this is football

The team travels to Getafe today at 19.00 in what promises to be an excitement packed clash. Every time Barça has won here, they have gone on to win the league.

David Villa knows that at Barça, the team should always be put ahead of personal aims, and does not feel he should be judged on how many goals he scores. “Barça did not sign me to be the top scorer, but to help make Barça better”, he said.

There’s just no stopping Leo Messi. In Copenhagen, the Argentinian scored yet again and now has 100 in the Josep Guardiola era. Messi has also overtaken Rivaldo as the club’s highest scorer in international competitions.

FC Barcelona have taken a point from their visit to the animated Parken Stadium in Copenhagen in which they hit the woodwork three times. Messi opened the scoring in a game that sees Barça stay top of their group table.

Barça face Copenhagen this evening at 20.45 h in a game to decide the leadership of Group D of the Champions League. A win for Guardiola’s men would virtually ensure classification.

Ahead of Tuesday’s game, Pep Guardiola has insisted that Copenhagen will pose a very different threat from Seville: “it’s a different competition and a completely different game – we`ll have to put in a very good performance”.

Messi missed the trip to Ceuta in midweek and he stressed the importance of a week of training at the Ciutat Esportiva for a number of the senior players: “it’s been a good week for working out and recovering our physical fitness”, he explained to the Barça TV programme” El Marcador”, after the game against Seville.

“We Give Everything” is the slogan that fronts the latest campaign by the club for ticket sales for the 2010/11 campaign, which is being launched this Thursday. The players are the front men for the campaign, in which they appeal to the fans to come along and support them at every home game.

FC Barcelona took a giant stride towards qualifying for the next round of the Copa del Rey (Spanish Cup) with a 0-2 victory in the first leg of their tie with Ceuta on Tuesday evening thanks to goals from Maxwell and Pedro.

Carles Puyol, Daniel Alves, Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta, Lionel Messi and David Villa have all been included in the 23-man shortlist for the FIFA Ballon d’Or nomination.

Pep Guardiola is not taking anything for granted ahead of Tuesday’s cup game against third division Ceuta and insisted today: “it may not be the most important game of the season, but it is the most dangerous”.

The win in Zaragoza was the fourth on the run and marked the team’s best ever start to a season on the road. There have been five seasons when the team won their first three away games, but never before, their first four.

Barça travel to La Romereda to take on bottom club Zaragoza at 18.00 tonight for a game that promises plenty of emotion and excitement, with the fans no doubt hoping Leo Messi might just repeat his fantastic hat trick performance from last season.

Pep Guardiola is not taking anything for granted ahead of the game against Zaragoza and has insisted that their position at the foot of the table doesn’t mean anything. The boss also spoke about the physical problems affecting Valdés and Xavi.

Spanish team features no less than seven regulars from the Catalan champions. In a surprising week, Brazil and Argentina were sent home, while Spain reached semi-finals for the first time in its history.