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FC Barcelona suffered their fifth defeat of the season away to Granada, losing by the only goal of the match. It was one of those games in which the ball just simply didn’t want to go in. The visitors shot no fewer than 29 times, but not one of those was enough to neutralise Brahimi’s opener. This was a very different game to the ones in San Sebastian and Valladolid. At the Nuevo Los Cármenes, Barça created threat after threat, but couldn’t secure the three points, or even just one, and now find that their destiny in La Liga is once again out of their hands.

An early Koke goal denied Barça the chance of a seventh successive semi final appearance. Barça’s dream of a Lisbon final came to an end at the Vicente Calderon tis Wednesday evening, when a combative Atletico Madrid beat them 1-0. The hosts’ early goal and their whirlwind start really set Barça back, but Martino’s side fought their way back into the game and had their chances to draw level. However, Simeone’s side stood firm and Barça bowed out of the Champions League.

There were no surprises at the Camp Nou this Tuesday evening - no surprises in the line ups, in the tactics both teams chose, the way Barça had to work hard to breakdown the visitors’ rock solid and tough tackling defence and in the end, after three draws already this season, no surprise in the result. Diego conjured up a wonder strike from nowhere to give Atletico de Madrid the lead on 55 minutes, but Barça dug deep and Neymar’s equaliser leaves it all to play for at the Calderon next week.

Barça and Atlético Madrid, , the two teams on the summit of Spanish football, face off in an exciting Champions League quarter-final tie this Tuesday evening at the Camp Nou (8:45 pm CET) for a spot in the competition's semi-finals. If FC Barcelona wins the challenge, it will have participated in seven consecutive sem-finals. The teams come into the match on form and under the leadership of two key players: Leo Messi and Diego Costa. This season they’ve scored 36 and 33 goals, respectively. Valdés is Barça most important absence, while Raúl García, who is suspended, is Atlético's.

Barça see off Celta with 2 goals from Neymar and another from Messi, but Valdés' injury casts a pall over the win. Barça continue to pressure at the top of the Spanish League table after the weekend's win over Real Madrid. Luis Enrique made his return to the Camp Nou with a five-man defence that included Fontàs as a deep lying midfielder and with an untypical tactic of ceding possession, which allowed Barça to lay siege to the Celta area and reap the benefits within the first five minutes, as a clever move between Iniesta, Messi and Alexis ended with a simple tap in for Neymar. With Iniesta finding plenty of space through the middle to release Messi, Barça were playing elegant and incisive football which created chances for both Neymar and Messi.

FC Barcelona host Celta at the Camp Nou four days after winning at Madrid's Santiago Bernabéu. Sunday’s 4-3 win in the clásico has put Barça back in contention in an incredibly tight championship race. Just one point separates Atlético Madrid, Real Madrid and Barcelona, and any setback could leave any of these teams in a very difficult position indeed. There are just nine games to go, and every one of them is absolutely crucial. It may sound like a cliché, but they all need to be treated like finals. The legendary Luis Enrique, who played for FC Barcelona for eight seasons and managed Barça B team for three, is back for the first time as a visitor. Gerardo Martino has dropped Oier, Montoya, Afellay and Xavi, the latter being rested after starting five games in a row.

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.

Barça were the first team drawn out of the hat at this Friday lunchtime’s Champions League quarter final draw in Nyon (Switzerland), with Atlético Madrid then drawn to play them. The first leg of the tie will be played on April 1 or 2 at the Camp Nou, with the second leg set for the Vicente Calderón stadium a week later on April 8 or 9. The match at the Camp Nou will be the fourth time the two La Liga teams have met so far this season, with all three previous games ending in draws. Atletico are currently second in the Spanish League, a point ahead of Barça and reached the Champions League quarter finals by beating AC Milan 0-1 in Italy and then 4-1 at home, after also finishing unbeaten and topping Group G.

In Catalonia, direct foreign investment – excluding the stock-exchange –grew by 31.5% year-on-year to reach €3.51 billion in 2013, as indicated by a report from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. According to the Foreign Investments Registry, with such a figure, Catalonia achieved its second best year in history, only surpassed by the €4.82 billion received in 2010. Besides, Catalonia accounted for 22.2% of all foreign investments in Spain in 2013, which amounted to a total of €15.81 billion, meaning 8.8% more than the previous year. The region of Madrid was the leading Autonomous Community in Spain for foreign investment attraction, receiving €8.64 billion, which is it to say 54.6% of the total amount. However Madrid's sum also represents a 7.1% decrease on 2012 figures.

Súmate, an organisation mostly formed of people of Spanish origin living in Catalonia who support independence from Spain, presented on Monday evening its views during a round-table at the Friends of the UNESCO headquarters in Madrid. The organisation, described as plural, independent and non-partisan by its members has entitled its intervention ‘Escucha España. Los catalanes quieren votar’ (Listen Spain! Catalans want to vote). For its President, Eduardo Reyes, the main objective is to encourage a democratic debate on the ongoing process in Catalonia, since for now “all the news that is reaching Spain about Catalonia is false”. Reyes believes that the Spanish institutions are “creating hatred” and said that he had decided to go to Madrid to explain that “there is no social fracture” in Catalonia. Not a single Madrid-based printed media talked about the event.

Saturday afternoon saw FC Barcelona lose their fourth league game of the season. Relegation-troubled Valladolid beat the defending champions 1-0 thanks to a solitary goal from Fausto Rossi in the 16^th minute, and it was an especially painful defeat because it denied Barça the chance to go provisionally back to the top of the table to add to the pressure on Real Madrid, who won against Levante on Sunday. Saturday’s substandard display also means that Barça’s destiny in the championship is no longer in their own hands. The defeat, their third in just six league games, has put a serious dent in Barça’s title bid. All in all, it was a disappointing day for the club and a disappointing performance from the team.

Barça got the better of a plucky Almeria side with goals from Alexis, Messi, Puyol and Xavi. It took until the 83rd minute for Barça to secure the three points against Almeria. The eventual 4-1 win could easily have been achieved in the first half, but some great football was only reflected by two goals, and Almeria managed to grab one of their own to add to the drama. The intensity dipped in the second half, and the win was not decided until Puyol bravely stuck home FCB’s third, with Xavi making it four in the final minutes. A win was more essential than ever after the setback at Anoeta, and the 2-2 draw in the Madrid derby – between Atlético Madrid and Real Madrid – was surely the best result Barça could have wished for, and they now find themselves just one point short of the Spanish League’s lead.

FC Barcelona are no longer the Spanish League leaders. Barça suffered their third league defeat of the season against Real Sociedad (3-1) on Saturday evening. It was a grim night for Barça, who were chasing the game for most of the 90 minutes and never looked comfortable against a Real Sociedad who were lethal on the break. The defeat leaves Barça three points behind Real Madrid, who top the table. Gerardo Martino made six changes to the team who won in Manchester on Tuesday, with Song playing as the holding midfielder and  Busquets in an inside right role, whilst Xavi and Cesc started on the bench and Montoya, Bartra, Adriano and Neymar were back in the starting line up .

A goal from Messi secures passage to the final of the Copa del Rey. Barça will face off against Real Madrid on April 19. The team managed by Gerardo Martino preserved their 2-0 advantage and they qualified without too much difficulty. When push comes to shove, this team responds: they are in the final after having won seven of their eight Cup matches this season and with Leo Messi, who scored the go-ahead goal in San Sebastián, as the highest goal scorer of the competition. In the final minutes of the match Griezmann netted the equaliser, but it was too little to late to trouble a Barça side that had completed one of the best first halves so far this season.

Le Corbusier, one of the key figures of twentieth-century architecture, was more than a mere creator of buildings. His ideas on urban planning, furniture design and his innovative blending of architecture within the surrounding landscape are an integral part of his unconventional work. Such different creative facets of the artist are at the core of the exhibition “Le Corbusier. An atlas of modern landscapes”, held at Barcelona’s CaixaForum from the 29^th of January to the 11^th of May. The exhibition, the largest dedicated to the artist in the past 25 years, displays 215 objects from the MoMA and the ‘Fondation Le Corbusier’, which stress the extent of his contribution to international architecture.