FC Barcelona News
Champions League tickets
September 1st, 2008Following last week’s Champions League draw, tickets are now available for the home leg of the matches against Sporting Lisbon, FC Basle and Shakhtar Donetsk in the group stage of the competition. The first match will be played on September 16th against Sporting Lisbon.
FC Barcelona qualifies for Champions League
August 28th, 2008Although there should have been little doubt, Barça qualified on Tuesday night after beating Wisla Krakow 4-1 on aggregate.
However, Guardiola has little reason to celebrate as his squad performed poorly. After the 4-0 home win, Barcelona struggled to win Gamper through sheer luck and never quite got together for the away leg of the Champions League qualifier.
Little seems to have changed in how the squad was performing under Frank Rijkaard, which could mean that Barça selected the wrong manager in Pep Guardiola and he is just as poor as Rijkaard, or else he is just as good as Rijkaard and the problem lies elsewhere. Perhaps that is being unfair on Guardiola and he needs to work with his team a little, but the squad should be approaching the start of the new season in better shape than they have displayed in the last 2 matches.
Barça fans are notoriously unforgiving, and so there needs to be a radical improvement soon.
Other news is that Joan Laporta managed to retain his position as club president after a vote by the club’s super delegates.
All over for Barcelona
April 29th, 2008The 1-0 result against Manchester United means that Barcelona is certain to remain with put a trophy this season. Despite playing well for much of the match, the team simply didn’t have the stamina to put the goal in the back of the net, as a 1-1 draw was all they needed.
Manchester played well too, and there is no doubt that they deserve to go through, but this will come as a further blow to Barça which must be planning some big changes over the summer.
Everything to be decided in Manchester
April 24th, 2008Despite the fear that Barcelona would be completely overwhelmed by Manchester United last night, it didn’t happen. And despite the fact that Barcelona dominated possession throughout the match, once again the weakness of the team to actually score was highlighted once again.
Manchester should have gone one goal up early in the first half, but a penalty kicked by Cristiano Ronaldo failed to make it home. Despite several attacks on Manchesters goal, Barça was unable to capitalize and the end result was a goalless draw again.
Barça may be feeling happy that Manchester didn’t beat them at home; but the second leg will be in Manchester’s favour and the support of the home crowd may be all that’s required to put them through.
Barcelona through to next round of Champions League
April 10th, 2008Once again Barcelona scraped by against Schalke, with a 1-0 win that was barely deserved. Barça was booed by its own supporters and Schalked applauded for their tight performance that didn’t quite pay off. Barcelona’s single goal came from Yaya Toure in the 43rd minute, although the only player who seemed to be in form – for a change – was Bojan Krkic.
Barcelona face Manchester United in the sem-finals, but it is hard to imagine going any further on current form.
Barcelona scrapes by against Schalke
April 2nd, 2008Barcelona’s Champions League match against Schalke was a disaster, despite the fact that they finished winning 1-0. Bojan seems to be one of the only players to have any substance to him, and it was he who scored in the 12th minute.
However, after scoring Barcelona seemed to relax, and although Schalke aren’t in the same class, they were unlucky not to score before the half time whistle. Back on the pitch for the second 45 minutes, Barcelona seemed to lack energy and focus. Their play was sloppy and nowhere near what they are at their best. They were extremely lucky to walk out off the pitch with a win, as the last few minutes saw Schalke repeatedly attacking the Barça goal. It wasn’t to be though and Barça must await the second leg of the quarter final knowing that they have to do better.
With the team out of the Copa del Rey, dropping into third place in the league and showing such poor skills on pitch, it remains how long Frank Rijkaard can remain at Barcelona. There has been much speculation about his imminent departure, but surely there will be a massive change throughout the club come the end of the season.
Barça through to quarter finals
March 5th, 2008Beacelona beat Celtic 1-0 last night to secure their place in the Champions League quarter final, with an early goal from Xavi deciding the game. Bad news for Barça came with an injury to Lionel Messi, who will be out of action for 6 weeks.
Celtic overpowered
February 21st, 2008Despite the fact that Barcelona dominated in Glasgow last night it was a little discouraging that in two attempts on the goal, Celtic managed to score twice. Although Messi scored minutes after Celtic’s first goa, the home team managed to finish the first half 2-1 in the lead.
However, Barcelona’s relentless assault on the goal meant that something had to give. Henry equalized at the beginning of the second half after which the Catalans continued to outclass Celtic. However, it was left to Messi to score the decisive goal and with Barcelona winning 3-2 it will be un uphill struggle for Celtic in the return match as they will need to beat Barça by 2 clear goals.
Barcelona beats Rangers
November 8th, 2007Depending 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
Goalless draw against Rangers
October 24th, 2007Last 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.
Learn more about reserving Barcelona football matches at the Nou Camp.
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