FC Barcelona News

Barcelona secured their place in the next round of the Champions League last night with a disappointingly 1-1 draw against Basle at the Nou Camp, owing to the defeat of Shakhtar by Sporting.

Considering Basle made just 4 incursions into Barcelona’s half throughout the match this is another case of dominating the match without scoring, in which Barça specialised earlier in the season, but a much changed squad was largely to blame. However, Xavi and Messi were brought on in the 59th minute and instantly upped the level - after just 2 minutes Leo Messi scored to put Barcelona 1-0 ahead.

While the Barcelona attack continued, Basle were able to put the ball past Valdes in the 82nd minute.

Barcelona’s 5-0 victory against Basle last night demonstrates the progress made by the Catalan club since the beginning of the season and leaves them the only club in Champions League to have won all matches played. With Sporting Lisbon beating Shakhtar Donetsk 1-0, Barcelona are top of Group C by 3 points and a favourite to go through to the latter stages of the competition.

Of the 5 goals, 2 were scored by Bojan Krkic, plus one each for Messi, Busquets and Xavi.

Barcelona once again recovered from an almost certain defeat when Leo Messi scored 2 goals in the last few minutes of the match.

Visiting Shakhtar Donestsk in the Ukraine, Barcelona struggled to breach the home team’s defence and at the end of the first half things went badly wrong when Shakhtar put the ball past Valdes. Barcelona then struggled in the second half to do much until the 87th minute, when Messi equalized. He then claimed the three points in an excellent chip in injury time which defeated the home keeper.

Last night saw Sporting visit the Nou Camp from Lisbon in Portugal for the first match in the Champions League group stage. Guardiola was dressed up to the nines for the occasion, although his customary stubble undermined the effect, and playing Henry, Eto’o and Messi up front.

Barcelona started off pretty much where in the same place they’d been on Saturday, with attack after attack running out of steam. However, in the 21st minute a corner from Xavi found its way to Marquez’s head and into the back of the net.

The first real sign of danger to Barcelona came in minute 30, from a foul by Puyol. Sporting went on the attack and was scrappily saved by the Barça defence and then grabbed by Victor Valdes.

Towards the end of the first half the squad were starting to gel and a hint of the old Barça magic was happening. However, when an attack on the Sporting goal ended in failure in the 43rd minute Sporting took possession completely and the ball was soon up in the Barcelona area creating another moment of danger.

Four minutes into the second half Sporting were on the attack again, the rest period seeming to have not done much for Barcelona. An apparent handball was not given by the ref and Puyol cleared the ball from the area.

Still Barcelona attacked, and in the 59th minute Eto’o scored from the penalty spot, although the foul on him wasn’t clear. Perhaps motivated by this last goal, the squad began to get things together again and play as a team.

With Toure now brought on in place of Eto’o, Sporting put on one very sustained attack that Valdes eventually got his hands to. With the visitors having stepped up their pace a notch or two, a foul on Iniesta went unnoticed and failed to stop play for Iniesta to receive medical attention. Finally in the 71st minute Sporting got their moment and Tonel scored.

Barça keot up their attack until the end and in the 86th minute a pass from Iniesta to Xavi paid off making the final result 3-1 to the home team.

Overall, not FC Barcelona at their best, but perhaps there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Guardiola needs to continue to improve his team if they are going to stand any chance of keeping their European ambitions alive.

Following last week’s Champions League draw, tickets are now available for the home leg of the matches against Sporting Lisbon, FC Basle and  Shakhtar Donetsk in the group stage of the competition. The first match will be played on September 16th against Sporting Lisbon.

Although there should have been little doubt, Barça qualified on Tuesday night after beating Wisla Krakow 4-1 on aggregate.

However, Guardiola has little reason to celebrate as his squad performed poorly. After the 4-0 home win, Barcelona struggled to win Gamper through sheer luck and never quite got together for the away leg of the Champions League qualifier.

Little seems to have changed in how the squad was performing under Frank Rijkaard, which could mean that Barça selected the wrong manager in Pep Guardiola and he is just as poor as Rijkaard, or else he is just as good as Rijkaard and the problem lies elsewhere. Perhaps that is being unfair on Guardiola and he needs to work with his team a little, but the squad should be approaching the start of the new season in better shape than they have displayed in the last 2 matches.

Barça fans are notoriously unforgiving, and so there needs to be a radical improvement soon.

Other news is that Joan Laporta managed to retain his position as club president after a vote by the club’s super delegates.

The 1-0 result against Manchester United means that Barcelona is certain to remain with put a trophy this season. Despite playing well for much of the match, the team simply didn’t have the stamina to put the goal in the back of the net, as a 1-1 draw was all they needed.

Manchester played well too, and there is no doubt that they deserve to go through, but this will come as a further blow to Barça which must be planning some big changes over the summer.

Despite the fear that Barcelona would be completely overwhelmed by Manchester United last night, it didn’t happen. And despite the fact that Barcelona dominated possession throughout the match, once again the weakness of the team to actually score was highlighted once again.

Manchester should have gone one goal up early in the first half, but a penalty kicked by Cristiano Ronaldo failed to make it home. Despite several attacks on Manchesters goal, Barça was unable to capitalize and the end result was a goalless draw again.

Barça may be feeling happy that Manchester didn’t beat them at home; but the second leg will be in Manchester’s favour and the support of the home crowd may be all that’s required to put them through.

Once again Barcelona scraped by against Schalke, with a 1-0 win that was barely deserved. Barça was booed by its own supporters and Schalked applauded for their tight performance that didn’t quite pay off. Barcelona’s single goal came from  Yaya Toure in the 43rd minute, although the only player who seemed to be in form - for a change - was Bojan Krkic.

Barcelona face Manchester United in the sem-finals, but it is hard to imagine going any further on current form.

Barcelona’s Champions League match against Schalke was a disaster, despite the fact that they finished winning 1-0. Bojan seems to be one of the only players to have any substance to him, and it was he who scored in the 12th minute.

However, after scoring Barcelona seemed to relax, and although Schalke aren’t in the same class, they were unlucky not to score before the half time whistle. Back on the pitch for the second 45 minutes, Barcelona seemed to lack energy and focus. Their play was sloppy and nowhere near what they are at their best. They were extremely lucky to walk out off the pitch with a win, as the last few minutes saw Schalke repeatedly attacking the Barça goal. It wasn’t to be though and Barça must await the second leg of the quarter final knowing that they have to do better.

With the team out of the Copa del Rey, dropping into third place in the league and showing such poor skills on pitch, it remains how long Frank Rijkaard can remain at Barcelona. There has been much speculation about his imminent departure, but surely there will be a massive change throughout the club come the end of the season.