santos

Beginning his musical career in Barcelona´s Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu, he later dedicated himself to photography, cinema, literature, among other artistic crafts

This Wednesday evening Valencia's Mestalla hosts the Spanish Cup Final and the Catalans face old rivals Real Madrid. It’s 63 days since FC Barcelona beat Real Sociedad in the semi-finals. It’ll be a peculiar final. There is no clear favourite, both sides are missing important players to injury, and for the first time in several years, these two teams are not the runaway leaders in La Liga. Barça come into the game following a disappointing week in which they were knocked out of the Champions League and suffered a serious setback in their quest to win La Liga. Real Madrid would appear to be heading in the opposite direction.

On Wednesday evening at the Camp Nou (20:45 CET), Barça will leave La Liga to one side and try to make good on the 0-2 from the first leg against Manchester City at the Champions League. City need two goals to force overtime and three to directly access the quarter-finals of the competition. One of challenges FC Barcelona face is to leave behind the negative results from Spanish League play. The 0-1 away to Valladolid, which left Barça four points adrift of the top spot in the league, should be left behind as the team come into the match at the Camp Nou. It’s time to change the chip, as they say in Catalonia and Spain. All available players, besides injured Isaac Cuenca and Jonathan Dos Santos made the team.

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).

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.

“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.

Three goals from Pedro, one from Cesc and another great Valdés performance give Barça three more points at the Spanish League campaign. Valdés stopped his second penalty in two games when the scores were just 0-1.It was an even enough first half, with Rayo making some good early chances.Two minutes into the second half, Barça were ahead after Pedro got his second.That made it five wins from five, with next up Real Sociedad at the Camp Nou on Tuesday.

Barça have brought the curtain down on the tour of Asia with a win against a plucky Malaysia XI. Cesc, Neymar and Piqué got the goals for Barça and Cesc limped off the pitch with an ankle injury. Messi was ruled out at the last moment with a thigh strain. Barça was always the better side in Kuala Lumpur’s Shah Alam Stadium but had to work hard to break through an efficient defensive performance.

More than 10,000 fans watched the Catalan team prepare for tomorrow's friendly match with an all-star selection of Malaysian players. Leo Messi was once again the most acclaimed player of the squad. Barça players and the manager congratulated Cristian Tello for his call-up to the Spain national team. Jordi Alba, who didn’t train on Thursday, trained alongside his team-mates this evening. Pedro Rodríguez, who is recovering from a knock to his right calf muscle, was the only player to miss the session.

Barça thrashed Santos by an incredible eight goals to nil in the 48^th edition of the Joan Gamper Trophy. The goals came from Messi, Léo (og), Alexis, Pedro, Cesc (2), Adriano and Dongou. It was the Camp Nou’s first chance to see FC Barcelona’s new manager, Tata Martino, and the star striker, Neymar Jr. The stadium also bade a final farewell to one of the biggest legend’s in club history, the great keeper Antoni Ramallets, who died on Tuesday.

FC Barcelona home fans will have the first chance to see the team this season, after friendlies in Munich, Oslo and Gdansk. Neymar, one of the big draws for the game, will be set to face his ex-club. In addition, Barça’s new coach Tata Martino will speak to the crowd before the game along with captain Carles Puyol. Puyol will be one of the four squad players who will miss the game through injury, alongside Afellay, Cuenca and Tello. Furthermore, Barça’s legendary keeper Antoni Ramallets, who passed away earlier this week, will also be honoured before the game.

Barça cruised to victory against Valerenga in the second game of the 2013/14 preseason. FC Barcelona’s seven goals were scored by Alexis, Tello, Messi, Dos Santos, Dongou (2) and Joan Román. The Catalan team’s new manager Tata Martino was watching from the stands in the Ullevaal Stadium. Barça got off to a storming start. After just thirteen minutes they had already found the Valerenga net three times. All three goals involved Leo Messi.

The Brazilian team are currently 16th in the Campeonato Brasileño Serie A after five matches. Neymar's former team will have to face the challenge of overcoming the sale of its biggest star. Santos’ participation in the Joan Gamper Trophy was agreed upon when Barça signed the Brazilian forward. From Wednesday July 3, tickets go on sale for the FC Barcelona v Santos match for the Joan Gamper Trophy. For this game, the font used on the Barça shirt will be different to the usual one. A special typography designed by Anna Vives will be used.