There’s a growing feeling at FC Barcelona that their next home UEFA Champions League encounter against FC Porto will be similar to last year’s meeting against Eintracht Frankfurt, when enormous crowds stormed the Spotify Camp Nou, according to Carrusel Deportivo.
Barcelona’s 0-1 loss to Shakhtar has complicated matters for the Blaugrana; while they are still at the top, their lead over Porto is now narrowly based on goal differential, and Shakhtar is only three points behind.
This implies that the matchup with Porto will be far more important than expected.
What is the image?
This Monday, FC Porto went on sale for the Champions League match tickets, and in a matter of hours, those tickets were sold out.
For the record, Barcelona has set aside 2,700 seats for out-of-town supporters, and each ticket costs €55. It should also be mentioned that only Estadio do Dragao season ticket holders have access to these tickets.
But more supporters are expected to travel from Portugal in an attempt to see the game in person, purchasing tickets through other sources rather than the official Porto website.
This is where the fear begins as Barcelona have witnessed this scenario before when Frankfurt paid them a visit in April last year in the UEFA Europa League, a match that Barcelona lost 2-3.
What happened in 2022?
Barcelona welcomed Frankfurt after drawing the first leg 1-1 in the round of 16 of the competition. Back then, news emerged that the online ticket sales system was incapable of processing ticket purchases from Germany.
Reports eventually emerged that the travelling fans got the tickets via tour operators while obtaining their tour packages.
Despite Barcelona’s initial allocation of 5000 tickets for the travelling fans, the number of fans exceeded this limit.
Consequently, Barça found themselves playing as the away team in their own stadium during one of the season’s most crucial matches.
And there is now a sense of fear that the situation at Montjuic could turn into a similar one next week.