FC Barcelona News

Manchester City became the first British team ever to win the Gamper Trophy, FC Barcelona’s annual invitation match played aginst some of the world’s best known teams. It also marked the firsdt time in the tornament’s history that Barça has failed to score.

Before kickoff team coach Pep Guardiola introduced the new look teal to the public, in a stadium that was close to full – more that 94,000 spectators packed the stands.

The match was the Nou Camp debut of Summer signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who is currently recovering from a hand injury and was substituted by Lionel Messi.

To celebrate the triple – Copa, Liga, Campions – Barça played in a specially designed strip with a distinctively retro 1970s look. The top was blue, with three vertical stripes up the centre broken by the word “mes” – as in “more than a club” – with red shorts.

The first half was filled with Barça B team players, who allowed Martin Petrov score. However, the second half really saw Barça playing well, dominating possession and attacking the goal. However, the failed to make the most of this advantage and were unable to find the net thanks to Manchester City’s defence and keeper Shay Given.

The next match is the second leg of the Spanish Supercup on Sunday 23rd August. See the homepage for price and availability of Barcelona tickets for all matches.

Barcelona go through to the second round of the Spanish Supercup with the advantage, after beating Athletic de Bilbao 2-1 last night. In fact it was the first real football Barça has played since the end of last season, despite the show matches played in England and the United States – while they may serve as a gentle warm up they hardly qualify as football par excellence.

Both teams got stuck in from the start and despite some close calls for Barcelona, it was Athletic who struck home first, with de Marcos scoring a minute before the end of the first half.

However, Barça kept at it and when Pedro crossed to Xavi in minute 58 the resuslt was an equaliser. Ten minute later it was the turn of one of the stars of the summer, Pedro, who put the final goal of the match in the back of the net.

The Supercup looks clearly within Barça’s grasp and providing there are no slip ups next Sunday at the Nou Camp it looks like they’ll take another trophy.

1-0, De Marcos (min 44)
1-1, Xavi (min 58)
1-2, Pedro (min 68)

Barcelona’s final match of the US tour was overshadowed by the sudden death of Dani Jarque, captain of RCD Espanyol from a heart attack after a training session in Italy. While there is strong rivalry between the clubs, the death of a fellow player came as a shock to members of the Barça squad.

The first goal of the match was scored by Chivas after a goalless first half, when  Morales put the ball in the back of the net. Barça continued to push though, with both Bojan and Alves coming close to scoring; in the end it was Bojan who equalised for Barcelona in the 63rd minute of a an Alves cross.

Following the US tour, FC Barcelona heads back home – on Sunday they play the first leg of the Spanish Supercup away at Athletic de Bilbao; Wednesday 19th they play Manchester City in the Gamper Trophy; and the following Sunday they host the second leg of the Spanish Supercup.

1-0 Morales (m. 49)
1-1 Bojan (m. 63)

See the homepage for current availability of Barcelona tickets – five categories including VIP Gold and Silver for matches at the Nou Camp.

Barcelona stepped up the pace from their victory against LA Galaxy, when they beat Seattle Sounders last night.

Barça’s 4-0 voctory saw goals from Messi (mins 20 and 41), Jeffren (75) and Pedro (89) in a side that seems to be starting to gel in their pre-season, swamping Seattle’s efforts and dominating as they had done throughout the 08/09 season.

0-1 Messi (20’)
0-2 Messi (41’)
0-3 Jeffren (75’)
0-4 Pedro (89’)

FC Barcelona’s first match of their US tour took place last night against LA Galaxy at the Rosebowl, in front of a 94,000 crowd – the largest since the US World Cup in 1994.

Barça’s two goals came from newcomers Pedro and Jeffren, the first in minute 11. But Barcelona didn’t have it all their own way, with David Beckham scoring an equaliser just before half time. However, Barça’s second and deciding goal came the 66th minute.

Goals

0-1 Pedro (min 11)
1-1 Beckham (min 44)
1-2 Jeffren (min 66)

Check out the homepage for details of forthcoming matches at the Nou Camp and order your Barcelona tickets online.

Barça’s big signing of the season arrived in the Nou Camp yesterday to be greeted by more than 60,000 people, more than those who had turned out for Ronaldinho and Henry’s presentations combined. Zlatan Ibrahimovic arrived at the club yesterday morning, where he underwent medical examinations before signing his contract.

Some fans have been waiting outside the stadium all day and in the end the gates were opened early to avoid anyone being injured in the crush outside.

Ibrahimovic wore the number 9 shirt, where to the Barça anthem blaring over the tannoy he showed off his ball skills to the crowd, eventually taking the mike and finishing in Catalan, always guaranteed to set off a great response – “Gràcies a tots. Visca el Barça!” – Thanks to all. Long live Barça.

Afterwards he compared the experience with the birth of his children.

If you want to see Ibrahimovic playing for Barça at the Nou Camp, keep an eye on our homepage for availability of FC Barcelona tickets.

FC Barcelona has just said goodbye to its third highest goal scorer ever, with the departure of Samuel Eto’o for Inter Milan.

The player moved to Barcelona in 2004 and made an immediate impact by scoring 25 goals in his first season. Every time he sets foot on a pitch he is a potential goal-scoring machine and well respected for his commitment to the team as a whole – but for some reason, not by Pep Guardiola, who didn’t seem to be able to handle the player.

His remarkable career with Barcelona saw him score 108 goals in 145 league matches; and in Champions League he played 40 matches and scored 18 time.

While many supporters will miss him play, it was made abundantly clear to him that he was not welcome in the squad; one of Guardiola’s first announcements when taking over as Barça coach was that he would sell Eto’o; and this year he has been clear that he wants him out.

With Zlatan Ibrahimovic arriving in Barcelona for a medical this week, let’s hope he can reproduce even a fraction of the goalscoring capability Barça has decided it just doesn’t need.

Barcelona played their second match at Wembley Stadium last night and notched up their first win of the pre-season.

This time they faced Egyptian Champions, Al-Ahly, in a game they eventually dominated. At first the teams were evenly matched, with Bojan scoring the first goal for Barça in the 15th minute and El Agizy equalising for Al-Ahly in minute 30. Rueda then scored in the 41st minute to put Barcelona in the lead ahead of the break.

With the team completely changed for the second half, Barça started to dominate the second 45 minutes, with Messi and Valdes on the pitch. The result was a goal from Jeffren in minute 55 from Messi and Pedro to make it 3-1; and the final goal came from Pedro, off Gudjohnsen, in minute 66.

0-1, Bojan (min 15)
1-1, El Agizy (min 30)
1-2, Rueda (min 41)
1-3, Jeffren (min 55)
1-4, Pedro (min 66)

Keep an eye on the homepage for forthcoming match details and buy your Barcelona FC tickets online. Next stop for Barça is the United States, where they play three matches including against LA Galaxy next Saturday.

Last night Barça played their first match of the pre-season, with an appearance at Wembley against Tottenham Hotspur.

With Spurs having won all their previous three pre-season encounters, it was never going to be a walkover for Barcelona, but instead of a display of two teams at the top of their game, what emerged was a rather dreary game of uninspired football, which was somewhat enlivened in minute 32 when Bojan scored. Spurs immediately began the counterattack, with two close attempts on goal – the first was deflected by the cross bar, while Jorquera just got his fingertips to the second.

11 substitutions were made at half time, allowing all 22 members of the squad a chance to play, many of them for their first time in the main squad. After the break the game continued much as before until Livermore scored an equaliser for Spurs in minute 82.

All in all, pretty unexciting, but as the first of Barça’s pre-season matches, about what could be expected.

For details of Barcelona’s 2009/10 La Liga fixtures and the chance to reserve Barcelona tickets online see the homepage.

According to Italian news reports today quoting his agent, Samuel Eto’o has today reached a deal with Inter Milan.

While no official announcement has been made, Josep Maria Mesalles went on to say that Eto’o’s exit agreement with Barcelona was still not finalised, but he would arrive in Milan early next week. With him goes Alexander Hleb, on loan for a year, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic will join Barça from the Italian club.

For tickets for Barcelona’s home fixtures see our homepage.