FC Barcelona News

Beacelona beat Celtic 1-0 last night to secure their place in the Champions League quarter final, with an early goal from Xavi deciding the game. Bad news for Barça came with an injury to Lionel Messi, who will be out of action for 6 weeks.

Despite the fact that Barcelona dominated in Glasgow last night it was a little discouraging that in two attempts on the goal, Celtic managed to score twice. Although Messi scored minutes after Celtic’s first goa, the home team managed to finish the first half 2-1 in the lead.
However, Barcelona’s relentless assault on the goal meant that something had to give. Henry equalized at the beginning of the second half after which the Catalans continued to outclass Celtic. However, it was left to Messi to score the decisive goal and with Barcelona winning 3-2 it will be un uphill struggle for Celtic in the return match as they will need to beat Barça by 2 clear goals.

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Depending on which report you believe, either 15,000 or 20,000 Rangers fans arrived in Barcelona en masse, most of them without tickets, to support their team’s match against FC Barcelona in the Champions League.

And what a match it was, with Barcelona seeming to put it all together at the right time. In the 6th minute Ronaldinho passed the ball to Messi, whose header was deflected off the post to Henry, who put it over the line.

The same three players were involved in the 43rd minute goal too, Henry passed to Ronaldinho, and with some quick passing and an attempt at the goal by the Brazilian it was Messi who put the ball home.

Final score: Barcelona 2, Rangers 0

Last night’s goalless draw against Rangers in their first confrontation in Group E of Champions League gave each team just 1 point and left Barça in the top position with the goal scored by Stuttgart against Rangers pushing them down into 2nd place.

It was clear that Rangers main aim was to avoid conceding any goals to Barcelona and their defence was aggressive in pursuing this aim. While things did pick up in the second half and it appeared that the deadlock would be broken by Ronandinho or Messi, it was not to be.

The return match is in 2 weeks.

Learn more about reserving Barcelona football matches at the Nou Camp.

Both Carles Puyol and Leo Messi and scored against Stuttgart in the second half, handing the victory to Barcelona.

The match also saw the return of Ronaldinho after his layoff through injury and although Puyol has only just returned to playing after a lengthy recuperation period he was substituted after seeming to hurt his leg, although the quick application of ice seems to have done the trick as he was seen sharing a joke of Ronaldinho on the bench afterwards.

Next match in Champons League is Glasgow Rangers v FC Barcelona on 23 October.

Although FC Barcelona’s performance was a long way from the dazzling performance of the team when they’re playing at their best, last night at least saw a clear win in Barcelona’s 3-0 defeat against Olympique Lyonnais.

The first goal was deflected of Lyon’s François Clerc off a shot from Messi, but Barcelona failed to ignite and Ronaldinho was jeered as he was substituted by Iniesta during the second half. After the substitution the pace picked up a bit, but it wasn’t until 9 minutes before full time that Messi scored for himself and the icing on the cake was a goal from Henry off a rebound from Vercoutre.

Liverpool put an end to FC Barcelona’s Champions League ambition last night in a match that saw the Catalan club put in a spirited performance, but their one goal victory was not enough to put them through to the next round.

After a 0-0 draw at half time, Gudjohnsen came on in the second half to put the ball in the back of the net, but Liverpool’s defense and tight marking meant that Barcelona just didn’t have the space to be able to make it happen again.

With a 2-2 draw on aggregate, Liverpool go through on away goals.

After leading the match early on with a great goal from Deco, Victor Valdes made an error just before haldtime where he apparently believed he was further forward than he thought and although he managed to stop the ball he carried it backwards across the goal line.

Liverpool then capitalised upon this in the second half when the ball was firmly put into the top of the net.

This is disappointing news for Barcelona but the type of news they must be getting used to. Frank Rijkaard has admitted that it will be difficult to beat Liverpool at Anfield and get through to the next round of Champions League.

Final result: Barcelona 1, Liverpool 2