Is Barcelona Saving Itself for the UEFA Champions League?

Barcelona won tonight, 4-2 against Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley, their first win in four matches. Their first win, in fact, since a 4-0 win against PSV Eindhoven, also in the UEFA Champions League.

There were reasons to not be completely over the moon for Ernesto Valverde, despite the win. They should not have let Tottenham twice back into the game with leads of 2-0 and 3-1. It was 3-2 until late in the match, when Lionel Messi pounced after being set up beautifully by his teammates to make it 4-2.

Spurs missed a lot of their key players, too, although to be fair, Barça had to make due without Samuel Umtiti, as well. Of course, on balance, Spurs were the team who could rue their luck with…