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FC Barcelona have suffered painful defeat at home to Valencia, which brings an end to a wonderful run of 25 consecutive wins in league matches at the Camp Nou. The visitors, coached by former Barça man Pizzi, took a practical approach to the game and took their chances when they came. They go home with all three points from a match that looked to be safely under Barça’s control at half-time, but from that moment on, luck was simply not on Barça’s side. Not even Messi’s penalty to put Barcelona back in contention, or the immense pressure in the final minutes despite being a man down following Alba’s sending off, were enough to prevent Valencia from winning at the Camp Nou for the first time in a decade.

Barça once again take on Llevant (also called Levante) after the 1-4 from the first leg of the Spanish Cup quarter-final tie. It will be the third showdown between to two sides in ten days. Throughout the competition Tata Martino has had a policy of rotating players into the starting team for Cup matches, and it doesn’t look like there will be an exception tonight. Iniesta, Puyol, Song and Montoya are back in the squad, while Xavi, Busquets and Alves didn’t make the team. If Barça make good on the result from the first leg, it will be the team’s seventh semi-final Cup berth in eight years (they were eliminated in the quarter-final round in 2010).

FC Barcelona offer a brilliant all round performance as team cruise past Malaga with goals from Piqué, Pedro and Alexis. The Catalans put the institutional turmoil of the last week behind them, as they treated the Barça fans to a great night of football and reaffirmed their top spot in the Spanish League. Fast, precise and full of attacking threat, Barça returned to the Camp Nou after 18 fays without a home game and from the off they had Malaga pinned back in their own half. After just 5 minutes, Alexis rounded off a great team move with an effort which rattled the woodwork. Malaga showed that they could pose a threat too though, when Duda brought a good stop from Valdes from a free kick. Ibrahim Afellay got a big round of applause when he came on for Alexis.

Martino’s take on Llevant (also called Levante) at the Ciutat de Valencia for the Spanish Cup match after drawing with the Valencia-based side three days ago in the League. The Blaugrana return to scene where they drew 1-1 with the Llevant side, but this Wednesday evening, Tata Martino’s men will try to get a good result ahead of the second leg of the Cup tie at the Camp Nou. The FC Barcelona manager named 18 players to the team for the match. Dani Alves, who missed this weekend’s game against Levante due to suspension, and Carles Puyol made the team. Piqué, Montoya, Cuenca (technical reasons), Iniesta, Neymar Jr, Afellay, Dos Santos and Oier (injured) did not make the team.

Unlucky Barça drop two points at the Ciutat de València (1-1) in a game where they deserved more. The first of the three games FC Barcelona play against Levante over the next ten days ended in a draw. Barça had the chances, particularly in the second half, but an inspired performance from the home keeper Keylor Navas meant the points were shared, with Vyntra opening for Levante early on and Pique equalising soon after. With nine changes form the team that started in the Spanish Cup against Getafe midweek, Barça made it clear from the start who was going to be dominating possession, whilst Levante were happy to sit back and take any chances that came their way.

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.

After getting the job done in Europe (Celtic) and La Liga (Villarreal), FC Barcelona want to close out the Copa del Rey tie this Tuesday evening against Cartagena (22.00 CET). FC Barcelona will play the second leg without Xavi (as a precaution), Sergio and Piqué (for technical reasons). Tata Martino has named a total of 16 footballers to the squad. The 1-4 from the first leg 11 days ago gives Barça a huge advantage as the Blaugrana could lose 0-3 and still qualify for the next round of the competition. However, in Can Barça the challenge is always to win by playing good football.

Gerardo Martino's side open their Spanish Cup campaign on Friday evening. Barça travel to third tier Cartagena without Piqué, Xavi and Iniesta, whilst Carles Puyol and Jordi Alba return. The latter could return after being out since September. Although Cartegena are on paper the underdogs, Barça will be aware that any slip up could cost them dear and the boss himself insisted yesterday: “it's a very important game” and coming on the back of defeats in Amsterdam and Bilbao, the team need to get back to winning ways.

A 70^th minute goal from Muniain condemns Barça to their first defeat of the current Spanish League season. Four days after going down to Ajax in the Champions League, Gerardo Martino got another taste of defeat as a solitary goal from Iker Muniain split the sides in the 70^th minute of a game that could have panned out very differently had Barça made better use of their several chances in the first half hour. Despite the defeat, FC Barcelona stay top of the league table, although now only on goal difference.

A draw in FC Barcelona’s first ever official visit to the Amsterdam Arena (20.45 CET) would be enough to secure the first place in the Champions League Group H. With qualification already secured, the Catalans need at least a draw to guarantee being seeded and playing the second leg at home in the first round of the knockout stages. Barça are missing several players, even though Xavi returns, with youngsters Adama, Dongou, Sergi Gómez and Patric all travelling to Holland. Ajax faces an essential game, as it needs to win in order to keep its options for making it into the last sixteen open.

“The absence of players is always unfortunate, and now we’re missing the best goalkeeper in the world” said Martino referring to Leo Messi, but also to Víctor Valdés, Dani Alves, Xavi, Jordi Alba, Tello, Dos Santos and Afellay. Cesc Fàbregas and Piqué have been declared fit this Friday. Alves is the most recent injured player and will be out for some 10 days. Martino has called up Dongou Tsafack and Adama Traoré due to the long list of absentees. “Neymar’s response has been superb right from the start. He’s also shown that he has the capacity to withstand the pressure” Martino said in a press conference held on Friday before Saturday’s game against Granada. “We shouldn’t be thinking about the missing players, but in those who are taking their places”, he concluded.

The Spanish League leaders are going to Seville without Piqué or Busquets for the final match before the international break. The former is out as a precautionary measure and the latter is being rested, and their absences will make what is already a difficult fixture even harder still. Bur despite Martino’s rotation system, Barça are still unbeaten this season, and will hoping things stay that way. However, Barça have only won two of their last eleven games at the Villamarín Stadium against Betis, a ground at which they have struggled to get results since 2000.

Barça have defeated a daring Celta de Vigo side to continue their unbeaten run in the Spanish League, leading the championship. The in-form Alexis, goalkeeper Yoel (og) and Cesc got the goals for the Catalans. Following the exertions of last Saturday’s clásico against Real Madrid, Tata Martino decided to make changes to his eleven, the most significant being Alex Song getting to start instead of Busquets. Even without players of the calibre of Piqué, Xavi, Iniesta and Neymar, Barça were fantastic right from the start.

72 hours after the Clásico between Barça and Real Madrid and before the Catalan derby against Espanyol (to be played on Friday), the Spanish League leaders visit Celta de Vigo’s Balaídos Stadium with high spirits after claiming victory over their arch-rivals (2-1)  but without Gerard Piqué. Tata Martino has decided to continue with his rotation policy for this Tuesday evening’s match and Gerard Piqué has not travelled to Vigo in order to rest. This means that players like Montoya, Puyol, Sergi Roberto or Tello could feature in the starting line-up.

Barça's win in Almeria makes this the best ever start to a Spanish League season. Messi scored another brilliant goal on 20 minutes, before going off injured five minutes later. Whatever else happens this season, 2013/14 will go down as a record breaking start to a league season. The boss continued to rotate his squad and left both Neymar and Xavi out of the starting line up, with Cesc, Bartra and Pedro coming in.