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While the city of Barcelona celebrated the Mercè festival, FC Barcelona made it six wins out of six at the Spanish League with a comfortable victory over Real Sociedad. Barça have equalled the club’s best ever start to a Liga campaign. The first 22 minutes saw a barrage of goals from Neymar, Messi and Busquets, and from then on it was complete dominance from the home side, with the visitor’s solitary goal doing nothing to worry the Camp Nou faithful. Neymar was outstanding with his penetrating runs from the left, and Iniesta was plethoric in an aggressive, dominant midfield in which Xavi and Busquets read every play to perfection. It was the Brazilian who first found the net after just four minutes.

Three goals from Pedro, one from Cesc and another great Valdés performance give Barça three more points at the Spanish League campaign. Valdés stopped his second penalty in two games when the scores were just 0-1.It was an even enough first half, with Rayo making some good early chances.Two minutes into the second half, Barça were ahead after Pedro got his second.That made it five wins from five, with next up Real Sociedad at the Camp Nou on Tuesday.

Pautasso was speaking to the press in the place of Tata Martino, who has returned to Argentina for a brief trip following the death of his father. FC Barcelona’s Assistant manager expects Rayo to attack and take risks is a wide open Spanish League match at Vallecas on Saturday. Jorge Pautasso added that the new coaching team are looking to get Barça players generating pressure like they used to. Tata Martino already made it clear that he is not here to change FC Barcelona’s way of playing and Pautasso reiterated the point: “we’ll never take the style away, we have come here to add to, not take away from, what Barça has done so well in recent years. If things go bad for a while and we drop back and regroup, that doesn’t mean we’re playing on the counter attack”.

A Messi hat trick plus a Piqué header from Neymar’s corner kick handed FC Barcelona the three points in their UEFA Champions League debut. Valdés also produced a superb performance: he made two vital saves when Barça were leading 1-0 and stopped a penalty in the later stages. Ajax started in great style but were overwhelmed as Barça grew in strength throughout the match, led by the goals of Leo Messi and the saves of Victor Valdés. The result puts Barça at the top of their Champions League group, tied on points with AC Milan, who beat Celtic 2-0 in San Siro.  The next match will be in Scotland, where Barça lost 2-1 a year ago.

According to a medical study developed in Barcelona’s Hospital Clínic, fetuses conceived by assisted reproduction have changes in their heart and arteries, which begin even before birth and persist in the postnatal period. These changes represent a significant increase in cardiovascular risk in adulthood. However, the researchers point out that this situation is reversible from the beginning of life through a diet rich in omega3 and other factors. In addition, they strongly emphasised that this is only a risk factor and not a disease. The study leader, Eduard Gratacós, said that “it's a message of opportunity, not alarm”. Furthermore, they also recommend monitoring the blood pressure of these babies.

The Spokesperson for FC Barcelona’s Board of Directors, Toni Freixa, emphasised that there will be a predicted surplus of 36 million euros after taxes for this season. Freixa explained that the additional income had come from sponsorship deals, as well as the transfer of Thiago Alcántara to Bayern Munich. That’s the first time in FC Barcelona history that the budget has been over 500 million, while operating income for last season was 491 million euros, €21 million more than originally budgeted.

An injury time winner from Alexis streched Barça's winning run in the league to 12 games and kept them top of the table. Alves and Messi put Barça ahead, before Seville pulled it back in the last 15 minutes. Neymar put in his best performance in a Barça shirt so far, constantly taunting the Seville defence and setting up Messi's goal. Gerardo Martino gave Cristian Tello his first start of the season, partnering Messi and Neymar in attack, whilst  Xavi returned to midfield alongside Iniesta and Sergio, who had recovered from the injury that kept him out of the international games.

Barça are looking to make it 12 points out of 12 in the Spanish League against Sevilla at the Camp Nou (0 pm CET) after the international two-week break. Sergio Busquets has been declared fit and Xavi and Alexis return, but Pedro is being rested, after a fortnight in which eleven of the first team have been away on international duty. However none of them have come back with injuries and there are high hopes for the league leaders against a Sevilla team that so far only have two points in their account.

The civil society platform that organised the colossal ‘Catalan Way towards independence’ demanded a self-determination referendum to be held in 2014 and not at a later stage. The festive demonstration was a great success, gathering more participants than last year’s 1.5 million strong rally, which was also organised on Catalonia’s National Day. Most of the Catalan Government Ministers took part in the human chain, but neither the President of Catalonia, Artur Mas, nor the Chairperson of the Catalan Parliament took part. However, they did both gave their personal support to the peaceful demonstration. Many folkloric performances and festive celebrations were carried out throughout the non-interrupted human chain. 500,000 citizens held hands in the city of Barcelona alone, and a total of 1.6 million Catalans participated in the rally, according to the Catalan Police.

On Wednesday, the 400 kilometre ‘Catalan Way’ human chain, which calls for an independent Catalonia, passes through FC Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium and into its stands. The Vice President of the sports club, Carles Vilarrubí, stated that Barça “always has its doors open to FC Barcelona fans and Catalans who want to express themselves”. He stated this following the flower offering that took place at the statue of Rafael Casanova during Catalonia’s National Day. Along with Vilarrubí, Barça’s delegation was headed by first team coach, Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino, defender Gerard Piqué as well as other first team players, technical staff and players from other sections.

CNA offers a selection of pictures from the flower offering to Rafael Casanova’s monument and the institutional ceremony at the Park de la Ciutadella. The first event took place at 9am near Barcelona’s Urquinaona Square. It is the most traditional celebration, with institutions, political parties, civil society organisations and even sports clubs bringing flowers to the statue of the leader of Barcelona’s resistance on the 11^th September 1714. The second event started minutes after 12pm at the Ciutadella Park, where the Catalan Parliament is located. It is the main institutional ceremony of Catalonia’s National Day, formed by symbolic artistic performances and the raising of the Catalan flag. This year, the ceremony honoured the 20^th century poet Salvador Espriu, the Medieval author Bernat Metge and the Catalan flamenco dancer Carmen Amaya.

According to data released on Tuesday by the Spanish Airports and Air Navigation Authority (AENA), the number of passengers travelling through Barcelona’s El Prat Airport has exceeded Madrid-Barajas for the first time during the month of August. While Barcelona Airport received a total of 3.9 million passengers during August – representing an increase of 0.8% on the same month of 2012 – Madrid Airport had 3.8 million passengers – a reduction of 11.7%. El Prat also had an growth in the amount of passengers flying in transoceanic flights by 9.5%, which represents 331,578 passengers.

Barcelona has unveiled a new museum located in the Born neighbourhood, next to the Gothic quarter, which explores how life was in the city during the early 18^th century, and will exhibit 8,000 objects. The Born Cultural Centre shows the neighbourhood’s ruins dating from 1714, when residents were forced to destroy their own homes and leave without any compensation after Barcelona’s military defeat. Next to the area, the largest urban military citadel in Europe was built, being part of the fierce repression that the Bourbon troops inflicted on Catalan citizens. From that moment onwards, Catalonia lost its self-government institutions, its own laws and freedoms, and Catalan language was banned and persecuted with the aim to homogenise the recently-formed Spain.

Barça made it three wins on the run to ensure the maximum nine points at the start of the season with a hard fought win in Valencia. Messi’s first half trick, together with another match saving performance from Valdés and the team’s defensive stability in the second half were key to the win. Messi had set up the game with three first half goals, before Valencia pulled two back just before the break and then put the pressure on Barça in the second half, as Martino’s side were forced to show their defensive skills.

From the 1st of September a new parking payment system will be introduced in Barcelona that allows customers to pay via their mobile devices. The Councillor responsible for Economy, Enterprise and Employment, Sònia Recasens, stated that it illustrates Barcelona’s “commitment to being a Smart City”. According to Recasens, the function of the application, called ApparkB, is to make it more convenient, cheaper and quicker for the public to park their vehicles. The service is completely free, and lets users to pay for the exact time they are parked. It will be available on Android and iPhone devices.