Barcelona Tie definitely not over. Going to Anfield will be very difficult, look what happened against Roma last year. Barcelona need to gain control in the game keep their composure, quieten the crowd and score the first goal. That will make it very hard for Liverpool.
Playing on the counter attack doesn't come naturally for Barcelona, they need a very high level of psychological strength to get through. At least they can make 11 changes this weekend though and be fresh physically for the second leg.
I really think people in this thread doesn't understand that Barcelona is playing counter attack this year, and it's on purpose. I'm not happy with it as FC Barcelona supporter, I'd like to keep the the legacy of Cruyff, but first Luis Enrique and now Valverde, understood that the players Barcelona has are not good enough at this point time to win while dominating the opponent all the time. Because of that, Valverde decided to let the opponents feel that they are being superior, which means having 2-3 real occasions plus some very easy shots. He does that because he knows he has Piqué, Lenglet and Ter Stegen at a superlative level, which means that this superiority doesn't get reflected to the score.
Meanwhile he has Messi and other top quality players in the other side with much more space as they would have in possession of the ball. And with Messi they need half of the shots/space/errors or less than any other player in the world to score, so the tactic is a win-win and sometimes it feels like "luck" by the opponents but the fact is Barcelona didn't lose a single game since January. And most of the defeats this year were irrelevant matches.
FC Barcelona is still able to play with the ball and "dominate" the matches, with Arthur in the field there is an instant transformation, but in general the players are not able to do it with the speed and precision that Xavi-Iniesta had in the past, so with top-quality defensive systems Valverde decided that it's not what he wants anymore. I hope next year with De Jong and someone else this can be improved, but for now giving initiative to the opponent in certain moments of the match, is the most effective strategy when you have Messi/Dembelé/Suárez/Piqué/Ter Stegen in your team.
And I would like to add that people keeps using the defeat against Roma as an example of how weak Barcelona can be. Please stop with that, Roma beat Barcelona because they started with their minds out of the field since minute 1 and Valverde made a big tactic mistake enabling that mentality. He prepared a match to just spend time and do nothing, no counters, no attack nothing and players felt it, also player were overloaded because Valverde was using the same 11 in the league forever. Nobody, Roma or anyone else, can beat Barcelona by 3 goals the way Roma did (they didn't even need luck or spectacular performance but some player) if the players are connected to the game. I'm not saying Liverpool can't beat 3-0, but they will need to play far much better than Roma this year to get even close.
