cristiano ronaldo

Saturday night’s match at Camp Nou, was an epic game that had it all — a tear-inducing pre-game tribute to the recently passed Johan Cruyff and a minute of silence, frighteningly fearless tackling, heart-stopping end-to-end play and, somewhat surprisingly, a tight, evenly matched encounter standing in juxtaposition to an uncommonly large gap between the two arch-rivals in the league table. The loss, a dramatic reversal from the first meeting between the two rivals this season, when FC Barcelona routed Real in Madrid, 4–0, is FCB’s first defeat since 3 October and snaps their Spanish record 39-game unbeaten streak. What had been a ten-point gap between the league's first- and third-place teams now sits at seven.

FC Barcelona have moved four points clear at the top of the Spanish League table after Uruguayan striker Luis Suárez produced a second half wonder-goal to win the Clásico.?Jérémy Mathieu had headed Barça into an early lead before Cristiano Ronaldo equalised for Real Madrid. Sunday night’s Clásico was no disappointment. Both sides served up a veritable footballing feast, and although Real Madrid looked the better side for a large part of the first half, Barça found their A-game after the break and on the back of a fantastic goal from Luis Suárez, marched on to claim three points and take a giant’s step closer to the Liga title.

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.

Four Barça players have been shortlisted for the FIFA Ballon d’Or 2014. They are Leo Messi, Neymar Jr, Andrés Iniesta and Javier Mascherano. FIFA and France Football magazine announced on Tuesday morning those players nominated for the award, which is given to the best player of the calendar year. The final decision will be taken by the coaches and captains from every single national team around the world as well as by journalists from France Football via a system of votes. On the 1^st of December the final shortlist of the three finalists will be made public. The winner of the Ballon d’Or 2014 will be revealed on the 12^th of January, 2015 during a gala ceremony which will take place in Zurich.

Barça fall as Madrid turn game round following an early Neymar score. Despite a dream start, when Neymar swept home an early opener, Barça went down 3-1 in Madrid on Saturday’s first Clasico of the season in a game in which Luis Suarez made his official debut and Claudio Bravo finally conceded. The game could hardly have started better for Barça, when after just 3 minutes, Luís Suárez sent a cross field ball from the right to Neymar and the Brazilian cut inside, leaving a couple of defenders trailing in his wake to fire low past Iker Casillas and open the scoring.

Luis Suárez is the golden boy. On Wednesday at the Damm Brewery in Barcelona he was presented with the Golden Shoe award that he shares this year with Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, who both scored 31 goals in the Premiership and La Liga last season, respectively. Kenny Dalglish presented the Uruguayan with the award in recognition of the 31 goals that he scored last season at Liverpool. The new Barça signing was in glowing form alongside his wife Sofia at an event that attracted massive media attention, with more than 100 members of the press packed into the hall.

This Wednesday evening Valencia's Mestalla hosts the Spanish Cup Final and the Catalans face old rivals Real Madrid. It’s 63 days since FC Barcelona beat Real Sociedad in the semi-finals. It’ll be a peculiar final. There is no clear favourite, both sides are missing important players to injury, and for the first time in several years, these two teams are not the runaway leaders in La Liga. Barça come into the game following a disappointing week in which they were knocked out of the Champions League and suffered a serious setback in their quest to win La Liga. Real Madrid would appear to be heading in the opposite direction.

Barça win a thrilling Clasico with a Messi hat trick to blow the Spanish League title race wide open. An action packed 90 minutes full of quality saw Barça come away with the three points, just as they did in 2009, 2010 and 2012.The intense start gave due notice that we were in for a special night, Madrid laid down their marker with some aggressive pressing, but it was Barça who got the opener. Madrid were working the left flank as they tried to get in behind the Barça defence and Di Maria linked up brilliantly with Benzema for two quick goals to turn the game around. a lovely piece of skill in the box gave Messi the equaliser after good work in the box from Neymar. Ronaldo won a dodgy looking penalty and Messi scored two other penalty kicks.

Dani Alves, Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta and Leo Messi were yesterday named as part of the FIFA/FIFPro World XI 2013 - a team chosen by more than 50,000 players from around the globe. With four players in the side, Barça were once again the club with most representatives. FC Barcelona have been the team providing most players to the World XI for the last 8 years (though they shared that honour with Real Madrid in 2012, when both sides provided 5 players each). Leo Messi has appeared in each of the last 7 selections and Xavi in the last 6.

The Barça forward, who has won the last four editions of the Ballon d'Or, finished second behind Cristiano Ronaldo and ahead of Frank Ribéry. Messi has finished in the top three for seven consecutive years and has won the last four editions of the prize. After the Gala, Leo Messi said, “it’s a pleasure to be here for a seventh consecutive year. It’s very nice.” When asked about Cristiano Ronaldo, he said: “before anything else I want to congratulate him. He had a great year and his emotion is very understandable.” The 26-year-old Argentinian garnered 24.72% of the vote, while Ronaldo got 27.99% and Ribéry got 23.36%. This is the highest vote percentage of any second-place finish since the FIFA World Player and Ballon d’Or were consolidated into one award.

FC Barcelona’s star Leo Messi has again received recognition as one of the very best! The Argentinean has been selected as one of the three final candidates for FIFA's 2013 Ballon D'Or award, together with Franck Ribéry (Bayern Munich) and Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid). Messi has won the award for the last four years. The 2013 winner will be announced in Zurich on January 13.

Barça- Real Madrid games always provide plenty of images that stick in the mind – this time it was not just the wonderful tribute to Tito Vilanova in the pre-match mosaic, but also Neymar’s first Clasico goal and Alexis Sanchez’s magical chip for the second. The Chilean’s 72nd minute beauty ended up being the difference between the two well matched sides, after Barça had the better of the first half with some clever play, but were seriously threatened after the break, when Valdes again pulled off some superb saves.

A goal from Ramos with eight minutes left saw Real Madrid take a rather grey Clasico after Messi had equalised Benzema’s opener in the first half. Valdés was sent off after the final whistle after remonstrating with the referee who denied Barça an apparently clear late penalty when Adriano was brought down in the box.