DPA/Madrid


In 1099, so the legend goes, the Christian army besieging Valencia decided to put the dead body of famous warrior El Cid on his horse before attacking the city, in order to scare the Moorish defenders.
The trick worked, so frightened were the Moors of El Cid. But will a similar trick work for Barcelona tonight against Bayern Munich in the semi-finals of the Champions League?
FIFA World Player Lionel Messi has been struggling with a pulled hamstring for a month now. Even so, just the sight of the little Argentine might, or so Barca hope, cause Bayern to panic and help the Catalans to overturn a massive 4-0 deficit from the first leg, something that has never been achieved in the Champions League.
Since Cristiano Ronaldo joined Real Madrid from Manchester United for a world record fee in 2009, the media in Barcelona have been accusing Real of being a “one-man team”, of depending on Ronaldo’s goals, of not having a complete side and system like Barca.
However, the truth is that Barca are just as dependent on Lionel Messi as Real are on Ronaldo — if not even more so.
For all the talk of the “greatest team in history” and a short-passing system difficult to combat, Barca have relied on Messi to provide the cutting edge to their slick approach play since the little Argentine became a first-team regular as a gawky 18-year-old in 2005.
Now, 311 goals, four Ballons d’Or, three Champions Leagues and four Spanish Ligas later, Barca are even more dependent on Messi than ever.
“Everyone knows that a comeback (against Bayern) is absolutely impossible without a sensational display from Messi. Without him, Barca would not have got so far in the competition,” Catalan radio station RAC-1 said yesterday.
Messi, who turns 26 in June, has, as per usual, been Barca’s top scorer in every competition this season. His importance to the team has been even greater than ever because the other forwards — David Villa, Alexis Sanchez and Pedro — have been in poor form.
This “Messidependency” has been shown time and again in the Champions this spring. He scored the first two goals in the 4-0 comeback thrashing of AC Milan in the round of 16, then Barca’s first goal in the 2-2 draw at Paris Saint-Germain in the quarter-finals.

For all the talk of the “greatest team in history” and a short-passing system difficult to combat, Barca have relied on Messi to provide the cutting edge to their slick approach play since the little Argentine became a first-team regular as a gawky 18-year-old in 2005

However, he pulled his right hamstring in Paris and was going to be out of action for three weeks or so. Barca tried to get by without in the second leg against PSG but were losing 1-0 at home with just 25 minutes left.
The solution? Bring Messi off the bench, even though he clearly wasn’t fit. Even at half pace and whincing, he still managed to carve open the PSG defence for the first time all night, setting up Pedro to make it 1-1. Barca scraped through on the away goals rule, with Messi clearly in pain.
Messi was no factor whatsoever in Munich, while on Saturday Barca were losing 1-0 at Athletic Bilbao until Messi, still clearly not hundred per cent fit, came off the bench and immediately scored one astonishing goal, then set up a second one for Sanchez in the 2-2 draw.
Had Barca won or drawn in Munich then Messi would probably not even be on the subs’ bench tonight, let alone on the Camp Nou field. However, after that 4-0 trouncing, Messi will almost certainly start the match — like the dead El Cid before the gates of Valencia.