FC Barcelona News

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

After a series of matches where they just didn’t look like their hearts were in it, Barcelona showed a convincing form last night against Betis in which we saw goals from Henry in the 32nd minute and Ronaldinho in the 52nd and 90th minutes.

The win puts Barcelona just 1 point behind Real Madrid, who lost to Sevilla on Saturday and should boost the confidence of Barça ahead of the Champions League match against Rangers on Wednesday.

Barcelona’s visit to Valladolid last night saw them retain their second place in the league after a 1-1 draw.

Llorente put the host into the league after 15 minutes, with Ronaldinho levelling just a few minutes before the half time whistle.

This compares with Real Madrid’s 5-1 annihilation of Valencia on Wednesday, showing a power that Barcelona just cannot currently match. All heads will be on Barcelona-Betis on Sunday night before the Rangers clash scheduled for next Wednesday.

Barcelona crept back into second place in the league on Sunday night after a rather unconvincing victory against Almeria at the Nou Camp.

Time and time again Almeria successfully blocked their hosts attempts are the goalmouth, but in the 36th minute Barcelona finally got through, with Thierry Henry scoring after an unsuccessful attack by Giovani dos Santos bounced off the keeper’s hands.

The second half was similar, with Almeria’s defince keeping the pace with Barça’s attack. However, when lacklustre Ronaldinho was finally substituted for Messi the crowd roared. Despite upping the pace though, it was not until Barcelona were incorrectly awarded a penalty in the last moments of the game that Messi finally scored.

Final score: Barcelona 2, Almeria 0

The end result sees Barcelona back in second place in the league with 20 points, behind Real Madrid’s 22, and a bust couple of weeks ahead. Thursday sees them playing Valladolid; Saturday or Sunday sees Betis at the Nou Camp; and next Wednesday sees the highly anticipated return match against Rangers.

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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.

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Barcelona suffered at the hands of “the yellow submarines” on Saturday night when the host team beat them 3-1, Barça’s first loss of the season.

Barcelona’s record at El Madrigal has been poor over the last few years and so it didn’t come as a huge surprise. The teams were fairly evenly matched and the fact that Villarreal were awarded two penalties was certainly a factor in their victory.

Highlights of the match included the goal by Bojan Krkic , the youngest player ever to have scored in a league match for Barcelona.

The only consolation of the weekend was the defeat of Real Madrid by Espanyol and the Estadi Olimpic. Barcelona dropped into 4th place in the league, behind Madrid, Villarreal and Valencia, but it is early days and there is still plenty to play for.

Next weekend sees what should be an easy win against Almeria on Sunday, but before then is the Champions League match in against Glasgow Rangers on Tuesday.

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Barcelona convincingly beat Atletico de Madrid last night to claim the 3 points that put them in 2nd position in the league.

The first goal was in the 15th minute, when a mistake from the Atletico defence meant that Deco was able to score off a pass from Messi. Just a few minutes later the score went up to 2-0 when Messi charged forward with a pass from Henry and after a giving the ball briefly to Ronaldinho, the Argentinian put it in the net.

With 2 goals behind them Barcelona’s pace slowed a little and Atletico put Barcelona’s defence to the test. Goalkeeper Victor Valdes first test was 20 minutes into the second half, but the ball was wide and the score remained 2-0.

IT was Xavi who was able to mark the final goal of the match in the last few minutes, which was set up by Deco, Messi and dos Santos. Next match is Sunday 21 October - Villarreal v Barcelona.

Final score: 3-0

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.

Barcelona seems to have found its form this season with another 4-1 victory, this time against Levante, and their first away win of the season. Thierry Henry led the charge with 3 goals under his belt, while Messi made it 4; Emilio Viqueira scored for the home team in the 73rd minute.

Barcelona has a busy week ahead, with a visit to Stuttgart in Champions League and then Atletico de Madrid visiting the Nou Camp on Saturday. With Puyol back in the squad and Ronaldinho expected to return, the team can only get better.

Barcelona beat Zaragoza on Wednesday night in the 5th round of the current Spanish League. With Ronaldinho, Eto’o and Puyol still missing due to injury, it remained for Leo Messi to provide the thrills, scoring 2 goals for Barça in the first half, with Iniesta and Marquez providing the others against Zaragoza’s 1.

With all this action in the first 45 minutes, the second half was a bit of a let down and although Barcelona tried to make it a nice neat 5 through the efforts of Henry and dos Santos among others, the ball didn’t want to kiss the back of the net.

Final score: Barcelona 4, Zaragoza 1