COMMENT By Ben Hayward
The noises are positive. Barcelona boss Luis Enrique and several of his players have issued rallying cries ahead of the Spanish Supercopa second leg against Athletic Club on Monday night - but the Catalans have never come back from four goals down in their entire history.
Barca were well beaten at San Mames on Friday night as a stunning strike from Mikel San Jose and an Aritz Aduriz hat-trick condemned the club to their worst domestic defeat in eight years. They won the treble last season and added the Uefa Super Cup against Sevilla last week, but their hopes of claiming the sextuple now hang very much in the balance.
"It would be pretentious to say that we are going to do it 100 per cent," Luis Enrique said on Sunday. "But we are going to give it a try. We are convinced that it is possible."
In Luis Enrique's first season in charge, Barca never needed to come from behind as they overcame their rivals in the first leg of every single one of their knockout games in the Champions League and the Copa del Rey. So this is something new for the 45-year-old.
As a player, Luis Enrique starred with a hat-trick as Barca thrashed Athletic 7-0 at Camp Nou in 2001, although such results are few and far between against the Basque outfit and the previous win at home by more than four goals was a 5-0 success at the old Les Corts ground back in 1949.
Unable to overturn their 4-0 loss to Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena in the 2012-13 Champions League semi-finals, Barca will look to two recent comebacks for inspiration.
In the 2009-10 Supercopa, the Catalans lost 3-1 at Sevilla but won the second match 4-0 thanks to a Lionel Messi hat-trick at Camp Nou. And in the last 16 of the Champions League in 2012-13, Tito Vilanova's side won by the same scoreline against AC Milan after losing the first leg 2-0 in San Siro.
Messi was also the inspiration that night with two fantastic finishes and he will be again on Monday, although Barca will need to tighten up defensively after conceding eight goals in their two games this term already.
"We have to keep a clean sheet," Luis Enrique said. "Because scoring six goals is another thing altogether."
Neymar and Jordi Alba are still sidelined, but Luis Enrique will pick his strongest side available as Barca look to produce a historic comeback on Monday night.
"90 minutes and the Camp Nou. I believe," Gerard Pique tweeted on Friday night. And team-mate Dani Alves warned Athletic: "90 minutes at Camp Nou is a long, long time."
But Athletic are without a trophy since their Liga and Copa double in 1984 and coach Ernesto Valverde (a former Barcelona player) said: "For Barcelona it is just another trophy - and not as important even as La Liga or the Champions League.
"For us it is everything."
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