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The Euro Preview: Barcelona march on as they await Coutinho’s debut

By Clemente Lisi

BARCELONA, SPAIN - JANUARY 08: New Barcelona signing Philippe Coutinho poses for a photograph with his new shirt as he is unveiled at Camp Nou on January 8, 2018 in Barcelona, Spain. The Brazilian player signed from Liverpool, has agreed a deal with the Catalan club until 2023 season. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)
BARCELONA, SPAIN - JANUARY 08: New Barcelona signing Philippe Coutinho poses for a photograph with his new shirt as he is unveiled at Camp Nou on January 8, 2018 in Barcelona, Spain. The Brazilian player signed from Liverpool, has agreed a deal with the Catalan club until 2023 season. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images) /
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While Barcelona make a mockery of the Liga title race, it awaits the addition of Philippe Coutinho to its already-potent attack and hopes in improvement from Ousmane Dembele.

La Liga

Barcelona have been grabbing headlines all week for what they’ve been doing both on and off the field. While they dominate the Liga title race, they also made a splash last weekend with the official signing of Philippe Coutinho from Liverpool.

While Coutinho won’t be able to make his debut for the club for about two more weeks because of a thigh injury, all the buzz continues to swirl around him. Barcelona, now nine points up on Atletico Madrid, must refocus in time for their game Sunday at Real Sociedad on matchday 19. Barca have made the Liga look easy and 12th-place Sociedad aren’t expected to be much competition for Lionel Messi and his teammates.

Barcelona ran circles around Levante last Sunday in what resulted in a 3-0 victory. The win also marked the return of Ousmane Dembele, who was injured earlier this season, and showed Messi to be in tremendous form. The Argentine leads the league in scoring with 16 goals.

Dembele’s return, however, wasn’t as beautiful as the passes and goals the Catalan giants mustered up that day. Spain’s Don Balon reported that Messi was far from impressed with Dembele’s performance and made sure to voice his displeasure with him in the dressing room following the game.

“I know that I have a long way to go to get to my best level and I have to keep working for that,” Dembele admitted in an interview with Barca TV. “The hardest thing during this time was maintaining the concentration to recover quickly, I need to have a lot of patience to integrate myself into the team bit by bit.”

Next: How Barcelona could line up with Coutinho

Ligue 1

While the league title is a one-team competition in France thanks to PSG’s dominance, there are a trio of teams who also deserve our attention this season: Monaco, Lyon and Marseille. Paris Saint-Germain do have a nine-point lead over Monaco, but it’s the three clubs under the league leaders who will be battling for a Champions League spot.

Matchday 20 looks like this: Monaco play Saturday at seventh-place Montpellier, while PSG travel to fifth-place Nantes the following day. It could be a chance for Monaco, led by striker Radamel Falcao’s 15 league goals this season, to try and cut PSG’s massive lead, but it’s also an opportunity for them to break free from their tie with Lyon, who have the more-favorable opponent, 19th-place Angers, and Marseille, who play at ninth-place Rennes on Saturday.

The top two teams from France qualify directly to the group stages of the Champions League. The team that finishes third has to play in the third qualifying round. A fourth-place finish qualifies a team to the group stage of the Europa League.

Primeira Liga

Some of Europe’s biggest domestic competitions are in the middle of their winter breaks (Serie A and Bundesliga), while second-tier ones such as the Scottish Premiership are also taking a much-needed break. The top flight in Portugal, however, continues with four teams fighting for the Primeira Liga crown.

Portugal’s “big three” are currently at the top of the table: Porto lead with 45 points, two more than rivals Sporting Lisbon. Three points behind them are Benfica, who are led by league top scorer Jonas’ 20 goals. Matchday 18 will feature Porto playing at last-place Estoril Praia on Monday. The day before, Sporting will host 14th-place Aves in Lisbon.

The winner of the 18-team league qualifies directly to the Champions League group stage, while the runners-up enter the third round of qualifying. Teams that place third and fourth play in the Europa League.

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