FC Barcelona News

It’s the big one on Saturday night when Real Madrid take on FC Barcelona in the Nou Camp in what is known as ‘The Classic’.

Both teams must at least draw some comfort from the fact that neither made it through to the next round of Champions League and will be pulling out all the stops to ensure victory.

One of the big doubts for Saturday night is Ronaldinho, although the club has confirmed that he is not suffering from a torn muscle in his left thigh after the match against Liverpool on Tuesday.

As to be expected the match is sold out, although there will be a small number of tickets available from the box office due to the way Barcelona allocates tickets. Expectation runs high and Spain will be at a virtual standstill on Saturday night from 22:00 when the clash of the Titans begins.

Barcelona were knocked from their position at the top of the league last night in a match that saw Seville’s Aitor Ocio sent off in the first half and both Giuly and Zambrotta handed the red card in the second.

Fighting hard, Sevilla beat a lacklustre Barça 2-1 putting themselves one point clear in the league.

Frank Rijkaard put his team’s defeat by Liverpool well behind him on Sunday night, when a reinvigorated Barça pulled out all the stops to beat Athletic de Bilbao 3-0 and push firmly ahead of Sevilla at the top of the table.

The first goal was an own goal in the 23rd minute by Athletic defender Fernando Amorebieta, followed by Xavi in minute 30 and Samuel Eto’o in the 41st, who is clearly back on form. After scoring he called for the attention of the club doctor, whose face grew suddenly pale. But his expression quickly turned to relief when it turned out that the Camaroon star wanted to thank him for the work on his knee injury.

We have two matches lined up in the next week, both of them away. First is Zaragoza-FCB in the King’s cup on Wednesday at 21:30. The second sees Barcelona visit Sevilla, currently in second place in the league. The match is at 22:00 on Saturday.

Barcelona had a disasterous match at Valencia on Sunday in a rainsoaked confrontation that saw the Catalan giants go 2-1 down. The game was strongly fought by both sides with the ref showing yellow cards galore and both teams reduced to 10 players. After a goaless first half, Valencia scored twice at the beginning of the second half and until Ronaldinho scored at the last minute it looked as if Barça wouldn’t put the ball into the back of the net at all.

Valencia’s victory pushes them past Real Madrid into third place in the league, who collected just one point against Betis on Saturday, while Sevilla are in second place with FC Barcelona ahead on goals.

Ronaldinho showed last night that despite his lacklustre performances of late, his talent hasn’t deserted him. The Brazilian star scored both goals in the match against Racing de Santander, boosting Barça’s league position. Eto’o was left out of the selection, as, according to Frank Rijkaard, he didn’t want to play.

Racing almost went 1-0 up after 25 minutes when they were awarded a penalty, but Victor Valdes showed why he is considered one of the best goalkeepers in Spain.

Lionel Messi was greeted with a massive cheer from the moment he began to warm up and his appearance on the pitch, although unspectacular, was warmly received by all.

Next week FCB play Valencia.

Barcelona played another uninspired match on Sunday night against Osasuna in a goal-less draw. However, Samuel Eto’o made his expected return in the 84th minute, his first match since September, while Ronaldinho was left behind in Barcelona to rest.

FCB remain at the top of the league with 43 points; Sevilla also drew and so are still just one point behind Barça, while Real Madrid slipped into 4th place behind Valencia.

At the Nou Camp back in September Barcelona beat Osasuna 3-0, but with Ronaldinho playing far below his peak and Messi still out of the picture it remains to be seen whether Barça can get as good a result on Sunday night in Pamplona.

However, Samuel Eto’o is back in training with the squad and is widely expected to make his return, although Frank Rijkaard will probably choose to play it safe and not play him for the entire match.

Barcelona remain in top position in the league with 42 points, just 1 ahead of Sevilla and 4 points clear of arch-rivals Real Madrid. However, Sevilla are playing Real Sociedad who have won just 2 matches this season, meaning at least one point almost guaranteed for Sevilla - Barça need to win this match to ensure their lead and once its star players are back in action and at peak performance that lead needs to be extended.

Osasuna-FC Barcelona
Date: Sunday 4th February
Time: 21:00

The date for the forthcoming match against Racing de Santander has been confirmed today by FCB, as below:

Date: Sunday 11th February
Time: 19:00

Tickets are still available in a number of categories. Click here for more information.