FC Barcelona News

And then so does Real Madrid. Minute 44.

20 minutes into the second half Zaragoza scores again. Great news for Barcelona.

11 minutes into the second half Messi does it again. Madrid have equalized at the same time.

1-1 in the 43rd minute.

Bad news for Barcelona in the 30th minute. Good news is that Madrid are 1 down to Zaragoza.

Barcelona beat Espanyol tonight to win the Copa de Catalunya. With the full time score 1-1 the match went straight to penalties, where Barcelona pipped their local rival 5-4. The team was very much reduced, with many B team and youth players and so certainly not at full strength. Ronaldinho won’t be playing on Saturday due to the red card suspension he received against Getafe, but psychologically this must be an important victory ahead of Saturday night.

Tonight Barcelona beat Gimnastic de Tarragona away in the semi-final of the Copa de Catalunya. Narrowly avoiding penalties, Barcelona beat the home team 4-3, which means they will play the final next Tuesday against Espanyol, who they will then play in the league the following Saturday.

Barcelona fielded much of its B team while many stars are on international duty. Today it was also confirmed that Barcelona lost its appeal for Ronaldinho’s red card against Getafe last weekend, meaning he will be absent from the match against Espanyol.

 After winning Saturday night’s clash with Getafe, FC Barcelona remains in the running for the league title with just 2 matches left to play.

The match was always going to be hard fought by both teams, with Barcelona looking to restore their honour after the Copa del Rey defeat, and Getafe trying to use that result to their advantage.

Ronaldinho scored in the third minute, but emotions were high for players and supporters alike, and when a series of unnecessarily hard tackles by Getafe went unpunished by the referee Barcelona began to respond in kind. This culminated in minute 40 with a red card for Ronaldinho.

The ref seemed to have lost control of the match after this incident and was booed off the pitch at half time. The second half was just as hard fought and although goalless the atmosphere in the Nou Camp was electric. With the final whistle Victor Valdes took the ball and kicked it as hard as he could into the Gol Sud stand, relieved as everyone else that the match was finally over.

In addition to Ronaldinho’s red card Barcelona received 4 yellows against while Getafe’s 5. There is no football next weekend, but after that Barcelona meet Espanyol at the Nou Camp.

…in Barcelona’s case Montserrat Cavalier no doubt, with the final score Atletico de Madrid 0, FC Barcelona 6!

The roll of honour goes to: Messi (39), Zambrotta (44), Eto’o (45), Ronaldinho (58), Messi (80), Iniesta (90)

Whatever went on behind the scenes at Barcelona this week, it seems to have worked. At half time the score stands at 3 goals to 0 in FC Barcelona’s favour, with goals from Messi (39), Zambrotta (44) and Eto’o (45).