Wherever you have gone in Barcelona over the last couple of weeks there is only one question on everybody's lips when they discover you have the fortune to be a football journalist and able to interview the players who have taken Josep Guardiola's team to Rome.

Injury problems
Surprisingly it is not, "How can I get a ticket?" or "Have we got a chance of winning?" but "Will Iniesta and Henry make it in time or not?" It has become an obsession which is understandable given not only how exceptionally Andrés Iniesta and Thierry Henry have played this year, but also because FC Barcelona are already missing Daniel Alves and Eric Abidal to suspension and Rafael Márquez to injury.

Key players
There is a belief, amongst the fans, that if the midfielder and the striker succumb to thigh and knee problems respectively then the total damage done to Guardiola's team will be too much. That is not a view shared by the Catalan coach. Time and again Guardiola has been asked about those two players and the three key absences. "So long as I can put out eleven fit, Barça-minded players on the day then I'm not worried," he says repeatedly.

Painful memory
I think some do not fully understand the message, but it makes sense. Guardiola was a 15-year-old ball boy at the Camp Nou when Terry Venables took Barça to the 1986 UEFA European Champion Clubs' Cup final, in Sevilla, against FC Steaua Bucureşti. They lost on penalties, but every true Culé remembers how Steve Archibald, hero of the quarter-final victory over Juventus, went to extraordinary and painful lengths to recuperate from a muscle strain in time for the final. He started the game in place of local hero Ángel 'Pichi' Alonso who had scored a hat-trick to save the semi-final against IFK Göteborg. Archibald was barely ready for the test and famously was upset at being substituted after 106 minutes of the 0-0 draw in the final, telling uefa.com: "I told Terry I was just getting into my stride." The Scot had given everything and was fit but not ready.

Options
Guardiola will remember, too, that a year ago Leo Messi tested every fibre of his body to recover early from a hamstring strain which had kept him out for seven weeks, but his semi-final performances against Manchester United FC left him much easier to contain than normal and Barça lost. He, too, was injury free but not ready. Guardiola's attitude is that he would prefer to have the Frenchman and the Spaniard fit and ready, but in Bojan Krkić, Seydou Keita, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Aleksandr Hleb he has trusted backup.

Final challenge
When Barça last won the UEFA Champions League in 2006 they also had to cope with a Messi injury which kept him out of the squad and muscular problems for Xavi Hernández which meant he was an unused substitute. Key absences, but Frank Rijkaard's team won. Proving to the medical staff they have recovered will only be three-quarters of the battle for Henry and Iniesta, convincing Guardiola that they are ready will be their final challenge.