Thierry Henry painfully says ex-club ‘can’t win the Champions League like this’

Barcelona were held by Club Brugge on Wednesday night as their defence continues to be an issue – and that has seen Thierry Henry question their Champions League credentials

Thierry Henry admits it pains him to say it but Barcelona “can’t win the Champions League” unless they change the way they’re defending after drawing 3-3 with Club Brugge on Wednesday.

That result in Europe came after the Spanish side were beaten by European champions PSG in their last outing. Barcelona had to come from behind on three occasions against the Belgian outfit, who nearly pulled off a stunning upset.

Their continued defensive frailties are alarming Henry, with Barcelona shipping seven goals in four Champions League matches so far this season. They have not kept a clean sheet in any competition since the 3-0 win over Getafe in September.

They currently sit 11th in the Champions League table, although an automatic qualification place for the round of 16 is within their grasp ahead of games against Chelsea, Eintracht Frankfurt, Slavia Prague and Copenhagen. Nevertheless, Henry insists they have to sort their backline if they want to compete for the trophy.

The former Barcelona frontman said on CBS Sports: “The co-ordination [in defence] is so bad. You can’t win the Champions League like this, it’s very difficult.

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“It’s this game [against Club Brugge], it’s against Paris Saint-Germain, last year it was against Benfica, then it was the Clasico, then it was Inter. As we all know, I played for Arsenal, I played for Juve, I won a lot of stuff at Barcelona, for me to say that… it pains me to say that because I don’t want to talk about my old club like that.

“But you have to call a spade a spade. You can’t carry on defending like this. Every time hoping to score three or four, to be the team, not now, not in the modern era of football, you can’t defend like that.”

Barcelona were beaten in the semi-finals of last year’s competition. Inter Milan downed them in a stunning two-legged tie that finished 7-6 to the Italian side. Flick did win the domestic double in his debut campaign, but even then they were far from solid at the back.

The Catalans conceded 24 times in their 14 Champions League games en-route to the last four and shipped more than a goal per game in La Liga. Despite that Flick has defended his approach in light of this week’s the six-goal draw.

He claimed: “We want to play to our DNA; we don’t want a low block and transitions to win 1-0”.

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