Barcelona vs Real Madrid: Blaugrana Dynasty Pushed to Brink

As any truly historic champion in sports, the 2011-12 Barcelona squad will be remembered for its successes, but measured more critically by how it recovered from its failures.

Which makes the stretch run of this season all the more important for the Blaugrana. The Catalonian kings were on the wrong end of both of their results last week—a 1-0 shortfall in the opening leg of their UEFA Champions League semifinal against Chelsea and a 2-1 defeat to arch rival Real Madrid in a Primera Division edition of El Clasico.

The latter loss all but assured that Barca would finish the season somewhere other than atop La Liga for the first time since Pep Guardiola replaced Frank Rijkaard in 2008.

There's still plenty for the Blaugrana to play for though, starting with Tuesday's Champions League return leg against the Blues at the Nou Camp. Barca boss Pep Guardiola is well aware of the circumstances and understands what this match means to his club, telling Sport:

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"What happens against Chelsea will mark the rest of our season. Although the guys have not had long to recover, they have had setbacks like this before and risen to the challenge."

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Barcelona can, however, obtain some modicum of comfort knowing that they've averaged approximately four goals per game at their home grounds across all competitions this season.

Then again, it's not as though Barça has had any difficulty creating scoring chances of late so much as converting them. The Blaugrana dominated possession in their last two matches, as they have throughout the campaign, and got off six times as many shots (24) as did Chelsea (four) at Stamford Bridge last week.

The problem then appeared to be one of misfortune and focus on the finish, with Lionel Messi, Cesc Fabregas and Alexis Sanchez all misfiring on golden opportunities in London.

The fact that Barca were even on chances against Real Madrid on Saturday despite a 72-28 split in possession is a bit more troubling, though. If there's any club in the world that could get off a shot every two minutes or less against Barca's defense, its Los Blancos.

In all reality, Barça isn't exactly teetering on the brink of disaster. Gerard Pique is expected back on the pitch, as is Messi, who missed training on Sunday with a gastric ailment.

They're still a gifted group, that, while certainly exhausted from playing out a packed schedule, will create chances and convert a fair number of them into goals.

It's merely a matter of timing.

As in, if the Blaugrana don't make up their deficit against Chelsea in a timely fashion, they'll find themselves out of the Champions League and with little more than a trip to the Copa del Rey final to show for their efforts this season.

Not that a domestic cup is anything to scoff at, per se, but when you're Barça, and the bar is set as high as it is, anything less than a league title, be it in Spain or in Europe, is itself a failure.

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