Over the next 10 days Barça will play three games that are key to success this season: the two Champions League semi finals and Saturday’s La Liga clash with Real Madrid. The two matches against Chelsea stand between Barça and another Champions League Final, whilst the Madrid ‘clásico’ will define FC Barcelona’s chances in the Spanish League.
The Barça Manager isn’t resting any players with the Chelsea Champions League fixture in mind because “given our situation, the game with Levante is more important”. Guardiola believes they have to win at the Ciutat de València stadium because otherwise “we’ll have no chance of winning the League when we face Real Madrid”.
Goals from Alexis (2), Messi and Pedro have won Barça’s tenth game in a row at the Spanish League and put them just one point behind Real Madrid, who play the day after.
Barça are aiming to record their 10th consecutive victory against Getafe within the Spanish League. If they do so, they will temporarily close to within one point the distance with the leader, waiting for Real Madrid’s result.
Goals from Puyol, Messi (2) and Pedro turned the game round for Barça at La Romareda stadium, after Zaragoza had taken an early lead. The three points take Guardiola’s team to just three points behind the Spanish League leaders, Real Madrid, at least until the day after.
Barça have beaten Athletic Bilbao in an intense, lively game in which both sides played some exquisite football. But the home side enjoyed most of the possession and also the chances, and eventually won through thanks to goals from Iniesta and Messi (penalty).
Goals from Messi and Piqué either side of half time gave Barça a vital win against Mallorca, with Thiago’s sending off the only negative as Guardiola’s men continue to hunt down the Spanish League leaders, Real Madrid.
FC Barcelona Manager, Pep Guardiola, is still playing things cautiously despite the reduced distance between Barça and Real Madrid, the current Spanish League leaders. “I still think there are a lot of points to win back”, he said. He also highlighted how 15 of the 19 players picked to go to Mallorca are products of the club itself, coming from Barça’s La Masia football school.
Real Madrid dropped two more points with their second successive 1-1 draw against Villarreal in their last Spanish League game. After Barça’s win against Granada, the Catalans have reduce the gap from 10 to 6 points in only four days. The chase for the Spanish League’s leadership is livelier than ever.
Leo Messi’s hat-trick against Granada has made him the highest goalscorer in FC Barcelona history, while goals from Xavi and Tello also helped to put Barça within five points of the Spanish League leader, Real Madrid.
Two superb first half goals from Xavi and Messi gave Barça the win in Seville, with an excellent performance – particularly in the first half-that’ll be a real morale boost for FC Barcelona.
The FC Barcelona Captain, Carles Puyol, stated that Abidal is “in good spirits”. “He’s a strong person”, he added. “He showed strength last season and he’ll do it again now” insisted Puyol. Besides, the Barça captain doesn’t have a particular preference regarding the Champions League draw and playing against Real Madrid. Finally, he underlined that Guardiola’s decision on his contract renewal has to be respected.
The Brazilian FC Barcelona player reckons that Barça’s win against Sporting will strengthen their aim to: “keep on fighting until the last day of this league season”. “We won’t be giving the League away”, he stated. Adriano also talked about the Pique’s red card in the FC Barcelona vs Sporting de Gijón game and the news that the referees technical committee wants to take the centre half to the Spanish Federation’s disciplinary panel for his comments after the game. Adriano explained: “he and the ref were talking about it after the game and they cleared things up”.
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.
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.