Barça came back from an early goal by Piatti for the visitors to bury Valencia with four goals from Messi and a fifth from Xavi to round off a fantastic performance that showed FC Barcelona are still up for the fight for the Spanish League title.
The Champions League returns at a good time for Barça following the weekend’s slip up in Pamplona, which left them 10 points adrift of the Spanish League leaders, Real Madrid, leaving no time for regrets, as they pick up the title they won at Wembley last season. Barça take up the defence of their Champions League title in Germany on Tuesday evening (20.45 CET), taking on Bayer Leverkusen in the last 16.
Barça have suffered their second defeat of the season away to an Osasuna side that made the most of their chances and adapted better to the freezing conditions. FC Barcelona were two goals down at half time but in the second half looked to have equalised when Alexis’s goal was ruled offside.
FC Barcelona Manager, Pep Guardiola, believes that the Spanish Cup match against Valencia this Wednesday will be “very demanding,” and that the “players need match ready” in order to get to the final. On the players that are dealing with minor fitness issues, he said, “Xavi is OK, Alexis is getting there and Busquets’ fitness is the most doubtful”
The FC Barcelona manager is hoping for a packed Camp Nou and for the team to enjoy the match. “You will see two great teams put on a very good show. The rest doesn’t matter” he insisted. “I hold reverential respect for Real Madrid. They are the worst team we could expect to play on Wednesday”.
Gerard Piqué offered his views on the FC Barcelona vs Real Madrid Spanish Cup game. The Barça centre back has never lost to Madrid, and was delighted with yet another victory at the Bernabéu. When asked about Pepe treading on Messi’s hand, he said that others are to judge, not FC Barcelona players.
FC Barcelona presented their manager, who on Wednesday celebrated his 41st birthday, with an epic comeback win at Real Madrid’s Bernabeu stadium in the first leg of the quarterfinals of the Spanish Cup. Puyol and Abidal scored the goals.
The balance of Pep Guardiola, FC Barcelona’s Manager, against Real Madrid is eight victories, three draws, and one defeat. Guardiola confirmed that Pinto will be the starting goalkeeper in the clásico and that his assistant, Tito Vilanova, will travel to Madrid.
The Barça manager stressed at the press conference before the Spanish League game against Betis that “there are 63 points left to play for and we’d like to believe that we still have a chance to win the League”.
The Argentinean star is named by FIFA as the best player of 2011. This is Messi’s third straight Ballon d’Or Award. Messi equals Platini, Cruyff and Van Basten, the only players to ever win three Ballon d’Or titles. The Barça boss, who won 5 titles with FC Barcelona in 12 months, beat last year's winner, José Mourinho, and Sir Alex Ferguson. Guardiola dedicated the title to his assistant coach, Tito Vilanova. Besides, 5 Barça players are in the FIFA's Best Eleven of the Year: Alves, Piqué, Xavi, Iniesta, and Messi. Two of them are Catalan and four are home grown players.
Santos FC vs FC Barcelona: Barça becomes legendary after winning the FIFA Club World Cup. The Catalans were three up at half time after goals from Messi, Xavi and Cesc, with the Argentinean rounding the game off with a fourth after the break.
FC Barcelona's Manager, Josep Guardiola, stressed the pride that the team have in maintaining such a good level over three years and said that now, in the Club World Cup, Barça have to deserve to be in the Final against Santos, by playing well and winning. Guardiola admits that the Club World Cup is the title that he’s most excited to play for. "Getting here is very complicated, really, really difficult," he stressed. Guardiola was very direct and clear with his answer to the question about the Spanish sports newspaper Marca's leading cover story claiming Villa is for sale: "Marca is lying".
12 of the 23 players that FC Barcelona have taken to Japan have never appeared in the competition before. However, Valdés, Puyol, Iniesta and Xavi are going for the third time. Before this Tuesday’s training session in Yokohama, Barça players and technical staff met with children from Fukushima, in solidarity with Japan and its nuclear accident.
The FC Barcelona’s Assistant Manager, Pep Guardiola’s right hand man, returned to training this morning after going through surgery on November 22nd. Guardiola was able to work with the whole squad, including Adriano, to prepare the clásico against Real Madrid. On pitch number 1 at the training ground, reserve team players Cuenca, Soriano, and Muniesa, also took part in the session.
Just one week before they face Real Madrid, FC Barcelona Manager, Josep Guardiola, refused to discuss the clásico. Instead he preferred to focus on the next Spanish League game at the Camp Nou against a solid and physical team: the Levante.