All About FC Barcelona

Puyol injury a Big Setback for Spain

noreply@blogger.com (Bibin) — Fri, 11 May 2012 05:32:00 +0000

FC Barcelona medical team has confimred that Carles Puyol, the Barca Captain will be missing this Summer's Euro 2012 due to a knee injury. Our Captain Caveman will most probably have to undergo surgery when his national team colleagues will be trying to defend their title in Ukraine and Poland. The absence of Puyol from the squad will be a huge blow to Del Bosque's teams chance of successfully defending their title. Already leading betting agency has increased Germany's odds following Puyol's injury report. Betfair's Euro 2012 Betting odd have Spain still in number one position with a 3.82/1 odd but Germany at 4.33/1 represent looks like a real force especially after Puyol's injury. If David Villa is not declared fit and misses from the squad, Spain will have a huge deficit in experience and skill in two of the most important areas. If the injury was to a midfielder, Del Bosque wouldn't have cared much; but defense and attack(especially with Torres form) is a bit stretched at the moment. Even though Puyol's injury is a disappointment, Barcelona fans won't mind much. They would like to see their Captain coming back from injury after getting enough time to recover next season than make his situation worse in Poland and Ukraine.

As a matter of fact, I would have also loved to see Xavi being rested from the squad. He has been struggling with his injury in recent matches and would definitely love a small break. Del Bosque would have to re-shuffle his pack to accomadate for Puyol's absence. The straight forward option is to move Ramos into the middle and have Arbeloa as the Right back. Since this is the way Real Madrid lines up, people will consider this as safe. but it's more tricky than it looks. Ramos partnering Pique, who is definitely having not a great season has every chance of turning into a disaster in some crucial matches. The other option is to have Alberto Botia in the middle of defense, but considering his experience that also will be risky. We most probably will see the Alba, Pique, Ramos and Arbeloa defense lining up, but Javi Martinez offers a very interesting option for the Spanish Coach. Martinez have been playing as a centre back in recent matches for Atletic Bilbao. But like all the midfielders who are converted into emergency centre back's he has a penchant of rushing into challenges and exposing the defense, can't blame him for that. None the less he offers Del Bosque another option to depend on.

Meanwhile the transfer rumour mills have all started their work since the end of season is so near. Goal.com reports of a MundoDeportivo story which links Barca to Javi Martinez. The report says that Barca is preferring him over Thiago Silva, eventhough his 30 million buyout is a big road block. This is one rumour which excites me. Javi Martinez is a real good buy as he could provide cover for the defense but also could be a crucial option as a holding midfielder. We at this moment have no cover for Busquets and if Keita move out as rumoured this summer, we will be left with no proper cover. The combination of Mascherano, Martinez and Busquets will give us a hell off an option in both defensive midfielder cum centre-back roles, also should help us to implement the three man defense with more perfection. Also a double pivot of Busquets and Martinez is not a bad option and Del Bosque also should try the same this Euro 2012. Then there are the usual rumours of linking Drogba, Llorente etc to the club, but if Martinez deal go through then we may not have much money for any other transfer other than Jordi Alba, which looks liek a must.

FC Barcelona - 4 : 0 - Espanyol All Goals

noreply@blogger.com (Bibin) — Sun, 06 May 2012 04:52:00 +0000

Barca Knocked out by Chelsea; FC Barcelona -2, Chelsea - 2

noreply@blogger.com (Bibin) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:52:00 +0000

Holders FC Barcelona has been knocked out off the Champiosn League by a reselient Chelsea side despite being down to ten man for the majority of the match. A momentary lapse in concentration which lead to the Ramires goal and a missed penalty by Messi in the second half killed Barcalona's comeback hopes. Busquets brought Barca back in the tie when he opened the scoring, Iniesta then looked like have sealed the match but in the first half injury time we conceded again as in the first leg. Torres made sure of Chelsea's progress when he scored deep into the second half injury time, but by that time we had already lost hopes.Chelsea went with an unchanged line-up from the first leg. GUardiola elected for a 3-4-3 diamond formation for this crucial tie. The three men defense had Puyol, Pique and Mascherano. The midfield had BUsquets, Xavi, Iniesta and Cesc. Cuenca, Messi and Sanchez formed the front trio.

In the 3rd minute Lionel Messi had a great chance to put Barca ahead after a brilliant one two with Sanchez, but Messi could only hit the sidenetting. In the 12th minute Chelsea had to make a substituition taking off Gary Cahill due to injury, Bosingwa replaced him. In the 19th minute Cech made a brilliant save off Messi after a beautiful flick from Sanchez put Messi on goal. In the 25th minute Pique had to be substituted after a been almost knocked out by Valdes and was replaced by Alves. Chelsea had almost the entire team in and around the box and it was becoming a trouble to penetrate through them. In the 35th minute we finally managed to break Chelsea defense when Busquets slotted a brilliant ball from the left by Cuenca, and the move came from a corner which we are not supposed to score from. In the 37th minute John Terry was sent off for kicking on Sanchez starting all the conspiracy theories back again. In the 43rd minute Iniesta put us ahead on aggregate taking the score to 2-0 after Messi slided the ball to him on the left. In the injury time of the first half Ramires scored for Chelsea from another counter attack making Chelsea favourite on away goals. In the 47th minute Iniesta's shot was blocked for a corner after Cesc chested the ball to Andres in the box. In the 48th minute Barca was awarded a penalty after Cesc Fabregas was brought down by Drogba in the box. Surprisingly Messi struck the bar from the penalty. In the 54th minute Sanchez had a header which missed the near post. In the 62nd minute Cesc made a good save off Cuenca from a tight angle. In the 67th minute Guardiola took Cuenca off and brought in Tello. In the 68th minute amid all the possession and attack we were almost caught out had it not for a crucial Valdes intervention. In the 74th minute Guardiola made his last substituition of the night bringing Keita in for Cesc. In the 78th minute Busquets shot high from a decent position. In the 82nd minute Sanchez had the ball in the back of net but Alves who made the pass was judged to be offside. In the 83rd minute Lionel Messi shot from outside the box was denied by the post again. In the 90th minute Cech made another save from a thundering shot from Mascherano. In the injury time Fernando Torres sealed the defeat for Barca when he broke from a counter and rounded off Valdes and finished off Barca's hopes of reaching Munich.

So the dreams of successive Champions League glory has come to an end, atleast for the time being. If you are lucky enough to come to Barcelona and watch any of the FC Barcelona matches, I recommend that you stay in a holiday apartment for a more private and comfortable atmosphere. It was once again frustrating to see we failing to convert our chances. Messi not only struck the bar with his penalty, had two great chances in the starting of first half, but put both wide. In then end, looking back at the tie we were made to pay for all the chances we missed. Peter Cech was excellent tonight making save after saves but having said that we were a bit lethargic infront of goal, especially in the first leg. Now a great season is coming to an end and we are left in only one competition. In normal circumstances, with other teams taht's a great result but with this Barca side's success in recent past that looks like a bit of under achievement. However the Copa Del Rey final is going to end, our guys have made us proud .

FC Barcelona surrenders League Title; FC Barcelona - 1, Real Madrid - 2

noreply@blogger.com (Bibin) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 20:27:00 +0000

Real Madrid well and truly have sealed the La Liga title of 2011-12 season with a 2-1 victory at the Camp Nou. Khedira and Ronaldo scored for the away side taking them 7 points clear of the defending Champions. It was the first victory of Real Madrid under Mourinho against FC Barcelona in the league, incidently it was the first victory for Mourinho at the Camp Nou. What a time for that to happen. A first half goal from Khedira put Real Madrid in the pole position but Sanchez equalised within a minute of his introduction but within two minutes Ronaldo put Madrid back in front. And we failed to respond to such a set back. Guardiola went once again went with the same defense which lined up against Chelsea - Alves, Mascherano, Puyol and Adriano. The midfield had Xavi, Busquets and Thiago. Once again Iniesta was used in the flanks along with Tello and Messi in the middle. Real Madrid meanwhile wnet with Casillas, Arbeloa, Pepe, Ramos, Coentrao, Alonso, Khedira, Ronaldo, Ozil, Di Maria and Benzema.

We started with a kind of 3-4-3 formation with Alves playing on the wings than as full back. In the 4th minute Cristiano Ronaldo rose above to meet a Ozil header, but Valdes did well to tip it over. In the 6th minute Alves stole the ball off Ramos and set on straight on goal but Casillas came early off his line to deny the Brazilian. In the 17th minute a terrible error by Valdes gave Real Madrid the lead. Valdes fails to deal with a Real madrid corner, Carles Puyol also didn't clear it giving Khedira the chance to score giving Real Madrid 1-0 advantage. In the 20th minute Tello flashed a shot from outside the box wide off the near post. In the 27th minute Meesi put in Xavi ahead on goal but Casillas made a great save to deny Xavi there. We had all the possession in the first half but we were never able to create any good move. Too many players were having an off day with control and had been a bit complacent at crucial time. It was surprising to see that we didn't have a signle shot on target in the first half. In the 52nd minute Tello slashed a shot wide and high from an almost impossible angle. In the 54th minute Thiago played Tello on goal with a brilliant through ball but Tello balsted high and over. That was a one hell of a miss. In the 68th minute Xavi Hernandez long range strike went wide of the goal. That was the last action Xavi saw as he was replaced by Alexis immediately. In the 70th minute Sanchez equalised after an almighty scramble in the Real madrid box. The move started with Messi making a brilliant run and slipping the ball to Iniesta, who reverse flicked the ball to Tello, who shot straight at Casillas, but luckily for us the rebound to Alexis who scored in his second attempt. In the 73rd minute Real madrid went straight into a 2-1 lead from a brilliant counter attack which saw Ronaldo easily rounding off Valdes. Guardiola had to react and brought in Pedro in place of Adriano. In the 81st minute Guardiola brought in Cesc for Tello. We had plenty of possession, even then this was a just victory for Real Madrid. The Chelsea defeat was pretty unlucky as we created a number of chances. But this one we were so poor in our build up play. The reason was very simple we had only one goal scoring threat in the line up -Lionel Messi. So every bulid up simply circulated in the middle. Guardiola went with a 3-4-3 formation which was pretty effective but the mistake he did was that he should have started with Pedro instead of Alves. Whenever used as a pure winger Alves have been very crappy but still Guardiola continues with his experience. Pedro would have given Barca another outlet in the box and the build up would have seriously improved. The heart of the midfield - Iniesta and Xavi were really poor interms of creating chances. Once again that could be due to teh factor I mentioned earlier. Now with a seven point opened it's essentially good bye to La Liga. If we don't stop being so sloppy we could see another title elude us on Tuesday. It's full steam ahead to the Champions League now. And also Congrats, Real Madrid.

Barca -0 , Chelsea - 1

noreply@blogger.com (Bibin) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 20:51:00 +0000

A brilliant counter attacking goal at the very end of the first half is standing strong between Barcelona and the Champions League final in Munich after Chelsea secured a 1-0 victory at Stamford Bridge tonight. It was kind of a harsh and unlucky night with players wasting gilt edged chances, hitting the post on a couple of occasion and on all other occasion the Chelsea defense standing strong. For Chelsea this would feel like a revnge for the exit at Barca in 2009, but for Barca we still have a chance to go through provided we lift our games at Camp Nou next Tuesday. It was that kind of a day where you see Cesc Fabregas missing two chances, Sanchez another and hitting the bar once and on the very end of the night we struck the post from a Pedro shot. Guardiola srarted with Puyol and Mascherano in the centre of defense with Alves and Adriano playing the full back roles respectively. The rest of the line-up was as expected. Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets fromed the midfield. Sanchez, Messi and Cesc Fabregas formed the attacking trio.

We had a big scare in the third minute when a long kick from Peter Cech put Drogba onside. luckily for us his first touch was really bad. In the 7th minute Drogba did really well to put him through with a great move, butr Puyol was on hand to cut the danger. In the 9th minute Iniesta played a lobbed ball putting Sanchez through on goal, but unluckily Sanchez's brilliant lob struck the bar with Cech well beaten. In the 17th minute we upped the tempo with Messi dancing into the box before cutting the ball back to Iniesta, Iniesta's shot was saved by Cech but the rebound fell pretty well to Cesc who made a mess of that chance. Chelsea was troubling us with every aerial delivery into the box. In the 26th minute Fabregas forced a good save from Cech from a very tight angle. In the 28th minute Sanchez sent in a cross from the right which was met by a good header by Messi in the box, but it was a bit close to Cech. In the 43rd minute Messi robbed a ball off Mikel and set off on a great run, he then played Cesc on but his chip over Cech was cleared off the line by Cole. In the 2nd minute of injury time against the run of play Drogba put Chelsea 1-0 ahead with abrilliant counter after Messi gave the ball away in the midfield. We were pretty unlucky to conceded so late in the first half after dominating the first half like anything.

In the 51st minute Adriano got past two defenders and tried to curl the ball to far corner, but Cech was able to punch it away. In the 57th minute Fabregas lifted a ball over the defense putting Sanchez through but Cole did well to deny him. In the 66th minute Messi danced into the box but Meireiles did well to deflect his shot for a corner. In the 67th minute Guardiola brought in Pedro for Sanchez. In the 70th minute Xavi saw his free kick from just outside the box going high over the bar. In the 78th minute Cesc Fabregas was taken off for Thiago. In the 87th minute Cuenca came in for Xavi. In the 87th minute Puyol header from a Messi free kick just missed the far post with Cech completely beaten. In the dying momet of the game Adriano hit the post and then the rebound fell to Busquest who blasted high infront of an open goal. That explained the night we had.

I know many Barca fans would term this as a lucky victory for Chelsea, but they did really their job well. They lined up with a startegy which ideally was based on Drogba using his physical strength to start an attack. And they did create problem for us. But the goal unfortunately came from a Barca mistake that too from Messi, who gave the ball away in midfield catching entire defense off-guard. It never should have mattered as we created enough chances to go atleast two goals up, but the problem was we never took anyone of that. Now it's going to be a herculean task as we not only have to over turn the score-line at Camp Nou, also have to lift ourselves from this defeat for the Clasico encounter on saturday.

Barca vs Chelsea Champions League Semi-Final 1st Leg Preview

noreply@blogger.com (Bibin) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:00:00 +0000

It's been three years since Barca has last met Chelsea in the Champions League. On that rather controversial night, FC Barcelona secured their first Champions League final birth under Guardiola courtesy of a sensational strike from Andres Iniesta, the Ghost face in the very dying moments of the match. Since then we have made three semi-finals, winning lst season, losing out to Inter in the season before and getting ready to face Chelsea tomorrow this season. But inspite of all these success, it is fair to say that the ghost of Stamford Bridge has always cast a shadow on this wonderful team's achievements; atleast from the perspective of people who does not like Barca and their style of play. Mourinho definitely tops that list and he reiterated that with a rather spooky comments following his team's exit at the hand of the Blaugrana. So it is natural to see both set of fans building this Semi-Final tie as the ultimate oppurtunity to rectify the injustice done to them . chelsea fans and players wants revenge for that night's event at Stamford Bridge, meanwhile Barca fans definitely want to end the unfair criticism laid out by English football fans on their team in some grand style. So with such back drops, this could prove to be much more than a simple Champions league final.

During the Rijkaard era of Barca, we used to meet Chelsea in Europe almost every year, with results equally split. Under Guardiola we have faced English opponents on a regular basis, but Chelsea has been only feature in that once. Guardiola's team has made short work of both Arsenal and Manchester United, but had a really tough time against Chelsea. In a sense of all the English side, Chelsea's playing style is the best suited for countering Barca. Chelsea usually keeps it narrow at the back in Stamford Bridge and the attacking startegy mostly involve a big centre forward, in this case Drogba winning aerial balls and releasing wide players. This did work almost perfectly against Barca in those two semi-final legs. I would be seriously surprised to see Chelsea opting for a change in this strategy against this Barca side. In that respect, the biggest advantage for Barca is the fact that the second leg is going to be held at Camp Nou, a very wide pitch compared to Stamford Bridge.

This Barca side which will feature tomorrow at Stamford Bridge has improved by leaps and bounds compared to the one which faced Chelsea three seasons back. The improvement is not only interms of individual qualities but also interms of strategy employed. This Barca side has adopted a variety of strategy in this season. we have played with 4, 3, 3 1/2 and 2 in the back this season. We have played with four and three in the midfield, we enev tried four in attack recently and also crucially we play nowadays with no centre forward. These are all alien to a Chelsea side which is not different from the one which faced Barca in 2009. It would be fair to say that this Chelsea side is a shadow of the 2009 one, and naturally it has resulted in an expectation that Barca will thump this aeging Chelsea team. To believe in such rhetoric will be the biggest folly we could commit in the build up to this tie. The spirit shown by this Chelsea side following the sacking of Villa Boas shows that there is no lack of "Never say die" attitude in the team. That was all to see in their brilliant victory over Napoli. And they do prepare for this encounter with a brilliant 5-1 thrashing of Totenham in the FA Cup at Wembley. So writing them off is simply out of the equaltion.

Many believe the caretaker manager, Roberto Di Matteo will prefer to start with Torres upfront instead of Drogba. I would say that I haven't heard a bigger non-sense this season. There is no doubt that Torres is a world class striker, who regularly used to trouble Puyol when he was at Atletico and Valdes used to have this ridiculous habit of gifting him goals. But the Torres at Chelseas is a shadown of that one which terrified defense in La Liga, eventhough he is showing signs of regaining his touch. Secondly without a proper service from midfield he is not going to trouble this Barcelona side. Chelsea in all probability will line-up in a defensive 4-2-3-1 formation. The defense should have Cole, Terry, Ivanovic and Bosingwa, evnthough there would be a temptation to start with cahill. Infront of the four man defense the double pivot of Essien and Mikel should star. The midfield should ideally have Lampard, Mata and Ramires. There is a chance to drop lampard into teh double pivot and start Meireiles in midfield. But Matteo will be looking mostly to bolster the defense than the attack. With such a formation, Torres would be the wrong choice of striker. I would go with Drogba with my eyes closed.

What kind of formation would guardiola employ is a bigger and much confusing question. I don't think he will go with a three man defense at Stamford Bridge, my gut feeling say that we will start with a four man defense of Alves, Pique, Mascherano and Puyol. The midfield is sure to see Xavi, Iniesta partnering Busquets. The presence of Busquets means taht even if we start with a four man defense, it would ideally transform to a 3 1/2 man defense. How will we line-up front is the big question. Lionel Messi and Sanchez are sure starters, but at which position is the question. If Cesc Fabregas is chosen then we would see Cesc in false 9 position with Messi and Sanchez in both flanks. But such a formation would be trying to force a lot of play through the middle. Stamford Brige being a narrow pitch, we may need width to break the defense. That would definitely call to start with Cuenca or Tello on one of the flanks. My preferred combination would be to start with Messi, Tello and Sanchez. Regardless of the problems faced by Chelsea this encounter could be a really tough one for Barca. I would go for a narrow 2-1 victory for us with Messi scoring twice.

FC Barcelona - 4 : 0 - Getafe Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Bibin) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 18:23:00 +0000

Barcelona - Getafe 4-0 Highlights HD 10.04.2012 by iNfRaS0NiC

FC Barcelona - 4, Getafe - 0

noreply@blogger.com (Bibin) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 20:59:00 +0000

FC Barcelona has cut the lead at the top to a mere one point following their victory against Getafe at Camp Nou tonight. Two goals from Sanchez, one each from Messi and Pedro gave Barca a deserving 4-0 victory, more importantly all the three points. It was a totally dominating performance and the 4-0 scoreline was a bit of understatement for the chances we created. It was a sweet revenge for Barca players and fans as Getafe was one of the two team who had defeated Barca in La Liga this season. The club had confirmed earlier that Abidal's liver transplatation operation has already started and is expected to last eight hours. Guardiola went in with a three man defense - Puyol, Mascherano and Adriano. Busquets, Iniesta, Xavi and Messi formed the midfield. Pedro, Sanchez and Cuenca formed the attacking trio. The line up was a bit strange as we had four attackers in the starting line-up.

We showed our attacking intend right from the start. In the 2nd minute Busquest came close to making contact to a brilliant Xavi free kick into the box. In the 12th minute Iniesta forced a save off th ekeeper from a shot from the edge of the box. In the th minute Alexis Sanchez opened the scoring for Barca witha brilliantly taken goal. Iniesta played a chipped ball to Messi, who chested it to Sanchez who then skipped past a defender and curled the ball to far corner from the edge of the box to take Barca 1-0 ahead. In the the Getafe keeper made brilliant save to deny Pedro after Alexis squared the ball to the Spanish international. In the 17th minute Xavi thought he had doubled the score after he chipped a brilliant throughball from Messi over the keeper, but the defender was adjudged to have cleared it on the line. In the 22nd minute the fans started chanting Abidal's name to show the support for their favourite left-back, who was undergoing luver transplantation. In the 24th minute Messi saw his shot going wide after a brilliant lofted ball from Busquets put him through. In the 28th minute Ruben Perez came close to equalising for Getafe from a brilliant volley, but we were somehow able to deflect it for a corner. In the 32nd minute Sanchez missed from an open position from a brilliant cross from Cuenca. In the 44th minute Lionel Messi made the scoreline 2-0 after a brilliant bit of one-two between him and Iniesta.

In the 49th miute Pedro sent in a great cross from the left but Messi couldn't reach it despite a diving header. We were into our possession style of play from the start of second half, but the intensity did drop a bit with a 2-0 scoreline. In the 67th minute Cuenca forced a save from the keeper. In the 73rd minute Alexis scored his second of the night and Barcelona's third of the night. Cuenca send in a great cross into the box, Sanchez rose above the defender and powered the header into the goal. In the 75th minute Pedro made it 4-0 from yet another header from a Messi free kick. Guardiola immediately brought in MOntoya for Adriano. In the 79th minute Puyol sent in a cross from right but Messi's shot went a high over the bar. In the 80th minute Tello came in for Pedro. In the 83rd minute Muniesa came in for Mascherano. With that sustitution we had 10 La Masia graduates on the field. In the 86th minute Xavi send in a great cross spotting Lionem Messi's run, but Messi's shot was parried away by the keeper. In the 89th minute Messi danced literally danced into the box and lifted the ball across the face off the goal, the defenders somehow cleared it for a corner.

Guardiola got his tactic spot on, eventhough it was a bit confusing to see four attackers in the starting line-up. The additional atatcker gave Guardiola the necessary width in both the side and it was no surprise that the most busy player in the night was Cuenca. Since Messi constantly dropped to midfield we always had a feel of four man midfield. Getafe came to defend deep , but this tactical switch did stretch them and we made the most of it.

Barca - 4 : Real Zaragoza - 1 Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Bibin) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 08:16:00 +0000

Barca - 4, Zaragoza - 1

noreply@blogger.com (Bibin) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 20:33:00 +0000

FC Barcelona closed the lead at the top of the League to three points with a brilliant 4-1 victory against real zaragoza away from home. Once again, as it's been the trend in recent away matches - we were made to play in another potato pitch. But it didn't matter as we won convincingly by scoring 4 goals. It was pretty eventful with Aranda missing a penalty in the first half, then giving them the lead. But our boys showed the character with Puyol equalising and Messi putting us ahead in the fist half itself. Messi then scored from a spot kick and Pedro then finished off the match in the injury time with a well taken goal. Guardiola starte both Iniesta and Xavi from the bench. Sanchez came back to the starting line-up after and formed the attacking trio with Pedro and Messi. The midfield had Keita, Thiago and Fabregas. The defense which was really stretched following Pique being ruled out had all available members lining up - Adriano, Puyol, Mascherano and Alves.

In the 2nd minute Cesc played a beautiful back heel to free Sanchez in the box, but Messi couldn't reach Sanchez's brilliant cross. In the 5th minute we had a scare when a cross from the left almost found Aranda infront of goal, luckily Puyol's desperate lunge helped to clear the danger. The pitch was as bad as it can get and we were struggling to go with our passing style of football. In the 19th minute Messi found a bit of space in the box, but Zaragoza defender was able to pull a sliding block on his shot at goal. In the 23rd minute the referee awarded a penalty in his attempt to clear the ball after it hit the post from a brilliant counter attack. Valdes made amense of that by pulling a brilliant save of that penalty and keeping the scoreline at nil-nil. In the 29th minute Zaragoza finally took the lead after a brilliant through ball caught out our defense, Valdes made the save but the rebound hit Mascherano and went in. In the 36th minute Alexis Sanchez saw his shot blocked by keeper, but the rebound fell to Cesc who only had to tap in but missed somehow. The resulting corner anyway earned us the equaliser through our Captain Caveman, Puyol which was basically gifetd by Zaragoza keeper. In the 39th minute Lionel Messi put Barca 2-1 ahead after Sanchez set in a great counter and squared the ball to Messi, who blasted the ball to the top near corner. In the 44th minute Lafita tried a low shot through the legs of Mashcerano at the edge of the box, but it was straight at Valdes. In the 45th minute Abrahams got a well deserved second yellow after pulling down Sanchez purposefully on the left flank putting Zaragoza a man down.

Even with the disadvantage of going down to ten man, Zaragoza started brightly in the start of second half. They had one shot which went just high off the bar and a clear penalty appeal after Keita unknowingly handled the ball int the box. In the 56th minute Guardiola brought in Busquets for Keita. In the 60th minute Cesc Fabregas palyed a chipped ball into the box spotting Thiago's run into the box, but Thiago just couldn't reach it. In the 63rd minute Alexis turned his marker inside in the box, but his shot was brilliantly saved by the keeper. In the 68th minute Guardiola brought in Montoya for Alves, who seemed to have a bit of an injury. Even though we had the numerical advantage but we were not able to score that third goal. In the 73rd minute Messi played a ball through four defender putting Adriano through , Adriano tried to square it to Cesc but he couldn't reach that. In the 77th minute Lionel Messi won a corner after the Zaragoza defense somehow prevented him from taking his shot. In the 81st minute Sanchez sent in a great cross finding Thiago in the box, who surprisingly couldn't make a strong contact. In the 82nd minute Messi was put through but his attempted chip over the on rushing keeper went high over the bar. In the 85th minute Alexis won a penalty after he was brought down in the box. Messi made no mistake with the goal from the spot kick taking Barca 3-1 ahead. In the 89th minute Alexis played a brilliant ball putting Messi through, but a sliding challenge too the ball away from Messi. In the 90th minute Xavi was brought in for Cesc Fabregas. In the 92nd minute Pedro scored a brilliantly build up goal to make it 4-1. The build up was brilliant. Thiago played a ball into pedro's path, who flicked it to Messi, who returned it back to Pedro and with only the keeper to beat he made no mistake.

Once again it was a tough away trip with a pitch which looked like been dug up to receive us. But once again we came out with a very favorable decison. We have cut down the lead at top to three points and Real Madrid will have to play their heart out to restore the six point lead when they face Valencia tomorrow night. Messi with two goals and one assist had an exceptional night. but my choice of Man of the Match has to be Alexis. He was brilliant on the night - setting up Messi for the second goal and winning the penalty. He was brilliant with his overall play and involvement. Thiago who had another rare start did brilliantly playing a holding midfielder at times and then turning the creative head at other times. Another good news was seeing Pedro getting in the score sheet and he did deserve that from his overall play.

FC Barcelona to face Chelsea as expected in Champions League Semi-Final

noreply@blogger.com (Bibin) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 05:24:00 +0000

When the draw was made last month in Lyon, everyone expected a Barca vs Chelsea match up in the semi-final. Now with both the teams winning their respective Quarter Final ties, that expectation has turned into reality. In normal circumstances players try to underplay past issues, results and other facts into the build up to one of the most important matches of the season. But it looks like the wounds of that dramatic night at Stamford Bridge which was turned on it's head by a Iniesta screamer is yet to be healed for many Chelsea players. I have always maintained that we were pretty lucky to have not conceded atleast two penalties that night. I have heard many of fellow cules arguing that Henry should have had a penalty in the first leg. There is some merit in the argument but as the saying goes "Two wrongs don't make a right", that argument can only be used for the sense of arguing. Chelsea were hard done by refereeing decisions that night and it is normal that their fans and players still feel the disappointment. There is no better statement to express that disappointment than Lampard's commenst after booking the semi-final birth - "Everyone's got unfinished business with Barcelona,They're the greatest team in the world. They have been and still are. But that game is still in our minds, but this is a different year and we have to try to beat them. They'll be favourites but we've got belief. We know we'll have to perform to our best to beat them, but we believe we can do it."

One may have to ask whether was it prudent for Lampard to raise the stake so much ahead of facing FC Barcelona. Even die-hard Chelsea fans will vouch for the class difference between these two sides. This FC Barcelona side is a much improved side from the one which featured at that dramatic night in Stamford Bridge, at the same time this Chelsea side is a pale shadow of the one which featured that night. Against Benifica, they were supposed to play as firm favourites but there is no doubt among viewers that Benfica controleld the match better but never had the end product to test Chelsea. I don't think end product will be one which will be missed by Barca. In Messi, they have a player who has scored 14 times already in the competition this season. Secondly to make matters worse for Chelsea they will be playing the second leg at Fortress Camp Nou unlike last time around.

Does that mean Chelsea would be a pushover for Barca? Absolutely not. Our side may be vastly superior to this Chelsea side on paper, but the problem for Barca is that the game is played on the field not on paper. One bad night is enough to see us getting knocked out by a team which is lying fifth in English Premier league. Another factor is that we may be playing chelsea when they are actually finding their form back atleast compared to earlier in the season. Second factor which makes this tie quite complicated is teh fact that the old guards in Chelsea clearly know that this may be their last chance to win a trophy which they have craved for so much. So Barca may mostly have to overcome thye silf-belief, grit and character of this Chelsea side rather than the skills. But the biggest factor going in favor of Chelsea is the timing of the first and second leg. This how our schedule pans out for the coming weeks - this weekend we face Zaragoza away, then Getafe at home on midweek, then Levante away next week, then Chelsea away on midweek, then Real Madrid at home and then Chelsea at home. With all the clashes in league becoming a msut win for Barca, they won't get a minute to ease off a bit. So from a Chelsea fans perspective there won't be a better time to play Barca.

FC Barcelona not only have to deal with Chelsea and it's players but also Mourinho and his filthy mouth in the build up of this tie. He has already started the mind games accusing UEFA of making it easier fo Barca to reach the finals. If Barca is facing a must win match every three days, then Chelsea's situation is not great either. They are in a dog fight to secure the final Champions League birth from EPL. So they also cannot afford to take the foot off the pedal for once. Looking at their attacking and midfield issues, they may also have to win the first leg to seriously have any hope of qualifying. But there is almost two weeks to go before the first leg and there is no doubt that the availabilty of key players on both sides will go a long way in deciding who will feature in Munich.

FC Barcelona - 2 : Atletic Bilbao - 0 Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Bibin) — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 11:25:00 +0000

FC Barcelona - 2, Atletic Bilbao - 0

noreply@blogger.com (Bibin) — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 22:00:00 +0000

FC Barcelona maintained their pressure on La Liga leaders with a brilliant 2-0 victory at home against Atletic Bilbao. Iniesta opened the scoring in the first half and Messi secured the three points when he calmy finished off a penalty in the second half.With Real Madrid winning at Osasuna, we were nine points away from League Leaders. So anything less than a win was not good for Guardiola's boys. Guardiola once again started Xavi keeping the Milan clash in mind. The midfield had BUsquets, Thiago and Iniesta. The front three were made up of Tello, Sanchez and Messi. The back four had Alves, Mascherano, Pique and Puyol. Atletic started Muniain and Llorente off the bench.

In the 5th minute Alves thundered a long range effort which was punched away Bilbao keeper, the rebound fell to Tello who played the ball to Pique - whose expensive volley attempt just went wide. In the 7th minute Thiago slotted the ball into the goal but was rightly ruled offside. In the 23rd minute Thiago played in agreat ball into Iniesta in the box, but Iniesta's first touch was rather poor allowing the keeper to collect. In the 25th minute Lionel Messi took a free kick early but the keeper was able to punch it away. From the resulting corner Pique's brilliant goal was adjudged to have not crossed the line. In the 28th minute Iniesta's shot was tipped over by the keeper. It was relentless pressure from Barcelona on Atletic goal. In the 40th minute Iniesta opened the scoresheet. Alexis stole the ball from Atleticl midfielder, squared to messi, who send Iniesta through with a brilliant pass. In the 42nd minute Lionel Messi danced into the box before forcing a save from the keeper. The fact that we went into the break with only a goal ahead was a testimony to how well Bilbao was defending and also the brilliant night Iraizoz was having.

Atletic Bilbao brought in Muniain and Herera at the start of the second half. In the 48th minute Bilbao had a great chance but Thiago did well to deny them from a set piece. In the 55th minute Tello saw his curler well blocked by the keeper. In the 57th minute Tello won a penalty after Javi Martinez brought down Tello in the box, Messi made no mistake with the penalty to make the scoreline 2-0. In the 62nd minute Guardiola took off Tello and brought in Pedro. In the 66th minute Thiago played in Iniesta who instead of taking the shot tried to find Thiago back and the Bilbao defense was able to clear the danger. In the 68th minute Iniesta shot from outside the box took a deflection off Messi but Iraizos wass able to punch it over. In the 74th minute Iraizos made yet another save off a Messi shot from outside the box. In the 76th minute Xavi came in for Iniesta. In the 80th minute Pique made a goal line clearence to deny Muniain from scoring. In the 83rd minute Keita replaced Alexis.

The 2-0 scoreline never said the real story of this match. It was a game completely dominated by us from the start to finish. Had it not been for some fine goal keeping and sturdy defending the scoreline would have been an embarassment for Bilbao. The best player on the pitch definitely was Mascherano who was so brilliant in both defense and even with his distribution and occasional run into the attack. The best positive of the match was the performance of Pique, he was back to his very best and looked so assured. The rest of teh team did really well. tello who got a rare start never did any harm to his prospect of starting against Milna on Tuesday.

Barca held at San Siro; Barca - 0, AC Milan - 0

noreply@blogger.com (Bibin) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:44:00 +0000

FC Barcelona was held to a goal less draw at the San Siro stadium by AC Milan in the first leg of Champions League Quarter Final. A brilliant defensive display from Milan, coupled with a horrible pitch was good enough to negate any Barca threat. Arsene Wenger did complain about the state of this pitch, but I never throught it was this bad. The absence of an away goal complicate the return leg at Camp Nou, but still the fact that we got out of this pitch without any major injury was a good result. There was one surprise in the line-up selected by Guardiola, that was Keita being preferred ahead of Cesc Fabregas. We had the defensive line-up of Alves, Pique, Mascherano and Puyol infront of Victor Valdes. BUsquets, Keita and Xavi made up the midfield. Messi, Iniesta and Sanchez formed the front trio. AC Milan lined up with Abbiati, Bonera, Mexes, Nesta, Antonini, Ambrosini, Nocerino, Seedorf, Boateng, Ibrahimovic and Robinho.

We started the match half awake and was very lucky not to go behind in the 3rd minute when Robiho skied his effort when he was ahead at goal. In the 5th minute Lionel Messi won a free kick at the edge of Milan's box, but Messi slipped when taking the free kick. In the 9th minute Xavi shot at Abbiati who fumbled and the ball fell to Alves, who couldn't control being so close to keeper. In the 16th minute Mesi won another free kick, we took it very cleverly. Messi hit the ball to Busquets, who played in Sanchez who actually slipped past the wall and was actually brought down in the box, but the referee failed to award the penalty. In the 20th minute Seedorf slipped the ball through our defense to Ibrahimovic but Valdes did really well to save his low shot. In the 26th minute Messi and Xavi played a brilliant one-two through a host of Milan defense, before Xavi forcing a low save from Abbiati. In the 35th minute a brilliant header from keita put Sanchez ahead at goal, but Antonini did well to stay close to him and block the shot. In the 43rd minute Xavi had a shot from outside going high off the bar. As I wrote in the preview, the state of San Siro pitch was a huge concern for us. Everyone of our players were slipping and needed to take an additional touch that they really would have liked. We had our chances but couldn't take them and also was denied a penalty. Mean while Milan had two glorious chances, they wasted both.

In the 47th minute Iniesta fired a shot from outside the box wide off the post. In the 65th minute Guardiola took off Iniesta, who was pretty poor throughout the night and brought in Tello. We were struggling carve out anything in the majority of second half. Milan looked pretty settled with their formation and was looking more dangerous when they ventured out to attack. In the 73rd minute Tello shot into the side netting after a good build up which involved a host of Barca players. In the 76th minute Sanchez was taken off to make way for Pedro. In the 78th minute Puyol came close to scoring when his diving header from a corner just missed the far corner. In the 88th minute Abbiati forced a double save from first Lionel Messi and then from Tello.

You would have been excused if you thought you were watching a match in slow motion. That's how the game was paced. The pitch was horrible and we struggled to make anything much out of it. AC Milan meanwhile was very disciplined and stick to the task of breaking of our creative end products. The problem with getting a goalless draw in the first leg is that the second leg virtually becomes like a mini final. That increases the tension around it. But still the fact that we play at our home is a big fact and also the fact that the turf at Camp Nou will not resemble anything like this one. Coming to this match it was a massive performance from Pique, Mascherano and Valdes who kept us at even terms. Most of our attacking players struggled to control the match. Iniesta was very poor and that affected our play. keita did well defensively but gave away too much balls when a decent build up was on. Now with a goalless draw it's all to play next week at Camp Nou.

Barca vs AC Milan UCL QF First Leg Preview

noreply@blogger.com (Bibin) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:39:00 +0000

FC Barcelona has landed in Milan to face the holding Serie A Champiosn in the first leg of Quarter Finals of this year's UEFA Champions League. Barca fans were given a good news of Ibrahim Afellay being fit and he has made it into the squad which will face Milan tomorro at the San Siro. There has been a bit of concern about the state of San Siro pitch and how it will play. We could only hope that it plays better than the Arsenal vs Milan match in the last round. AC Milan was one of the teams which every Barca fan want to avoid at this stage, but we still have the advantage of playing the second match at Camp Nou. In the pursuit of La Liga and Champions League, this week could prove to be a pivotal one for FC Barcelona. We will be facing Milan at San Siro and in the weekend we will be hosting Biesla's Athletic Bilbao. Both the games have becom pivotal for Barca and we could not afford not to win any of those. The squad selected by Gaurdiola for this match includes Valdés, Pinto, Alves, Piqué, Fàbregas, Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta, Alexis, Messi, Thiago, Mascherano, Keita, Sergio Busquets, Pedro, Afellay, I. Cuenca, Muniesa, Montoya, Oier, and Cristian Tello. Apart from Afellay's inclusion there wasn't much surprise in the list.

Guardiola meanwhile is deprived of the service of his two natural left-back with the absence of Abidal and Adriano. Abidal is expected to undergo liver transplantation very soon and will be out for the rest of the season. Adriano meanwhile has been ruled out of this tie, but may make a comeback for the return leg. Guardiola was able to rest some of his core players in the weekend looking ahead at this tie, but he would have also preferred to rest his captain. But with the left back situation being so stretched, Puyol is expected to feature in non-stop action throughout next two weeks. The last time we went into San Siro was in the group stage and came out victorious in a very tight match. The 3-4-3 formation which was used at that time was stretched very badly by Milan's flank play and I would be surprised if Guardiola will opt for the same. It is almost certain that Guardiola will line up a four man defense with Alves, Pique, Mashcerano and Puyol infront of Valdes. The midfield should see the usual Busuqtes, Xavi and Iniesta trio. Cesc, Messi and Sanchez should make the usual front trio. Apart from the absence of Abidal, Guardiola will be able to feature his best eleven in this match.

AC Milan meanwhile is having a bit of injury crisis coming into this match. Thiago Silva is the latest to join the list having picked up an injury against AS Roma. He may even miss the return leg at Camp Nou. They will also miss the service of former Barca player, Van Bommel due to suspension and also Pato, due to injury. In all probability the defense line up of Milan may look like this - Zambrotta, Nesta, Mexes and Mesbah. The right back had a torrid time dealing with Walcott's pace at the emirate, so Alves and Sanchez or Messi should find that an interesting contest. The choice of midfield most probably would be done tocurb Barca's influnce in that part. So Seedorf, who is a veteran when it comes to Champions League is expected to start along with the likes of Aquilani and Ambrosini. The front trio ideally should be Boateng, Ibrahimovic and Robinho. For Barca Ibrahimovic would be the greatest threat but Boateng's physicality and presence also could provide a big head-ache to deal with

On paper our team is far far better than Milan's and that's the reason why some Barca fans are already considering this as a done job. But they should do well to remember what happened at the same stadium against Mourinho's Inter Milan two season's back. Football is not played on paper but on the field and Milan present us a big challenge to deal with tomorrow night. The fact that we have a player, Lionel Messi who is just in top form and have all our best attacking options available to start with should ease us a bit. Even then the crusial element is to get a favourable result into the second leg. A victory at San Siro is a must as that should ease the situation at Camp Nou next week. The group stage matches with Milan showed that they are the perfect team to match Barca, with their efficiency infront of goal. We may had lion share of possession but if you take teh two leg the aggregate score was 5-4, and that's no mean task. Milan's idea would be to counter Barca's playing skills with their ruthless effiecieny. But still this team has seen off numerous challenges in the past. Last week's match against Osasuna at that nonsense pitch for me was the perfect preparation for the Milan test. This team has a character and that should see us through. I am going for a 3-1 victory in Barca's favour.

Hard Fough Victory at Mallorca; Barca -2, Mallorca - 0

noreply@blogger.com (Bibin) — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 18:59:00 +0000

FC Barcelona cut down the lead at the top of the table to three points with a very hard working 2-0 victory against Real Mallorca. A brilliant free kick Messi and another goal from Pique was enough to see off the Mallorca challenge. It was a very tough match - having to play on a horribly dry pitch and also to have play with ten men for the last thrity five minutes after Thiago was sent off. But those factors didn't matter as our players played with their heart out and now the pressure will be on Real Madrid to regain their six point lead. Pep Guardiola went into this big away game with a three man defense of Mascherano, Pique and Puyol. Xavi started from the bench with an eye on AC Milan clash. So we had a midfield of Iniesta, Thiago, Busquets and Cesc Fabregas. Messi, Pedro and Sanchez made the front trio.

Mallorca started the game with a pretty high pressure creating some scary crosses in the first two minutes. They were using our flanks to put us under pressure, but luckily for us the final ball into the box weren't that great. In the 12th minute Messi latched onto a poor pass from Mallorca defenders before but his shot was blocked by keeper. In the 20th minute Alvaro had a great chance with his header from a cross from right, but he could only head wide. We were not creating anything much since. Then in the 24th minute Alexis won a free kick. And we went 1-0 ahead from the resulting free kick with Alexis nodding it home but the referee awarded it to Messi, anyway it was too hard to tell. . There was a doubt of offside but the replays showed clearly that Alexis was onside when Messi delivered the free kick. In the 33rd minute Alexis struck the underside of the cross bar, the ball somehow didn't go inside. In the 40th minute Iniesta flashed a shot well wide off the goal. In the 44th minute Sanchez thundered a shot at the keeper, but the Mallorca custodian was able to deal with that.

A 1-0 lead at Mallorca was going to be tricky. Guardiola's problem was that he didn't have too much to play with Milan match coming in the weekend. We started with a 3-4-3 formation but slowly moved back to a 4-3-3 with Busquets dropping into back four. In the 55th minute Lionel Messi won a free kick just outside the box, but the free kick went wide of the left post. In the 57th minute Thiago was booked for an alleged hand ball and was sent off. That really was harsh as it came off the shoulder. In the 59th minute Messi hit the side netting after Pedro won the ball in the box and squared it to Messi. Guardiola brought in MOntoya for Cesc Fabregas, and that meant Busquets went back to his holding midfielder role. In the 69th minute Keita came in for Pedro, who actually did well in a dry and horrible pitch. In the 79th minute we wrapped the game with Pique making it 2-0. Messi's shot richocheted off teh corssbar and fell kindly to Pique who made no mistake finishing it off. Guardiola in the 82nd minute took off Sanchez, who had been excellent tongiht and brought in Tello. In the 83rd minute Montoya made a brilliant block to keep the scoreline at 2-0.

The performance from the players was brilliant, it may not have been the perfect match from a literal sense but for me it was "The Perfect Match" Seeing that pitch my first thinking was that we are not going to win here, but the boys proved me wrong. The pitch was kept dry deliberately to slow us down but in the end it also hurt Mallorca's chances especially when we went down to ten man. The dry pitch slowed down their attacks on the flanks and we had better palyers to deal with the limited oppurtunity we have got. Montoya who was expected to start came in the secondnhalf and was immense. He had clearly shown that we have a very good cover for Alves in him if needed. Guardiola was brilliant with his decision, first to have Busquets drop back to back four and then to bring on Montoya and other substitutes. Now we have done our part, it's up to Real Madrid to respond.

Lionel Messi Creates History; FC Barcelona - 5, Granada - 3

noreply@blogger.com (Bibin) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 22:00:00 +0000

FC Barcelona cut the lead on the top of the league to five points with a rather scrappy 5-3 win. Real madrid will have a chance to extend the lead, but for the time being we are five points below them. A hat-trick from Lionel Messi and one each from Xavi and Tello gave us a a deserving victory. It was a bit scrappy in some sense - we lead 2-0 with Granada completely out of the picture, then let them come back and make teh scoreline 2-2 but we woke up enough to finish off the game. All the eyes were on Messi building into this match. A recently conducted study has revealed that Cesar, the club's official top scorer has only scored 232 goals instead of the earlier believed 235. That meant Messi needed only one more goal to equalise that tally. The starting eleven selected by Guardiola was Valdes, Alves, Pique, Puyol, Adriano, Keita, Thiago, Xavi, Sanchez, Messi and Cuenca. Barca players lined up with "Fabrice. We are with you" T-Shirt showing their support for the Bolton player Fabrice Muamba, whose condition is said to be improving at the moment. Granada players lined up with a message showing their support for Eric Abidal, our King.

Granada started pressing high up the pitch from the start. In the very first minute they forced Alves into a rather strange clearance in the box, giving the ball to a Granada player who flashed a shot wide off Valdes' post. But that lasted very litt;e as Xavi put us ahead in the 4th minute. Cuenca sent in a great cross finding Messi, who headed it setting up Xavi for a brilliant finish. We scored from literally from our first shot on target. In the 11th minute Lionel Messi forced a save from the keeper from the edge of the box.
In the 17th minute Messi equalised Cesar's record after scoring from another Cuenca cross to make the scoreline 2-0. He has equalled Cesar's record of 232 goals and he is still just 24. There wasn't any more serious action i the rest of the half and we went into the break with comfortably sitting on 2-0.

Guardiola brought in Mascherano for Adriano at the start of the second half. In the 53rd minute Cuenca found Messi in the box with a neat low cross but Messi could only flash his shot wide. In the 55th minute Granada pulled one goal back from a set piece when Mainz rose above all to meet the free kick in the box. In the 59th minute Pique saw his header from xavi free kick go straight at the keeper. In the 60th minute it all got worse for Barca with referee giving a penalty in Granada's favor, which looked like a seriously flawed decision. From 2-0 down, the scoreline became 2-2 with Siquiera converting the penalty. In the 67th minute Lionel Messi restored the elad with a brilliant chip over the keeper. It was a trademark Lionel Messi dink over the keeper's head from a Dani Alves ball. With that goal Messi has become the leading goal scorer for Barca in official matches. In the 71st minute Tello and Iniesta came in for Sanchez and Thiago respectively. In the 76th minute Messi played a brilliant through ball spotting tello's run into box, but his first touch let him down. In the 78th minute we had another scare with mascherano giving the ball away ina dangerous player, luckily keita was on hand to deflect the danger. In the 82nd minute Tello scored to make it 4-2 following a superb buildup by Iniesta and Messi. Iniesta slipped a ball to Messi in the box, Messi's shot cum cross was blocked by the keeper and the rebound fell to tello, who curled it into the far corner. In the 86th minute Lionel Messi completed his hat-trick after latching on to a brilliant through ball by Alves into the box and rounding off the keepr simply like that. In the 88th minute Dani Alves conceded a penalty when he accidently handled the ball in the box. That resulted in a second booking and was red-carded and he will be missing next week match. Siqueira converted the penalty calmly to make the scoreline 5-3.

It was a night for Lionel messi to create history, and he did just that in some style. A hat-trick saw him officially becoming the leading goal scorer in the club's history. Guardiola but have more head-aches to deal with Alves getting send off. He was very poor defensively but linked up well with Messi in attack. Now with already the back line stretched he may have to look to slot in Montoyo for the match against Mallorca in the weekend. It wasn't the greatest of night and it was explained by the fact that Granada became the first team to score three at camp Nou this season. But in the end three points were what mattered.

Barca - 2, Sevilla - 0

noreply@blogger.com (Bibin) — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 21:10:00 +0000

FC Barcelona notched up five consecutive victory in the league for the first time in the 2011-12 season with a 2-0 victory at Sevilla. First half goals from Xavi Hernandez and Lionel Messi, which may go down as one of the contender of "Goal of the Season" were enough to see a tricky fixture with against a side we always struggle. With this victory we have cut down the lead at teh top back to seven points temporarily. BUt Real Madrid has the chance to restore the lead to ten points when they meat Malaga tomorrow night. Guardiola went with Alves, Pique, Mascherano and Adriano in defense. Xavi, Busquets and Fabregas made up the midfield trio. Pedro, Messi and Iniesta formed the attacking trio. Both teams lined up in the start with "Animo Abidal" T-Shirts to show their support for Abidal, who will be having liver transplant soon.

Sevilla started the match trying to be as compact in the middle to cut on space through the middle. In the 11th minute Pedro was sent through by Fabregas but his shot was well saved by Palop. In the 17th minute Adriano won a free kick on the edge of the box; Xavi Hernandez curled the ball over the wall and back into the goal to put Barca 1-0 ahead. In the 20th minute Iniesta had a great chance to double the lead after he was put through on goal, but he flashed the shot wide off the goal. In the 24th minute Valdes was called upon to make his first save off the game. In the 25th minute Messi made teh scoreline 2-0 witha a beauty off a goal, which very much could become the "Goal of the Season". Iniesta played the ball to Messi at the edge of the box, nutmegged the ball through the defenders leg and when it looked like the angle have become a bit tight, he lifted the ball into the far corner. In the 27th minute Xavi had a great chance but his shot was too close to the keeper Palop. In the 33rd minute Pique made a mess of a simple lofted ball into the box and we were lucky not to have conceded as Manu hit the post. In the 40th minute Pedro forced Palop to make a good save from a counter attack initiated by Valdes. In the 41st minute our defense was caught napping yet again by Kanoute but Valdes made a brilliant save to deny Kanoute. In the 45th minute Fabregas should have increased the lead but he shot too close to the keeper from a really open position. The half ended with we leading 2-0 but what was interesting was our possession stats, which was just 53% - something unusal for Barca.

Sevilla came out roaring after the break. Victor Valdes had to make a smart save in the 48th minute. They had a series of corner within the first five minutes. In the 66th minute Jesus Navas ran into our box curled a beautiful cross into the box, luckily Manu Del Moral could only hit the side netting. In the 69th minute Guardiola took off Fabregas and brought in Keita, a clear sign to get more control in the midfield. In the 73rd minute Messi put Iniesta through on goal but Iniesta tried to be a bit clever lifting it wide of goal. In the 82nd minute Xavi was replaced by Alexis Sanchez. In the 84th minute Valdes did really well to deny Manu del Moral once again. In the 84th minute Puyol came in for Adriano. In the 88th minute Pique did well to block Kanoute shot on goal off the line. In the 89th minute Alexis was played through but he couldn't beat Palop.

This match was no different from our previous visits to Sevilla. The 2-0 scoreline to an extent never said teh entire story. Sevilla had the more than couple of chance to score and they were really the better side after the half. We had to thank Mascherano and Valdes for keeping the scoreline 2-0, and may be also Pique, who decided to turn up properly in the second half after a disastrous first half. Cesc Fabregas who was slotted to play in the middle was very poor with his passing. The absence of Iniesta from the core of midfield meant we had less domination interms of midfield control. That explained the 56% possession stats. Iniesta who played further up on the left was very poor. He showed his brilliance at time but was too sloppy with the overall play. Once again the good news was Pedro putting up a good shift. He is not back to his best but his closing down so high up on the pitch was something we missing.

FC Barcelona to meet AC Milan in UEFA Champions League Quarter Finals

noreply@blogger.com (Bibin) — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 12:07:00 +0000

FC Barcelona will meet AC MIlan in the 2011-12 Champions League Quarter Final. The first leg of the tie will be held on the 28th of March at San Siro and the return leg will be held at Camp Nou on 3rd of April. It is second time Barcelona is drawn to meet the defending Serie A Champions. We have already met in the group stages this year, with we winning one match and drawing the other. For me, this is one tie I wanted to avoid as there is too much coincidence between Inter scenario a season ago. The best part of the draw is that we will play the second leg at home. But remembering that night in San Siro against inter, it now becomes paramount to play our heart out at San Siro this time around. Among the other draws, Real Madrid is the one who got one of the easiest draws. Our arch-rivals will play APOEL with the first leg taking place in Cyprus. The other Quarter Finals are Benfica vs Chelsea and Marseille vs Bayern Munich.

Not only the draws of Quarter Finals were made today at Nyon, but also the later stages of the Championship. The winner of Milan vs Barca match will meet the Winner of Chelsea vs Benfica. If we get past Milan, then Chelsea most probably would be the opponent, again the good news is that we will play the second leg at home. Real Madrid has to go through either Marseille or Bayern to reach the final in the semis, again they also play the second leg at home. So the dream final between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona remain a realistic possibility.

Meanwhile Barcelona will be without the service of Abidal, who will undergo Liver transplantation very soon. Wishing him a speedy recovery and hoping that he will be back to lift the cup at the Allianz Arena.

Barca -2 , Racing Santander - 0

noreply@blogger.com (Bibin) — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 19:07:00 +0000

FC Bracelona made short work of a physical Racing Santander side with a comfortable 2-0 victory at the El Sardinero stadium. Two goals from Lionel Messi, the second coming from a penalty was enough to help Barca fetch all three points and reduce the lead on top to ten points. With a 72% possession statistics this game was as comfortable as it can get, barring the constant kicking and hacking down our players have to go through. Racing under their new coach did take a leaf out of Mourinho's and Pepe's playing style in trying to stop Barca. BUt that all ended in vain with we rounding off a decennt performance with a two goal victory. It also saw us winning our first penalty away from home, a rarity for us this season. Guardiola picked the best available eleven - Valdes, Alves, Mascherano, Puyol, Busquets, Fabregas, Iniesta, Xavi, Cuenca, Pedro and Messi. The formation of choice was a 3-4-3 one.

We were quickly into our possession style of football. BUt there were instances, where the three man defense were getting caught out on the flanks. In the 6th minute Pedro got inside the box, cut inside to his favourite right foot and tried to curl the ball into the far right corner, but just missed. In the 15th minute Lionel Messi won a free kick just outside the box after Racing defender pulled his shgirt to stop a marauding Messi run. Messi forced a corner from the resulting free kick. In the 22nd minute Andres Iniesta hit the cross bar with a sublime effort from inside the box. In the 25th minute Cesc Fabregas forced a brilliant save from the keeper after he did so well to take a Messi pass into his path. In the 29th minute Lionel Messi put Barca 1-0 ahead with a neat tap in. Xavi danced into the box and lifted the ball above the defense into Cesc path, who had a chance of striking on the goal but wisely decided to square it to Messi in the centre. In the 31st minute Pedro hit the side netting after Iniesta slipped him through on the left. We once again had the majority of possession in the first half, but going into the break at 1-0 we were in a tricky situation. Especially considering we had conceded just after the break in our two previous La Liga outing.

In the 51st minute Cesc Fabregas forced a save from the keeper from a very tight angle. In the 55th minute Iniesta lifetd a brilliant ball to Cuenca but the keeper forced yet another stop to deny the youngster. BUt Barcelona won a penalty from the rebound after Cesc Fabregas went down after Cisma pushed him down. Lionel Messi made no mistake from the penalty taking us 2-0 ahead. In the 60th minute Xavi Hernandez played Cuenca on in the box, Cuenca held up some challenge but could only hit the bar. In the 65th minute Lionel Messi was denied again by the keeper after a brilliant dummy by Xavi set the Argentinian up. In the 73rd minute Guardiola brought in Tello for Cuenca. In the 80th minute Iniesta played Messi through on goal from Barca ha;f, but Messi couldn't finish it off. In the 83rd minute Xavi came off from Seydou Keita. In the 85th minute Pedro was played on by Messi but once again the keeper denied the goal scoring chance, this time from pedro. In the 88th minute Pedro was taken off for Adriano.

Even though it was a normal 2-0 victroy, it was much bigger than that. Racing Santander came to play a very ugly game - kicking and pulling blatant fouls on our players. Not only that, since they left the pitch dry it was very difficult for our players to control the ball at times. That along with a brilliant performance from their keeper, Mario helped them in keeping the scoreline to a respectable level. Lionel Messi once again continued in his hot streak of scoring goals for fun. He has now scored 50 goals this season, of which 30 are in the league. He is just 2 goals behind Cristiano Ronaldo. But the best player for Barca was not Messi, it had to be Busquets. He was brilliant throughout tyhe night. Playing the 3 man defense had it's drawback but he did really well to cover that draw back. The most positive news of tonight's performance was Pedro's performance. He was struggling in recent matches, but tonight he showed straits of returning back to his best.

FC Barcelona vs Leverkusen Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Bibin) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 08:31:00 +0000

FC Barcelona - 7 : 1 - Bayern Leverkusen Goals

noreply@blogger.com (Bibin) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 22:20:00 +0000

Five Star Messi Takes FC Barcelona to UCL Quarter Final; FC Barcelona - 7, Bayern Leverkusen - 1

noreply@blogger.com (Bibin) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 22:05:00 +0000

FC Barcelona simply blew off Leverkusen at a brilliant night at the Camp Nou. The 7-1 victory has to be a stern message to all our challengers in Europe this season. With a 3-1 away lead we were almost there in the quarter final. But following last night's Arsenal's comeback against Milan, there were some nerves. But the team simply blasted those. In the end we won 10-2 on aggregate. It was a record breaking night. Lionel Messi who was rested in the weekend cam roaring scoring five in the night. Tello who made his debut scored twice to complete the 7-1 scoreline. This is Barca's biggest victory in UEFA Champions League. Messi became the first player to score five goals in a single Champions League match. He right now has 12 goals from 7 matches in this Champions League, equalling his last season tally. Puyol and Abidal were ruled out for the match. So we had Adriano, Mascherano, Pique and Alves in defense. Busquets, Iniesta and Xavi made the midfield. The front trio were Pedro, Messi and Fabregas. Leverkusen was coming into teh match on the back of a splendid victory against Bayern Munich. So it promised to be an interesting battle.

We were trying to settle into our rhythm from the word go, but there was a bit of complacency from the defense at the start. In the 3rd minute Alves gave away the ball near the box and that created a bit of panic around the box. In the 6th minute had our first shot from Xavi which was deflected for a corner. In the 10th minute after a slow start we woke up brilliantly forcing a double save. fabregas lofted the ball to Messi in the box, whose shot was saved the rebound fell to Pedro, but the defender was able to block the shot from Pedro. In the 24th minute Pique almost scored when he flicked the free kick from Xavi but the keeper made a brilliant one hand save. In the 25th minute Lionel Messi finally broke the deadlock from a brilliant counter attack. Xavi sent in a brilliant loop ball spotting Messi's run from his own half, Messi take the ball in control and simply scooped the ball over the advancing keeper's head. That goal did kill the tie completely. In the 42ndminute Messi killed it off absolutely scoring his second of night. Iniesta passed the ball to Messi on the edge of box, the little Argentinian skipped past two defenders before curling the ball to the far corner.

We came out of the break firing in all cyclinders. Within a minute Fabregas had a great chance but decided to pass it to a team mate and defender cleared it. BUt the move which set up that chance was exquisite. In the 50th minute Messi completed his hat-trick. It's again was similar to the first goal. Fabregas this time lofted a ball spotting Messi's run, he once again lofted the ball over the keeper, this time from a much difficult angle. In the 53rd minute Guardiola took off both Iniesta and Xavi to bring on Keita and Tello. Tello immediately rewarded his coach with a goal for himself from a Fabregas pass taking the scoreline to 4-0. In the 58th minute Messi scored his fourth after a huge mistake from the keeper. It was all becoming too easy. Messi tries to play a one two with Pedro, but the defenders had it covered. Then the keeper came out and collected but spilled it in the crucial moment giving the ball to no one else but Messi, who made no mistake. In the 62nd minute we scored again with Tello scoring again. Alves found Tello on the left, he tried to curl it past but struck it too close to keeper who deflected it into the goal. Guardiiola immdiately made the third substitution by bringing on Muniesa for Adriano. In the 85th minute Messi scored his fifth of the night curling the ball from the edge of the box in to the far corner. That was the first time Messi has scored 5 goals in a a match. At 7-0 this was already Barcelona's biggest win in Europe. To make matters worse it was showing every sign of becoming worse for Leverkuse, as a matter of fact the visiting side had given up following the fourt goal. In the 89th minute Tello was denied by the keeper in a one on one situation with a fine save. In the 90th minute Bayern leverkusen scored a consolation goal through a brilliant goal from Bellarabi. That was a brilliant goal may be the best finish of the night.

Playing a high line, Bayern Leverkusen was in for a tough night but even them never thought it would be this bad. It was a sheer humiliation and in a huge scale. Bayern gave it up after Messi hat-trick but they were expecting us to cool down a bit, unfortunately that was not the part of our script. I had a feeling Messi would score five tonight after missing the weekend match against Gijon. But even I didn't give much to that feeling. He was simply outstanding. After both Iniesta and Xavi were taken off, he dropped deep to organise attack. His finishing were all world class, with the scoop with his right foot for the hat-trick being the best of the lot. Messi has been a gift for us Barca fans, a gift sometimes we take for granted. Tello meanwhile made a blockbuster Champions league debut - he almost scored teh hat-trick. He at times look a very one dimensional player, but that is very much a dimension our team is missing nowadays. He stretches the field like anything and is the fastest of all our players. The rest of the cast played their part to perfection. Of the midfielders - Fabregas was brilliant. His over the top deliveries were catching out Leverkusen's high line defense over and over again. Pique for me was the only problem point tonight - being more complacent than the entire team combined. But tonight is not about those things, it is all about the treat these guys presented for us. Something we take for granted at times, but the we are fans - so we demand!

FC Barcelona - 3 : 1 - Sporting Gijon Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Bibin) — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 11:20:00 +0000

FC Barcelona - 3, Sporting Gijon - 1

noreply@blogger.com (Bibin) — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 21:07:00 +0000

FC Barcelona managed to reduce the lead on top of the table to seven points with a brilliant 3-1 victory against Sporting Gijon. For a Barca fan it was a memorable victory as we had to play the entire second half with ten man following Pique's expilsion. Iniesta gave us the lead in the first half, Gijon equalised after Pique's send off but Keita restored the lead with a magical goal and Xavi completed the scoreline. With Busquets and Messi suspended and Abidal injured, Guardiola had to re-shuffle a bit. The defense had Adriano, Mascherano, Pique and Alves. Keita played the holding midfielder role flanked by Iniesta and Xavi on either side. The front trio were Cuenca, Fabregas and Pedro.

Barca were on the task from the word go. In the 2nd minute Pedro shot wide from a corner after doing brilliantly to lose his marker. In the 8th minute Pedro had the ball in the back of net after some brilliant excahnges between Cesc and Iniesta but was correctly ruled offside. Sporting Gijon was sitting deep and defending compactly, making sure there is not much opening down the middle for Barca to operate. In the 27th minute Kieta saw his shot from inside teh box blocked for a corner. We weren't able to penetrate the Sporting defense much, but whenever we tried to attack via the wing we looked more dangerous. In the 37th minute Pedro forced a corner out of a decent angle. In the 42nd minute we finally managed to break this stubborn Gijon defense. The magic needed for the goal was provided by Adriabo, who setup in an incredible run into the box, played a one-two with Keita and squared the ball to Iniesta who had the simple job of tap the ball in. With a goal lead we looked more dangerous In the 44th minute Fabregas saw his shot go wide from a very promising position.

The second half started in a really bad fashion. In the first minute of second half Pique was shown a direct red card after he has been adjudged to have brought down Cuecas outside the box. The resulting free kick deflected off the wall, but from the rebound David Barral equalised for Gijon from a cross from Mendy. Gijon had made two attacking substitution following the red card and were showing more attacking intent. In the 59th minute Guardiola made a double switch bringing on Sanchez and Tello on for Fabregas and Pedro. In the 60th minute Iniesta played Alexis through but his first touch wasn't that great allowing Gijon to clear the danger. In the 69th minute the referee failed to award us a penalty after Sporting defender clearly handled the ball in the box. In the 78th minute Cuenca had a shot easily saved by the keeper. In the 79th minute Seydou Keita scored a brilliant goal from outside of the box to restore our one goal lead. Guardiola immediately brought in his captain Puyol replacing Cuenca. In the 87th minute Iniesta rode a couple of challenges and chipped the ball over the defense putting his partenr in crime Xavi through who lifted the ball above the keeper to us to 3-1. In the last few minutes we were playing with nine men after Sanchez pulled up his groin while chasing a long ball.

The players were a bit rocked following the expulsion, but they picked up really well and showed why they are the best in the World. The best thing is taht we did with a man less, against a brilliant defensive Gijon and also with Messi missing. Iniesta was without any doubt everyone's man of the match. He scored the opening goal and produced an out of teh world assis for the third one. Also he produce another brilliant assist for Sanchez who couldn't force a goal out of that. In the absence of Messi, Ineista took up the charge of creating the attacking threat and did that throughout the match. Keita was brilliant throughout and capped it with a brilliant goal. The work rate put by other players after the expulsion was simply amazing. Sanchez who had to walk away following the injury was brilliant after his introduction. He played a very crucial part in the build up of second goal. This match showed the heart fo this team and it is clear they are going to fight till the last to win the league.