barça

Johan Cruyff, a Barça player during the early seventies and one of its most iconic coaches later on, died this Thursday at the age of 68. Born in Amsterdam in 1947, he joined the Catalan squad in 1973 and relaunched its prestige by winning La Liga in 1974. He played 184 matches and scored 51 goals in the blaugrana shirt and was voted, on three occasions, world player of the year. However, his most revolutionary role was played from the bench. He was Barça’s coach for nearly 10 years and his name will always be linked to the ‘Dream Team’, the name popularly given to the squad which won the first European Cup for Barça at Wembley in 1992 and four successive La Liga titles between 1991 and 1994. Cruyff failed to overcome lung cancer and died after months of battling, surrounded by his family.

Barça top Arsenal 3–1 (5–1 aggregate) to sew up a berth in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals for the ninth straight season. Goals from Neymar, Luis Suárez and Lionel Messi were more than enough to knock Arsenal out of the UEFA Champions League on a wet and chilly Wednesday night at Camp Nou. This is the third time FC Barcelona have bounced Arsenal from Europe’s top competition, after previously doing so in 2010 and 2011. The triumph qualifies Barça for the tournament’s quarter-final round for the ninth consecutive season. It is also their ninth straight victory across all competitions, and it brings their overall unbeaten streak to 38 games.

Leo Messi scores twice in a scintillating Champions League encounter, including the 10,000th goal in FC Barcelona history, setting things up perfectly for the return leg at the Camp Nou on March 16. The game was intense from the very first second, with football of the kind of quality that one would expect from two sides like this. In the last minute of the half, things finally started to click but it wasn’t until minute 71 that the game finally got the only thing it was lacking. A goal. Neymar charged through on the Arsenal area and laid the ball off to Messi, who scored his first goal against Cech. The goal inspired the trident to unleash its full potential, and all three were involved in a lightning move that ended with Suárez slamming the ball onto the post. But Barça were now firing on all cylinders, and in the 83rd minute the lead was extended.

Messi (2) and Suárez on target as Barça get all three points from their game in hand and go a mighty six clear at the top of the Liga table. The Argentinian put Barça ahead with a goal which wasn’t ordinary; It made him the first player to ever score 300 times in La Liga. With the goal, the game flashed into life. Just moments later, Carlos Castro got on the end of a nicely-worked move to get Gijón back level and a smoothly worked move between Suárez and Messi ended with the latter beating Cuéllar for the second time in six minutes. The Uruguayan skipped through the Sporting defence and lofted a fine left-footer into the net. Barça 3-1 up with 23 minutes left to play.

It's finally time to play that game in hand, which offers the chance to move six points clear at the top of the Liga table. FC Barcelona travel to Gijón to play the game originally postponed due to their participation at the Club World Cup in Japan. It’s now thirty games that Barça have strung together without losing, the longest unbeaten run in the history of Spanish football. We need to go all the way back to October 1994 to find the last case of a Sporting victory over Barça. Gijón is the town where Barça’s coach Luis Enrique grew up and Sporting is a club that shall forever be close to his heart. “Whenever I go back to El Molinón, it's special” he said on Tuesday. “But tomorrow I'm going back as a coach and I want to win” he stated. The Barça boss and Sporting’s coach, Abelardo Fernández have known each other since school, and the latter also spent part of his playing career at FC Barcelona.

FC Barcelona stretch their unbeaten run to an amazing 29 games on their way to a sixth Copa del Rey Final in eight years. With a seven-goal head start, the Catalans were effectively  through to final before a ball had been kicked at Mestalla, so it was little surprise that Luis Enrique opted to rest players for more decisive matches, including all three of the famous trident. Barça provided most of the early football, with Munirand Rakitic coming closest to scoring, but at the 39th minute Valencia player Negredo was put through one-on-one with Ter Stegen. Douglas,Cámara and Kaptoum were involved in Barça’s equaliser after 84 minutes, the Cameroonian converting Cámara’s cross with practically his first touch of the ball. The goal meant meant that they have now gone for a staggering 29 official matches without defeat, an all-time record in Spanish football.

With a huge advantage in hand (7-0), Barça are hoping to secure a new club record along with booking their place in the Copa del Rey final. The seven-goal lead from the first-leg has allowed the manager to make a few changes, as several youngsters from Barça B and one from the Under-19 team, who had been training with the first team this week, were included in the 18-man squad announced by the coaching staff on Wednesday morning. Barça’s coach, Luis Enrique admits that Wednesday’s game is “a bit strange after the result of the first leg” but is adamant that the team will, as ever, “play to win”.  Regarding the much talked-about chance to surpass Pep Guardiola’s 28-match unbeaten streak, the Asturian said: “Numbers are great as long as they help us towards titles”.

Valencia were supposed to be a tough test, but Luis Enrique’s squad passed with flying colours, squashin Valencia by a score of 7-0 and leaving FC Barcelona's coach a happy man. Luis Suárez's four goals outdid Messi's three and Barça will take towering lead to Mestalla for next week's second leg of the Copa del Rey semi-finals. The monumental win extends FC Barcelona’s unbeaten streak to a whopping 27 games across all competitions, just one shy of tying the Club’s all-time record. It is also their seventh straight victory at Camp Nou, during which they have scored 30 goals and given up only three. "After the number of games we’ve played recently, to see the team respond with fluidity and confidence is deserving of congratulations,” stated FC Barcelona’s coach, Luis Enrique Martínez. "We have a very important objective — to continue conquering titles and providing enjoyment to the fans," he said.

FC Barcelona spent over 40 minutes in an uncharacteristically precarious position but got three second half goals to knock Athletic Club Bilbao out of the Copa del Rey by a score of 3–1, 5–2 on aggregate, and qualify for the semi-finals for the sixth consecutive year. It was the third meeting in a 10-day span between the two sides — one in La Liga, two in the Cup — with FC Barcelona winning all three by a combined score of 11–2. It was also the sixth and final game between the two this season, with the initial three also coming in a cluster. The victory sees FC Barcelona extend their unbeaten streak to 25 games across all competitions, including five straight wins at Camp Nou.

On Wednesday at 9.30pm CET at Camp Nou the final part of the Barça v Athletic trilogy will be played out, the saga coming to an end in the second leg of their last 16 Copa del Rey tie. The opening encounter a week and a half ago saw Luis Enrique’s team storm to a 6-0 win at home in the league. Messi and Mathieu did not feature in the first leg, but are included in the 18 this time, which reads as follows: Ter Stegen, Masip, Piqué, Rakitic, Sergio, Dani Alves, Iniesta, Suárez, Messi, Neymar Jr, Mascherano, Bartra, Munir, Sergi Roberto, Adriano, Aleix Vidal, Vermaelen and Mathieu. “I'm expecting the same Athletic we saw in the first leg. Maybe even more dangerous.” Stated Barça’s coach, Luis Enrique.

In 2012 Messi became the first and only player to ever take home the Ballon d'Or four times. Now he has extended his unrivaled feat to five. Messi, Neymar, Alves and Iniesta were named to FIFA FIFPro World XI for 2015. All four made the prestigious team, which was voted on by nearly 25,000 professional footballers from 70 countries. Luis Enrique has won the Coach of the Year award at the FIFA Ballon d’Or Gala in the Kongresshaus, Zurich on Monday. It comes in recognition of an incredible 2015 in which he led FC Barcelona to five out of six titles. The Barça boss received 31.08% of the votes, ahead of Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola who received 22.97%.

Messi is going for his fifth Ballon d'Or, a jaw-dropping feat considering the fact that in the history of the award, he is the only person to have won it more than three times. Four other players have won it exactly three times, Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini, Marco van Basten and Cristiano Ronaldo, while just five other players have ever won it twice. Messi won his unprecedented fourth straight Ballon d'Or in 2013 and is now looking to distance himself from the pack. Messi and Ronaldo have scooped up every Ballon d'Or for the last seven years. That number is almost certain to rise to eight this Monday.

Barça have won the Club World Cup in Japan after beating River Plate 3-0.  After missing the semi-final through injury, Messi returned to action with a bang, scoring the first goal and playing a part in the other two. Luis Suárez scored the other two and added them to three that he notched in the semi-final. That made Suárez by far the top scorer in the competition, and also made him the natural choice to collect the MVP award. The victory over River Plate was the third Club World Cup title for FC Barcelona which makes Barça the only club to have won the FIFA Club World Cup three times. The win in Yokohama also represents the fifth trophy for the team this year, after also winning the Liga, Copa del Rey, Champions League and European Super Cup, matching the haul of 2011. 

With top spot in Group E already guaranteed, Barça were only playing for honour on Wednesday night. And they managed to achieve just that by holding on for a 1-1 draw against a Bayer side that threw everything they could at the visitors in search of a winner that would mean they would join the Catalans in the last sixteen. Luis Enrique opted to rest several of his heavyweights, but did field Messi in attack alongside Munir and Sandro, and Ivan Rakitic started in midfield in the company of Samper and Champions League debutant Kaptoum of Barça B. The Germans took the initiative in the early exchanges but the optimism in the BayArena was silenced after 20 minutes when Leo Messi read a run to perfection and scored Barça's first and only goal. Three minutes later, Chicharito slammed the ball with his left foot past a helpless Ter Stegen to score his fifth goal of the tournament and gets things back square again.

Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr. will face off with Cristiano Ronaldo for the award for world's best player in 2015. The two Barça players both were the main drivers of FC Barcelona’s success, forming the so-called trident alongside Suárez, who was another semi-finalists, together with Barça players Andrés Iniesta, Ivan Rakitic and Javier Mascherano. Leo Messi’s four Ballons d’Or are the most in history and he has never been left off the podium since 2007, when he was third. The FC Barcelona coach, Luis Enrique Martínez is also in the mix after winning the treble and the European Super Cup in his first season is contender along with Pep Guardiola and Jorge Sampaoli. The winners will be announced on 11 January at a gala to be held in Monaco.