football

Barça’s playmaking general has made his best start to a season as a goal scorer with three goals at the start of the Spanish League campaign.

Two goals from Messi and another from Xavi gave FC Barcelona a win over Racing Santander at the Camp Nou. With Iniesta back in the team, Barça stay top of the Spanish League table for another week.

FC Barcelona may be the team to supply the most players to the European Championship for 2012. Between Spain, France and Holland, the club has twelve players due to take part in Ukraine and Poland next summer.

Barça have scored 37 goals this season, and 26 of those have been scored by products of FC Barcelona’s own youth system. Eight were scored by imported players, and three were own goals.

Iniesta has recovered from the hamstring injury sustained in the Champions League against Milan. The midfielder was given medical clearance after taking part in a training session involving mainly Barça B players.

An early goal from Adriano gave Guardiola’s men the three points in Gijón which take them to the top of the Spanish League’s table for the first time this season. On the negative side, Abidal was forced off with an injury.

Barça destroyed BATE Borisov with goals from Messi (2), Pedro, Villa, and an own goal, and came away with their first win in this season’s Champions League. Messi has drawn level with Kubala as the second top scorer in the history of FC Barcelona.

FC Barcelona visit BATE Borisov in the second game of the Champions League (20.45 CET) in search of a very important victory, following the draw against AC Milan. Alexis, Iniesta, and Afellay are all out through injury.

Josep Guardiola has named 20 players for the Champions League game on Wednesday against BATE Borisov. These are the 18 fit first team players plus Isaac Cuenca and Jonathan dos Santos from the reserves.

FC Barcelona have destroyed Atlético Madrid with a formidable display of tactics and skills. Villa, Miranda (og) and Messi put the home side ahead after just 26 minutes and the best player in the world was simply amazing in the second half.

Valencia and FC Barcelona shared the points in a great match at the Mestalla stadium. Valencia were on top in the first half, and led 2-1 at the break, but Guardiola’s team responded in style after half-time, and ended up picking up a vital point.

Barça’s manager, Pep Guardiola is convinced that the Spanish League game against Valencia will be “a great match”, but warned of the problems Emery’s team could pose, especially given the great moment of form they are enjoying. Guardiola also talked about Qatar, the Qatar Foundation and the board’s decision to make the club’s general assembly to validate the agreement reached.

Gerard Piqué took a full part in Monday lunchtime’s training session ahead of the midweek trip to Valencia’s stadium Mestalla. A total of 19 players from FC Barcelona’s first team squad and four from the B team took part in the training.

An exquisite performance saw Barça put eight past Osasuna-five in the first half- at the Camp Nou tonight, with strikes from Messi (3), Villa (2), Cesc, Xavi and an own goal from Roversio.

The Barça manager Josep Guardiola has defended his team’s methods against Real Sociedad and AC Milan despite the results. “I only expect my players to behave like they have done these last few days”, he said.