FC Barcelona News
Barça Overcome Shakhtar in Emphatic Style
April 7th, 2011There were five different scorers for FC Barcelona as they overcame tricky opposition with staggering ease at the Camp Nou on Wednesday night. Guardiola’s men will take an apparently insurmountable 5-1 lead to Donetsk next week, although the manager will be anxious to warn against complacency.
As the Blaugrana side has experienced in the past, Lucescu’s Shakhtar team are a smart outfit, boasting plenty of pace and creativity thanks to a quartet of young Brazilians and two of Europe’s most exciting attacking fullbacks. And in truth, some stiff resistance had to be overcome in this match.
Iniesta opened the scoring in just the second minute, taking advantage of a deflected through ball to slot home at Pyatov’s near post. As ever, Barcelona were taking the initiative, pressing high and circulating the ball at speed. Messi looked lively, beating three men before having his shot blocked by a last-ditch challenge.
Still, Shakhtar possessed startling pace and directness in the counter attack; Striker Luiz Adriano spurned a one-on-one opportunity, shooting woefully wide after being released by fellow countryman, Jadson. The Ukrainian side also looked dangerous on the flanks through Willian and Douglas Costa, and Dani Alves appeared tentative as he sold Víctor Valdés short with a weak backpass.
Recovering from these early scares, Barça began to tighten their stranglehold on the game, and Shakhtar Donetsk, like so many before them, struggled in the face of such concerted pressure.
Just after the half-hour mark the home side crafted a goal of real beauty. A lofted pass by Iniesta found an angled Dani Alves runs. The Brazilian wingback controlled the ball on the penalty spot with his instep, before rounding the ‘keeper and flicking home to double the lead.
The dormant Shakhtar threat resurfaced early in the second half; Luiz Adriano lacked composure as he failed to control a dangerous deep cross.
Once again the away team was punished almost instantly, as Piqué latched onto a low corner by Xavi and sent the ball home via a deflection off centre half Rakitskiy. Minutes later, the same Shakhtar player scored a potentially crucial away goal at the other end, guiding a neat header past Valdés to make the score 3-1.
Aware that their cushion was suddenly looking a bit slim, Barcelona bit back straight away.
Just a minute after Shakhtar’s goal, Keita increased home side’s lead, lashing a ferocious first-time shot into the top-left hand corner after wonderful work by Messi on the right. The Blaugrana side pushed on and produced their best football of the night during the last half hour, with some lovely combinations.
Although largely subdued, Shakhtar Donetsk did muster one late counter attack, culminating with Luiz Adriano striking the post from an acute angle. Once again Barcelona retaliated with a goal – Alves created space on the right side of the area and found his captain Xavi, who made no mistake from 10 yards and capped a satisfying night’s work for Guardiola’s team.
1-0, Iniesta (min 2)
2-0, Alves (min 33)
3-0, Piqué (min 53)
3-1, Rakitskiy (min 59)
4-1, Keita (min 60)
5-1, Xavi (min 86)
Barça outguns Gunners
March 9th, 2011After losing 2-1 against Arsenal in the first round, FC Barcelona only needed a 1-0 victory to go through to the Champions League quarter-finals on away goals. However, 1-0 was never going to be enough against a team such as Arsenal and the reality was that Barça made things unnecessarily complicated for themselves thanks to a second half own goal by Busquets.
Barcelona came on looking like they intended to win and possession throughout the match was close to 70 percent. The majority of the play was in Arsenal’s half, which perhaps was just as well with Puyol still of through injury and Piquet serving a suspension. However, Arsenal was dealt a poor card in the 18th minute, when goalkeeper Szczesny was substituted through injury.
Arsenal started to look ruffled and things got heated, losing their cool. Meanwhile Barça continued a relentless attack on the Arsenal goalmouth and Barcelona really looking like they’d deliver the goods. However, Arsenal were still still unnerved by Barça’s dominance continued going in hard. The result was a yellow card for Van Persie for a foul on Alves and he was perhaps lucky not to have been sent off immediately.
2 mins into injury time Messi came close to scoring, and then a minute later out the ball home to end the first half 1-0.
If the score had remained 1-0, Barcelona would have gone through. Unfortunately things are never that simple and while defending the Barça goal Busquets scored an own goal for the visitors, which changed things completely. However, once again the balance tipped in Barcelona’s favour, whenVan Persie was shown a second yellow card for proceeding after the offside whistle blown – a controversial decision, which the player contested with the ref.
1-0 Messi (min 48)
1-1 Busquets p.p. (min 52)
2-1 Xavi (min 69)
3-1 Messi (p) (min 71)
Barça defeated by Gunners
February 17th, 2011Barcelona took a few minutes to settle into the game until a few minutes into the game Messi took his first opportunity of the match. Although the ball went wide, the players seemed to find their stride afterwards, perhaps gaining some confidence. Possession from then on was high and Barça had a few unsuccessful attempts at the Arsenal goal. However, in the 26th minutes a Messi assist to Villa resulted in the first goal of the match.
A few minutes later Messi appeared to have scored again. Unfortunately it was judged to be offside, although replays would suggest it should have been allowed; they would also seem to suggest an Arsenal handball.
After the break neither team seemed to be creating any real danger and the game was drifting. However, Arsenal picked up the pace again and in the 78th minute Van Persie managed to put the ball past Valdes; five minutes later Arshavin scored a second for Arsenal.
Despite some great play in the last couple of minutes, Barça failed to claw back a goal to equalise, leaving the final score 2-1 to Arsenal. However, all is not lost – the Gunners visit the Nou Camp next month and all Barça needs is a 1-0 win to go through.
0-1 Villa (min 26)
1-1 Van Persie (min 78)
2-1 Arshavin (min 83)
Barça through to next round of Champions League
November 25th, 2010FC Barcelona’s 3-0 win against Panathinaikos ensured they go through to the next round of Champions League. This is another confidence booster ahead of the clash with Real Madrid on Monday, the biggest match in the European footballing calendar.
0-1 Pedro (min 26)
0-2 Messi (min 62)
0-3 Pedro (min 69)
Draw for Barça in Champions League
November 3rd, 2010Barça played the away leg of the Champions League group stage against Copenhagen last night in front of a capacity crowd. With a full strength squad, as opposed to the squad fielding plenty of B team players as in the home leg, they could have been expected to take the hosts apart, as they did with Sevilla on Saturday.
However, it wasn’t to be and despite going for goal on several occasions the ball just didn’t want to go in. Leo Messi got Barça’s only goal of the match in the 31st minute. However, they held onto their lead for virtually a minute until Copenhagen scored an equaliser.
A disappointing result, but Barça are at the top of the table.
0-1, Messi (min 31)
1-1, Claudemir (min 32)
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | PTS | ||
| 1 | FC Barcelona | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 8 |
| 2 | FC Copenhagen | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 7 |
| 3 | Rubin Kazan | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -1 | 3 |
| 4 | Panathinaikos | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 | -6 | 2 |
Barça takes top spot in Group D
October 21st, 2010Once again Leo Messi was the hero of the night with the only two goals of the match being scored by him. The three points gained takes Barça to the top of Group D in a match where the ball found the back of the net plenty of times, only to be disallowed.
The Catalans struggled to dominate the Danish team, and the points were hard fought for. FC Barcelona vists Copenhagen in two weeks for the return leg.
1-0, Messi (min 19)
2-0, Messi (min 92)
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | PTS | ||
| 1 | FC Barcelona | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 7 |
| 2 | FC Copenhagen | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| 3 | Rubin Kazan | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -1 | 2 |
| 4 | Panathinaikos | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 7 | -6 | 1 |
Draw for Barça in Russia
September 30th, 2010Barça once again failed to take all the points against Rubin Kazan after their trip to Russia for last night’s Champions League match. Barcelona also faced Rubin at the group stage last year, in which they took just one point from the Russians and Pep GHuadiola predicted this match would be equally tough.
The match saw Leo Messi return to the pitch, but only after David Villa had equalised from the penalty spot. FC Barcelona went a goal down just before the first half hour was marked after Dani Alves brought down of of Rubin Kazan’s strikers in the area.
1-0 Noboa (p)(min 29)
1-1 Villa (p) (min 60)
Barça recovery shows how it should be done
September 16th, 2010It looked as if it might all go wrong for Barça on Tuesday night when Panathinaikos from Greece scored the first goal of the match, causing the crowd to wonder for a moment whether it would be a repeat of Saturday night’s disaster against Hercules.
However, Messi set things right just a minute later to level the score. And once the goals started they didn’t stop, with more from Villa and Messi again; a lull in the second half and then two more goals from Pedro and Alves. And it could have been more, had Messi not missed a penalty,so all in all a great result that proves Barça should not be written off, especially at such an early stage in the season.
0-1, Govou (min 20)
1-1, Messi (min 21)
2-1, Villa (min 33)
3-1, Messi (min 45)
4-1, Pedro (min 77)
5-1, Alves (min 93)
Champions League dream shattered by Inter Milan
April 29th, 2010Barcelona was full of blaugrana shirts and the sense of excitement ever present during the build up to the big match at the Nou Camp last night. In the stadium the atmosphere was electric, and despite each team’s strong sense of purpose Samuel Eto’o warmly greeted ex-team mates Xavi Hernández and Victor Valdes before going onto the pitch.
From the start it was clear how the two teams intended to play, with Barça purely on the attack while Inter playing to defend their 3-1 advantage from the first leg of the semi-final.
The Catalans had huge possession throughout the match, holding onto the ball for 75%. But try and try and try as they might, the Inter defense just wouldn;’t allow them through.
Early on, in the tenth minute, Ibrahimovic got a yellow card which looked like it should have been a penalty for Barça, his ripped shirt evidence of who the victim really was. And what could have been the pivotal point of the game came in the 27th minute when Thiago Motta received a straight red card – he’d already got a yellow – for a completely unnecessary foul of Sergei Busquets. After receiving his marching orders, Motta was clearly upset, and launched another attack on Busquets showing little respect for his former team or team mates.
Down to 10 men, Inter continued to defend well. Despite some changes – Maxwell for Milito and Bojan for Ibra – time and time again Barcelona was unable to find the space to work their magic; until finally in the 84th minute Pique put it into the back of the net, although replays show he was probably offside.
Barcelona seemed to gain energy with the goal and kept on at it. When Bojan put the goal in the net a few minutes later it looked like Barça had done it; however, the goal was disallowed for a handball from Touré Yaya.
All in all a great match, with Barcelona fighting until the end. It’s a shame they couldn’t do enough to get that second goal, but they needn’t hang their heads in shame at the result.
1-0, Piqué (min 84)
First leg goes to Inter
April 21st, 2010Barcelona suffered a disappointing defeat last night at the hands of Inter Milan in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final.
Barça was looking a little ragged at the start and the hosts seemed to have far too much possession at the beginning of the game. However, things looked like they might go Barcelona’s way when Pedro scored a fantastic goal in the 19th minute after Maxwell shot the ball back inside the area; but 10 minutes later and Inter equalised with a goal from Sneijder.
And the second half got off to a bad start when Maicon reached the goal just three minutes in. While Barcelona had some opportunities they were unable to make it count and at 60 minutes Milito scored for Inter, although he was almost certainly offside.
With such a heavy defeat, Barça is going to have to pull out all the stops if they are to have any chance of reaching the final; they need to beat Inter 2-0 next week at the Nou Camp, but to be really certain of defending the Champions League title in Madrid they’ll need to be aiming for 4 goals.
0-1 Pedro (min 19)
1-1 Sneijder (min 29)
2-1 Maicon (min 48)
3-1 Milito (min 60)
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