FC Barcelona News

Despite conceding a goal in the  15th minute, Barcelona kept up their pre-Christmas form with a 3-1 victory against Mallorca on Saturday night. Henry, Iniesta and Touré Yaya were all on form to put the ball in the back of Mallorca’s net, in a match that saw plenty of yellow cards, finally resulting in the visitors going down one man.

On a cold night,both teams were slow to get into the game, and it almost seemed that Barça needed to let Mallorca score that first goal in order for them to get down to business. Whatever the reason, once they stepped up to the challenge they started to really dominate the match and any doubt that their return from the Christmas break would be anything less than spectacular was shattered.

Barcelona are now 11 points ahead of Valencia, with next weekend’s match being played against Osasuna, and we still have FC Barcelona tickets available for the match against Atletico de Madrid on January 14th (Copa del Rey) and against Deportivo on January 17/18.

FC Barcelona’s win against Villarreal on Sunday night mean they finish 2008 10 points ahead of Sevilla in second place.

Once again Barça has shown no mercy for a team that should be amongst their toughest competitors, and that was with the twin disadvantages of conceding the first goal and finishing one man down.

Villarreal scored at the beginning of the second half, after a battle for possession in the first, but just a few minutes later Keita equalised off his head off a cross from Dani Alves. Keeping up the heat, Xavi helped Henry score the winning goal.

While things looked to be going Barcelona’s way, Pique was yellow carded twice within the space of a few minutes, the first Barcelona player to be sent off this season, although the second card appears to have been unwarranted.

La Liga Table - year end 2008

Late goals from Eto’o and Messi on Saturday night ensured the “classico” went to Barcelona, the first time they had beaten Real Madrid at the Nou Camp for three years.

The visiting team had obviously decided to target Leo Messi from the start, who came in for a barrage of hard tackles in the pouring rain, but a solid Barça worked steadily throughout to hold all three points on offer.

Despite high possession, it wasn’t until the 83rd minute that Samuelk Eto’o scored, perhaps to make up for missing a penalty earlier. And Messi sealed the match when he scored the second goal in injury time.

The result sees Real Madrid drop into 6th place in the league, with Barcelona now 8 points ahead of Valencia and Sevilla, both on 30.

Finally, after 20 matches undefeated the inevitable happened: FC Barcelona was defeated, when they went down 3-2 against Shakhtar, the return leg of the Champions League group stage.

Fielding a weakened team ahead of the Classico on Saturday - the blaugranas are already through to the next round of Champions League - Barcelona look like they’ll be on top form to meet Madrid, with the double whammy of having sacked Bernd Schuster as coach on Tuesday.

Crisis at Real Madrid? They may not be on top form, but they are currently fifth in the league, but that’s the way they do things in Madrid.

Thierry Henry was the star of Saturday night’s match against Valencia, when he scored three out of Barcelona’s four goals, the other scored by Dani Alves.

Once again the blaugranas dominated possession an while Valencia are theoretically contenders for the league title and currently in third place, they remained powerless against Barça’s onslaught.

Barcelona walked off with three points once again, in a match that they dominated possession seemingly without the will to score.

Their first goal of the night was scored by Samuel Eto’o, top goal scorer in the Spanish league, but it wasn’t until the 78th minute that Messi was to provide another, followed by a third in injury time, by then playing against 10 men after Luis Fabiano was sent off in the 86th minute.

Sevilla were unlucky not to have scored three minutes before the end of the first half following a free kick, but the shot ricocheted off the inside of the cross bar and remained in front of the line.

Real Madrid losing on Saturday, falling into third place behind Villarreal and Valencia, who Barça are playing next Saturday.

Barcelona beat Sporting Lisbon on Wednesday night in a match that Barça coach Pep Guardiola described as “strange”. His team was leading 3-0, but in the space of 3 minutes that dramatically changed to 4-2.

Barcelona winning streak came to and end against Getafe last night, in a match played well by both sides.

Playing Getafe is never a walk in the park and provided the first real challenge of the season. Possession was evenly matched and perhaps because Lionel Messi was out of action, they were missing an ingredient.

Getafe scored in the 19th minute, with Manu del Moral shooting from the edge of the area, while Barça kept up the pace, but failing to make the most of the opportunities they made.

Henry and Pedro were brought on in exchange for Bojan and Hleb in the second half, and Barcelona came close to scoring in minute 62. However, they had to wait until the 72nd minute for Keita to provide their only goal of the match, with a header from an Alves cross.

With Real Madrid beating Recreativo on Saturday, it leaves Barcelona just three points ahead, and this is while their arch rival is supposedly in crisis.

Barcelona widened the gap at the head of the league after a 2-0 away victory against Recreativo last night, their ninth consecutive league win.

Despite Barcelona’s impressive winning streak, and strong offensive play by Leo Messi in particular, it wasn’t until the second half that the Argentinean broke the deadlock with a goal from a Xavi free kick. The match was put firmly in Barcelona’s hands only a few minutes from the end, when Keita came on in place of Toure Yaya and a pass from Eto’t in the 85th minutes enabled him to put the ball home.

In addition to collecting three points from the match, the weekend was good to Barça. Real Madrid lost against Valladolid on Saturday, the surprise of the weekend, while Valencia were beaten by Sporting Gijon and then on Sunday, Villarreal drew at Malaga. 

Barcelona retained their leadership of the Spanish league this weekend after a stunning 6-0 victory against Valladolid on Saturday night. The undoubted star of the show was once again Samuel Eto’o, who scored the first four of Barcelona’s goals before the first half whistle.

With the team relaxing the pace a little in the second half, the score remained 4-0 until 25 minutes into the second half, when Gudjohnsen scored. Leo Messi then thought he had scored, but the ref called a late offside. However, Thierry Henry made it 6-0 off a pass from Hleb, well and truly demolishing the visiting team.