The FC Barcelona travelling squad has arrived in Milan where they will face AC Milan in a battle to top their UEFA Champions League group. The injured Iniesta is the main absentee, with Adriano and Afellay also out through injury and Alves suspended. Barça’s assistant coach Tito Vilanova stays home for surgery.
FC Barcelona cruised past Zaragoza at the Camp Nou, with four goals from Piqué, Messi, Puyol and Villa to round off another brilliant exhibition of football.
The French newspaper ‘Le Monde’ published an article in December 2006 that falsely linked FC Barcelona with doping practices. A first trial condemned ‘Le Monde’ to pay 300,000 euros to the Catalan sports club, but the French newspaper and the journalist Stéphane Mandard appealed. A second court reduced the fine to 15,000 euros, but they appealed again. The Spanish Supreme Court has upheld the last sentence and dismissed the French newspaper's appeal.
FC Barcelona and Benfica are the only two leading clubs in Europe who remain unbeaten since the start of the season. Guardiola’s team has indeed remained unbeaten since 30th April, when they went down in the Spanish League against Real Sociedad.
A very serious Barça didn’t allow themselves to be surprised by Hospitalet, and stayed on course for the next round of the Spanish Cup, with a goal from Iniesta (min 42). Tello and Rafinha make their debuts with FC Barcelona’s first team, which was without all its South-American international players.
Spain boss Vicente Del Bosque has called up 8 Barça players for the friendlies against England and Costa Rica . FC Barcelona manager, Josep Guardiola, will be able to call on them for this week’s Spanish Cup tie against the modest Hospitalet.
Cesc Fàbregas and Leo Messi, the latter in injury time, twice scored to bring Barça back from behind. The real protagonist was the pouring rain, which made the field as good as unplayable for Barça and Athletic Club of Bilbao.
The Barça goalkeeper has said that it was his manager who taught him a number of things on a tactical level. Valdés also denied that there are any problems between Villa and Messi, and feels the comments were intended to destabilise the team.
FC Barcelona have beaten Viktoria Plzen thanks to a Messi hat-trick and another goal from Cesc Fàbregas. Barça also made the 500th goal in the Guardiola era and qualified for the second round of the Champions League.
FC Barcelona’s Chilean striker is back in the 21-man squad for Tuesday’s Champions League match against Viktoria Plzen. Forward Isaac Cuenca and goalkeeper Oier Olazabal are also included for the trip to the Czech Republic.
FC Barcelona player, Leo Messi, destroyed Mallorca with a first half hat trick to set up a comfortable win, rounded off after the break with two cracking goals from Cuenca and Alves.
Both the Barça centre backs will be able to play against Mallorca after being declared fit at the end of today’s training session. That means Guardiola has 19 players to pick from including the reserve team’s Isaac Cuenca.
Cesc Fàbregas came out in defense of Leo Messi and believes that he’ll soon get back to scoring goals as usual: "He’s very humble, always gives everything for the team, and loves the club. There’s nothing more to say".
Barça neat Granada by a single goal and for 24 hours at least they are back on top of the Spanish League. Xavi got the goal with a fantastic free kick while Pedro was taken off injured and Jaime and Benítez were sent off for Granada.
The Fundació FC Barcelona and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have released a video to increase awareness of the disease to coincide with World Polio Day. In the video, Bill Gates, who can be seen wearing a Barça shirt, states: “no other sporting institution in the world [than FC Barcelona] shows the same passion for resolving social problems”. As part of that commitment, Barça first football team players all wore shirts bearing the words “End Polio” before last Saturday’s game at the Camp Nou.