal was a Jelle Bataille own goal.

Barça go into this game with 12 points, three more than both Porto and Shakhtar Donetsk, who have nine each. Those two are playing each other at the same time at the Estádio do Dragão, with the Ukrainians needing to win by two goals in order to pip the Portuguese side to second place.

Should Shakhtar win and Barça lose, then they’d be tied at the top with 12 points each. As they matched each other in the head-to-head meetings (two goals each), they would be need to be split by overall goal difference, and Barça are currently seven goals clear in that department. So unless something absolutely extraordinary happens, Barça’s place at the top of the table is unlikely to come under threat.

On the other hand, should Porto beat the Ukrainians coupled with a Barça loss in Antwerp, Barça would always finish higher due to their superior head-to-head record.