pedro

A brilliant goal from Leo Messi hands the blaugranes the win that they needed to claim their 23rd Spanish League title. A year ago, Atlético Madrid won the league title with a 1-1 draw at the Camp Nou and tonight Barça returned the favour and brought the trophy back home with a 0-1 win at the Vicente Calderón, as they took the first leg of their possible treble with a game to spare.As the second half ticked away, Real Madrid went one up against Espanyol, meaning Barça needed a goal to take the title this weekend and on 65 minutes, Alba worked the ball inside to Messi who played a one-two with Pedro and tucked it home with his left peg through a forest of legs. A brilliant goal fit for La Liga Champions! One down, two to go, as the Spanish Cup and the Champions League final await!

Less than a week ago a superb second half from the blaugranes at Camp Nou gave them a 3-0 victory over the German champions in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final. Two exquisite goals from Leo Messi in his 100th game in Europe for the blaugranes and an injury time effort from Neymar mean that Pep Guardiola’s Bayern side have it all to do in the second leg in the Allianz Arena in Munich which kicks off at 8.45pm CET. Barça coach Luis Enrique decided to take his entire first team squad plus three players from the B squad, Munir, Sandro and Sergi Samper, to Munich. Jérémy Mathieu was included in that 26 man list after receiving the medical all clear after Sunday’s training session. Bayern boss Pep Guardiola still has plenty of injury headaches before the return leg at home to Barça. Arjen Robben, David Alaba, Franck Ríbery and Holger Badstuber all missed the defeat in Barcelona last week and they will also sit out the second leg

FC Barcelona are one win away from taking the 2014/15 La Liga title. Barça's win over Real Sociedad, combined with a Real Madrid's 2–2 draw against Valencia, puts Luis Enrique's men four points ahead of Los Blancos and one victory from the Spanish League title. A win against Atlético Madrid next week would mathematically hand Barça the league championship. FC Barcelona will have two chances to be proclaimed champions. The first will be next Sunday at 7.00pm CET when they take on Atlético at Vicente Calderón. A Barça victory — or a tie combined with a Real Madrid draw or loss — will hand the title to Barça. The second chance, if necessary, comes on Saturday 23 May at Camp Nou against Deportivo La Coruña.

Luis Suárez's hat trick leads the onslaught as Barça overcome arid conditions to win big in the south of Spain. Lionel Messi adds a brace, while Ivan Raktic, Gerard Piqué, and Neymar chip in one apiece. The victory keeps FC Barcelona two points clear at the top of the league table — with just three games remaining — after Real Madrid kept pace with a 3–2 win at Sevilla on Saturday night. It was no surprise that Saturday’s match at the Nuevo Arcángel in Córdoba, Spain, played on a lush oasis of green turf in one of the driest regions of the Iberian Peninsula, actually did take place under conditions likely to be found in the middle of a desert. Although the Andalusian climate is notoriously arid and hot — especially in the summer — the league encounter between hosts Córdoba FC and their northern visitors FC Barcelona featured unseasonably high temperatures — 31ºC / 88ºF at kick-off — scorching sunshine, and bone-dry humidity levels.

Two first half goals from Neymar were enough to book Barça a spot in Friday’s Champions League semi-final draw, as Luis Enrique’s side denied the French champions any chance of a comeback from last week’s 1-3 win in Paris with a performance that combined champagne moments and cool headed determination. Luis Enrique’s side got a 5-1 aggregate win over PSG.

A strategic gas pipeline is to be built through the Catalan Pyrenees, linking the Iberian Peninsula with France and Central Europe. The Midcat project aims to reduce Europe's dependency on Russian gas by 40%, diversifying the sources of supply. The pipeline should be operational by 2020, announced on Thursday the Spanish Minister for Industry, José Manuel Soria. The day before, French President, François Hollande, Spanish PM, Mariano Rajoy, Portuguese PM, Pedro Passos Coelho, and European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, re-launched the project's construction. Midcat started to be planned in 2007 but it was halted for several years, mainly due to a lack of interest from French companies and institutions, which were not guaranteeing to build their part. Now, the crisis with Russia has reignited the urge to find alternative gas suppliers for Central Europe.

Elche fans are no doubt grateful that their team won’t have to play Barça again this season, or indeed this month, as Luis Enrique’s side ran riot at the Manuel Martínez Valero Stadium to chalk up six goals - that’s 15 in the three January games against Fran Escribá’s team. Gerard Piqué opened the scoring in the first half, with Messi and Neymar getting a brace each after the break before Pedro made it a round half dozen in injury time. Next stop, Atlético Madrid on Wednesday night (9.00am CET).

Pedro in the first minute, Luis Suárez with his first goal in the Spanish League, Piqué with a header and Messi with a late brace scored the goals as FC Barcelona defeated Córdoba 5-0. The win means the Catalans will spend Christmas just one point behind leaders Real Madrid, who don’t play this weekend.Saturday afternoon got off to the perfect start when Barça took the lead in the very first move of the game. Ivan Rakitic chipped the ball forward and Pedro met it with a wonderful piece of control before slamming home the opener. The rest of the half saw Barça in complete control and having plenty of chances to extend their lead. Barça couldn’t have wished for a better end to 2014, and now it’s time for the players to get a well-earned rest over the festive season.

The Blaugrana beat a brave Huesca side at Camp Nou with a convincing 8-1 victory at the second leg of the Spanish Cup’s last 32.?In a game that saw many of Barça’s regular players sitting and watching, it was one of their stars, Pedro, who did real damage. Pedro’s first-half hat trick leads the way as the Catalans march onward and upward in the competition. Adama, who had come on for Munir in the 74th, scored his first career goal after just three minutes on the field. This Tuesday night’s win also provided two other milestones for Barça. Javier Mascherano played in his 200th career game with the Club while goalkeeper Jordi Masip was making his official debut.

The Catalans dominated from start to finish, but the goals just didn’t want to come. Barça were by far the better side, but Getafe limited themselves to neutralising that superiority and got away with a point. With Neymar absent through injury and his place in the Barça frontline occupied by Pedro, the game got off to a quiet start, with neither side doing anything of note for the first quarter of an hour. The second half saw Barça continue to pile on the pressure. Messi produced two fine free kicks, but one hit the woodwork and the other was saved by Guaita. This a game that Luis Enrique will be ruing as a valuable opportunity lost, takng into account Barça’s 23 goal attempts compared to just 4 for a Getafe.

At 8.45 PM CET, all eyes will be on the Camp Nou as top place in Champions League Group F is settled. A huge night awaits us this Wednesday evening. Barça are at home to Paris Saint-Germain. In other words, Messi, Neymar, Suárez, Iniesta, Xavi and co are up against a similarly star-studded side featuring the likes of Ibrahimovic, Cavani, Lavezzi, Thiago Silva and David Luiz. A fascinating winner-takes-all match with top spot in the Champions League group to play for. On the last day of the group stage, only three points will do if the Catalans want to topple the French club’s two-point lead.

The governing People’s Party (PP) has once again rejected the creation of a subcommittee within the Spanish Parliament to start debating a Constitutional Reform, in order to handle the deep political crisis and Catalonia-Spain relationship. The Spanish Government and the PP – which holds an absolute majority at the Chamber – have been refusing to initiate a Constitutional Reform on manifold occasions during the last few months. Furthermore, last weekend, Prime Minister Rajoy strongly objected to making “any concession” regarding Catalonia’s demands and, instead, the PP is working on an involution of the political model that would recentralise many powers and increase the Spanish Government’s presence in Catalonia. This Thursday, the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) filed the motion to create a parliamentary subcommittee to start working on the Constitutional Reform because the best way to save this text is “by updating it”. The PP replied “this debate is neither timely nor necessary”.

The Catalans eased to 4-0 victory in Wednesday evening's Spanish Cup round of 16 first leg at Division 2B side Huesca. Rakitic, Iniesta, Pedro and Rafinha provided the goals that set things up perfectly for the return at the Camp Nou on December 16. Luis Enrique opted for an eleven made up largely of fringe players in Wednesday’s cup opener, and the whole team shone as they made their superiority tell against their lower division opponent. Although most pundits had expected the Asturian to play Masip in goal, it was Ter Stegen who finally got the nod, while the game was also used to give Andrés Iniesta his first run-out after a 40-day absence through injury.

Parties supporting the self-determination process have expressed their first reactions to the Catalan President’s offer to run in early elections by sharing the same electoral list and negotiating independence from Spain in a maximum of 18 months, if they obtain an absolute majority. The two-party centre-right pro-Catalan State coalition (CiU), headed by the President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, is divided: Mas’ Liberal party CDC wants to join it but the leader of the Christian-Democrat force UDC is sceptical, since he opposes independence. The left-wing Catalan independence party ERC, which tops most of the opinion polls, is thinking about it and its leader, Oriol Junqueras, will make his own proposal next Tuesday. The Catalan Green Socialist and post-Communist coalition (ICV), which supports Catalonia’s self-determination but is divided about whether or not to be independent, rejected Mas’ offer and accused him of forgetting about social and corruption issues. Finally, the alternative left and radical independence party CUP rejected the single list formula.

FC Barcelona won the first ever edition of the Catalan Super Cup at the Estadi Montilivi in Girona this Wednesday evening after the game with RCD Espanyol ended 1-1 after 90 minutes. Luis Enrique’s side dominated from start to finish but were unable to add to a Gerard Piqué header after 15 minutes. Espanyol pulled back through Arbilla shortly after the break, and with no further scoring the game went to penalties. The shootout went Barça’s way, as it also had against the same side in the last two finals of the Copa Catalunya.