Messi or nothing Barcelona Heavily relied on in the Champions League

When Lionel Messi is on the pitch, Barcelona are one team but once he is off the field, the Catalans turn into a completely different side.

And the match against Athletic Club was enough to realise this.

The Argentine forward was benched for the first half of the clash and during those 45 minutes the Blaugrana struggled to generate any clear cut chances but the moment Messi walked onto the field, Barcelona drastically improved ultimately resulting in the team bagging a goal to level the match.

Therefore, it is clear that there is a certain dependence on the player.

The Argentine's goal scoring figures in the Champions League make for particularly interesting reading.

For more than two years, Messi has been the only Barcelona player to have scored goals away from the Camp Nou in the European competition.

This speaks highly of Messi, and poorly of his teammates in the attack.

The last Barcelona man other than Messi to score an away goal in Europe was Gerard Pique, who netted a goal against Borussia Monchengladbach in September 2016.

In that same match, Arda Turan also found the back of the net.

Since then, it has been Messi or nothing.

The exception is Sebastian Coates, who scored an own goal in last season's clash against Sporting.

Precisely that own goal resulted in a victory for the Catalans.

Problems in attack

This lack of contribution from the rest of the team's attack is one of the keys that explain Barcelona's recent record in the Champions League.

It is simple, Barcelona lack the goals that Luis Suarez and Neymar scored in the competition and neither Ousmane Dembele nor Philippe Coutinho have moved closed to those levels.

When Messi is not on the pitch, there is nobody responsible for netting the goals that are needed to decide the matches and last season's clash against Roma is a good example of this.

It remains to be seen if the Catalan squad will be able to change this trend during this year's edition.

The match against PSV Eindhoven (4-0) left the team in good spirits, but everything that has happened since that clash, with the three consecutive upsets in LaLiga Santander, have caused doubts about the level of the team this year.

On Wednesday, the Catalans will have to face a fearsome rival: Tottenham Hotspur.

The English side have already proved they are capable of beating Ernesto Valverde's side after their summer victory in preseason but they will be put to the test again, in a decisive match for the future of both teams in the Champions League.

If the Blaugrana manage to walk away from Wembley with three points, then they will be one step closer to earning the golden pass to the knockout stage.

But to achieve this, Barcelona must not leave all the work in the hands of Messi.

Waiting for Luis

Many of the problems that Barcelona are experiencing in the Champions League in recent years are a result of Luis Suarez's poor goalscoring numbers.

His stats are far from those of his first few seasons, especially when we focus on the goals he has scored at home in the Europe's most prestigious competition.

The Uruguayan striker has not been able to score a single away goal for more than three years.

Specifically, since September 16, 2015, when he netted against Roma, a match that ended in a 1-1 draw.

This lack of firepower is one of the reasons why the dependence on Messi has become even greater.

It is rare for the striker to feature in so many games without finding the back of the net.

Although Ernesto Valverde has stated he does not care about Suarez's goal drought, as he believes he heavily contributes to the game in other aspects, the truth is that the team need his goals.

In fact, the role of the South American forward was key to the conquest of Barcelona's last Champions League title (2015).

He netted several important goals away from the Camp Nou, such as against Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain.

For these reasons, Barcelona need Suarez to return to goalscoring form.