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.

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