Sports

Barça did what they had to do in the Basque Country and will go into next week’s Clásico against Real Madrid as Spanish League leaders. Eibar proved to be a highly resilient opponent, but two goals from Leo Messi were enough to secure three crucial points. Dani Alves and Jordi Alba were both suspended for Barça’s first ever fixture away to Eibar, so Luis Enrique opted to field an unfamiliar quartet of Adriano, Bartra, Piqué and Montoya at the back. Sergi Roberto stood in for the injured Busquets in midfield. As expected, the home side concentrated on keeping things tight at the back and look for danger on the counter attack and set pieces, and their tactics worked for the first half hour.

Núria Picas was born in Manresa, in central Catalonia, 39 years ago. She considers herself a “daughter of the Montserrat mountain”, where her parents brought her climbing as a child. Since she was little she established a strong bond with nature and is now the ‘number 1’ woman in mountain trail running. Last year she won the Ultra Trail World Tour, a competition with ten races (twelve this year), of at least 100 kilometres each. Last season, Picas ran four of these races winning three times and coming runner-up in the fourth. In 2015, however, her “main goal” goes beyond the running world. She is on cloud nine with her new challenge and will soon be literally closer than ever to the clouds: in the spring she is going to attempt to climb an 8,000-metre peak in the Himalayas.

FIATC Joventut was one of the most important basketball teams in Spain and Europe throughout the Seventies and the Nineties, but an economic crisis took them out of basketball’s elite in 1998. Sixteen years later, Joventut, known as 'la Penya', has completed one of the best first halves of the regular season in its history, is playing entertaining basketball and has impressed everybody at the King Cup in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, winning against the host Herbalife Gran Canaria and coming very close to defeating Real Madrid and reaching the final. Along with Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, is one of only three Spanish teams to have won the Euroleague. With its ups and downs, the club has been changing its commercial name since the 1970s, being known as Montigalà Joventut, Festina Joventut, DKV Joventut and FIATC Joventut, among others.

FC Barcelona took full advantage of an opponent that had the courage to come out and attack, storming to an electric 6–1 victory over Rayo Vallecano in front of a packed house at Camp Nou and vaulting them past Real Madrid into first place in the Spanish League standings, for the first time in four months. Messi net three, Suárez added two and Piqué scored one goal. The Argentinian tied Cristiano Ronaldo as the Spanish League's top goal scorer with 30 targets each. In addition, Messi became all-time hat-trick leader for Spanish clubs in official games, with 32 hat tricks in total. Besides, Messi also became the all-time hat trick record in League games, getting 24 and passing Cristiano Ronaldo's 23.

The 2015 Formula 1 World Championship is about to begin and the teams finalised their preparations at the Circuit de Catalunya. 20 racers will be in the spotlight in two weeks’ time for the start of the season, but Formula 1 is not just about the drivers themselves. Apart from the household names of Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton, there is a little known world that every two weeks travels from one side of the world to the other. On the one hand, there are the people who work around the F1 team itself such as the press officers, who manage communication between the different parts of the team and also with the media. On the other, all the circuits mobilise an army of volunteers who sacrifice their day job to be "marshals" at the circuit to take care of the drivers’ safety.

FC Barcelona are headed back to the final of the Spanish Cup. Neymar’s two goals sandwich Suárez’s strike. The Brazilian scored two minutes after the opening kick off and again two minutes from the final whistle to lead the Catalans to a commanding 3–1 win over hosts Villarreal in the return leg of the Spanish Cup quarter-final. Barça duplicate score from first leg to knock out Villarreal 6–2 on aggregate, booking Barça a trip to the title-match where they'll face Athletic Club Bilbao. Jonathan Dos Santos managed the lone goal in the losing effort. Villarreal played the last 25 minutes with ten men as Tomás Pina was sent off after a vicious tackle on Neymar. And that wasn’t the only close-call for Barça, as Sergio Busquets left the game on a stretcher after what appeared to be an ugly ankle injury.

The two sides meet in El Madrigal in the second leg of their Spanish Cup semi-final on Wednesday evening (20h CET). The blaugranes have the upper hand in the tie following their 3-1 win in the first leg last month at Camp Nou. In addition, Barça have the advantage in their Champions League last 16 tie against Manchester City following their 2-1 win at the Etihad Stadium. Their 3-1 away victory in the Spanish League at the weekend over Granada has allowed them to cut Real Madrid’s lead at the top of the league to just two points. Now, only Villarreal stand between them and a 36^th appearance in the Spanish Cup final. Coach Luis Enrique has his entire first team squad available with the exception of the injured Thomas Vermaelen.

German manufacturer Mercedes AMG Petronas have confirmed during the last Formula 1 tests at the Circuit de Catalunya that they are two steps ahead of the rest of the teams. Nico Rosberg notched on Friday the quickest time of the second week of tests, with a time of 1:22.792, with British driver Lewis Hamilton also dominating Saturday’s time trials. Williams seem to be the second-best team in the paddock according to these test days that have also confirmed problems with the McLaren. After two weeks of tests at the Circuit de Catalunya marked by the accident suffered by Fernando Alonso last week, the teams will now take a break until 13 March, when the first round of the F1 World Championship will be held at the Albert Park track in Melbourne (Australia).

Goals from Rakitic, Suárez and Messi produce an important win in Andalusia that put the pressure on Real Madrid, the Spanish League leaders. A workmanlike performance from Barça against relegation-threatened Granada resulted in the perfect response to last week’s setback at home to Málaga. A thoroughly deserved 3-1 win keeps the Catalans well in the hunt for the Liga title. The only downside to a fine performance from Barça was a yellow card for Neymar, which means he’ll be suspended against Rayo Vallecano.

Two goals from the Uruguayan have set things up perfectly for FC Barcelona for the Champions League last-16-tie’s second leg at the Camp Nou on March 18 by repeating last year’s feat of winning at the Etihad. Kun Agüero pulled one goal back for Manchester City. This Tuesday’s game ended 2-1, with Joe Hart giving Man City a glimmer of hope by saving a Leo Messi penalty in the final minute of injury time. However, a 2-1 win at the Etihad Stadium, and playing such spectacular football, is nothing less than magnificent and the result leaves Barça with every right to feel confident about their chances of making it into the quarter finals.

In the press conference ahead of the first leg of the Champions League last 16 tie, Gerard Piqué has declared that he expects a “similar game” to the one last season. He also added that despite the defeat against Málaga in the Spanish League at the weekend, the Catalan team are in good form as well as highlighting Manchester City’s strengths. Piqué on the Champions League tie: “I think it will be a similar game to last season. We are two sides who like to attack and have the ball. There was a key moment in the first leg with Demichelis' sending off and the goal from the penalty spot, without that it would have been closer.”

Former two time Formula One World Champion Fernando Alonso had to be kept in hospital last Sunday night after he was involved in a serious accident at the Circuit de Catalunya, in Greater Barcelona. The Spaniard suffered head injuries and concussion and had to be airlifted from the circuit to hospital via helicopter. Alonso was given the all clear after undergoing a series of scans and tests but was kept in hospital overnight for observation because of the nature of his injuries. The Spaniard was completing the 21st lap of the day for his new McLaren team when the accident happened at turn four on the fourth and final day of the test. According to his team, Alonso was “conscious” upon his arrival at the circuit’s medical centre and able to talk to doctors before being airlifted to hospital.

All it took was one small mistake. A seemingly innocent back-pass from Dani Alves to Claudio Bravo in minute seven ran out of steam and was intercepted by a charging Juanmi, who beat Bravo to the ball and waltzed in all alone for the game’s only goal, stopping Barça’s 11-game winning streak dead in its tracks. The loss means that Barça, playing in front of a raucous home crowd, have missed an opportunity to become the overnight leaders in La Liga and will be a minimum of one point behind leaders Real Madrid come Monday morning.

Barça stay just one point adrift of top spot in La Liga after beating Levante to the tune of five goals to no reply in Sunday’s game before 74,963 spectators at the Camp Nou. FC Barcelona make it eleven wins in a row with goals from Neymar, Suárez and a Messi hat trick.Luis Enrique made eight changes to the team that started midweek against Villarreal, with Suárez, Jordi Alba and Piqué among those on the bench. The manager had said in his pre-match press conference that this would not be as simple a game as some suspected, and for much of the first half that did indeed prove to be the case.

Catalan motor cycle rider Marc Márquez has received the 2014 Sportsman of the Year award by the Barcelona sports daily ‘Mundo Deportivo’. The youngest rider to win the MotoGP World Championship defended his title last year, winning his second Championship thanks to a record-breaking 13 victories. In the female category, Sportswoman of the Year went to Catalan swimmer Mireia Belmonte, who won four gold medals at the Short Pool World Championship as well as breaking the world record in two different categories. This is the third consecutive year that the Catalan swimmer has been awarded with this prize. The prizes have been given at the 67th edition of the 'Mundo Deportivo' Gala. Apart from rewarding the top sportspeople of the year, the Gala also recognizes the work of some sports organizations as well as people related to sport in the social field.