A miraculous goal from the midfielder with just minutes to go, followed by an own goal, gave Barça the win in a gripping climax to a game against a surprisingly daring Granada. As Barça made it five wins out of five, Valdés made a crucial save just seconds before Barça opened the scoring at the other end.
Barça won their opening game of the Champions League with a 3-2 win over Spartak Moscow, who had been 1-2 up with half an hour to play. Tello and Messi, twice, scored the goals, with Piqué’s injury the big negative from the game.
Barça, who have a 100% record in this season’s Spanish League, will debut in the 2012/13 Champions League against Spartak Moscow at the Camp Nou (20.45 CET). Alexis Sánchez, who hasn’t been declared fit to play, was named by Tito Vilanova to the team.
FC Barcelona and the European Commission join forces to help millions of Europeans to give up smoking. The campaign aims at helping 28 million people giving up tobacco. “With this joint action, we aim to help football fans all over Europe to retake control over their health and their lives, encouraging them to be as passionate and committed to their own health as they are to good football” explained FC Barcelona’s President, Sandro Rosell.
Barça brushed off any effects of a busy week of international games with a convincing 1-4 win at the always tricky Getafe with goals from Adriano, Messi (2) and Villa. Real Madrid lost against Sevilla and Barça are now 8 points ahead.
FC Barcelona’s Manager thinks winning all three points at the ever-difficult Coliseum Alfonso Pérez would be the best way to deal with the problem of so many absent international players being away this week. On the five-point lead over Real Madrid, Vilanova says “the important thing is that we’ve got nine points”.
The Mayor of Barcelona welcomed the company’s investments and commitment to efficiency at the Port of Barcelona. The Catalan harbour is significantly increasing its container traffic in the last few years. Barcelona’s Port aims to become the main logistical hub in Southern Europe, using the international standard rail gauge to directly connect to Central Europe and new freight terminals. The Catalan company TCB is expanding its freight railway station and its power substation, as well as enlarging the ship docking space. The improvements will increase the maximum number of shipping containers transported by TCB from 0.9 million to 2.3 million by the end of 2013.
In the largest demonstration Barcelona has ever seen, 1.5 million citizens according to the Catalan Police marched in Catalonia’s capital after the banner “Catalonia, Europe’s new state”. The Spanish Government reported a reduced number of 600,000 participants while organisers talked of 2 million participants. The Catalan President did not attend it because of his institutional position, but gave his support at a personal level. Most of the Catalan Government was present. Members from most of the Catalan political parties were also present, including the Socialists (PSC) but at a personal level. The only absentees were representatives from the People’s Party (PP) and anti-Catalan nationalism ‘Ciutadans’ (C’s). Many families gathered for the demonstration which ended with the petition to start the secession process.
Catalonia’s main airport had 3,874,131 passengers in August which is the highest monthly figure the airport has ever achieved. In the first 8 months of the year, there have been over 24 million passengers travelling through Barcelona El Prat Airport, 4.4% more than during the same period in 2011. Girona Costa Brava Airport also had success this August with 14.5% more passengers and 15% more flights compared to the same month last year. However, the number of passengers at the small Reus Airport fell by 28.5%, due to Ryanair’s reduction of flights.
‘Barcelona World’, located next to Salou’s beaches and PortaAventura, will have 6 new theme parks, as well as 12,000 hotel rooms, casinos, convention centres, golf courses and other amusement facilities. 10 million people are expected to visit the mega-resort funded by Veremonte each year, which will create 40,000 jobs. ‘Barcelona World’, located next to Tarragona in the Costa Daurada, will be Europe’s largest amusement resort and among the world’s largest, targeting family and business tourism. Construction may be complete by late 2016. The project has been announced after the expiration of the offer made to Las Vegas Sands to build its casinos next to Barcelona. This American company has not announced if it will finally build ‘Eurovegas’ in Madrid yet, but the Barcelona option seems to be ruled out.
The American crime fiction writer won the sixth RBA Prize worth €125,000 for his work ‘The Black Box’. The novel, which was the winner out of 217 entries, revolves around an unsolved murder that took place during the Los Angeles Riots 20 years ago. The main character uncovers that the murder was premeditated after finding a bullet linked to the crime and seeks the ‘black box’ needed to solve the case.
Citizens in Catalonia recycled 78% of waste plastic and cardboard in 2011. A report by Ecoembes shows that in 2011 221,500 tonnes of waste packaging was recycled, although 28% of waste plastic and cardboard was not suitable for recycling. The stealing of waste from street containers represented a problem. The city of Barcelona lost €2 million due to the increase in thefts of cardboard and plastic prompted by the crisis.
After one year without the Shakespeare Festival, it has now returned. However, it will take place in a new place and with a new partner: La Perla 29, the theatre production company which is directed by Oriol Broggi. The festival will move from the coastal town of Mataró to Barcelona. The event will take place in spring 2013 in the Biblioteca de Catalunya (Catalonia’s National Library), in the city centre. As the event was unexpectedly cancelled last year, this new edition focuses on the adaptation of the festival to the economic crisis and aims to be projected to Europe and worldwide.
FC Barcelona midfielder and Real Madrid keeper, who were nominated together, win the prestigious 2012 Príncipe de Asturias Award for Sport. International Paralympic Committee were also nominated.
The number of unemployed people increased in Catalonia over the month of August, ending a positive trend of five consecutive months of drops. However, August is traditionally a month with an increase in unemployment, and this August’s has been the lowest increase since 2006.