Barcelona are struggling to sell their first Champions League game after the Lionel Messi era despite the fact that Covid restrictions have limited the allowed capacity of Camp Nou.

The club are entitled to around 40,000 spectators for their game against Bayern Munich on Tuesday, but were surprised by the disappointing response from their season ticket holders.

Only 31,213 tickets were requested for the game, leaving almost 8,000 tickets unclaimed. And this despite their subscriptions including entry to Champions League matches.

The club enter an era without Lionel Messi (C) and the fans are not coming in droves

The club had expected to receive more requests than tickets available and were ready to use a lottery system to choose which supporters could see the game.

Tickets are now on general sale with prices ranging from 109 euros to 199 euros.

As well as being Barca’s first game in Europe without Messi, this game is also their first meeting with the German champions since suffering their biggest defeat in Europe in their history.

Barca were beaten 2-8 by Bayern Munich two years ago and have the chance to get a small rematch this week.

There are 8,000 tickets to be won despite the capacity of the Nou Camp limited to only 40,000

This is not the first time that Barcelona have not accepted the home ticket allocation. Covid’s restrictions were even tighter in the league game against Getafe last month with just 20,000 supporters allowed into the stadium.

But the number of members who chose to watch the game was closer to 19,000. The tradition of fans still being on vacation in August was used to explain the low demand.

In addition to the absence of Messi Barca’s attacking line in this game in 2019, Luis Suarez and Antoine Griezmann, both of whom now play for Atletico Madrid.