A clever goal from Leo Messi on 81 minutes gave Barça the three points against a tough tackling and competitive Atlético Madrid at the Vicente Calderon. Real Madrid is still 10 points ahead, but FC Barcelona is in the hunt.
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.
FC Barcelona have given their fans the perfect Valentine’s Day gift – a convincing win away to Bayer Leverkusen at the Champions League that puts them well on course for a place in the quarter finals. Alexis (2) and Messi scored the goals for Barça.
A sensational display from Barça at La Rosaleda against a threatening Málaga side. A stunning hat-trick from Messi, and another goal from Alexis, reflected the FC Barcelona superiority. Víctor Valdes made a vital triple save in the 15th minute.
Espanyol and Barça shared the points in the season’s first Catalan derby after FC Barcelona hit the woodwork on three occasions. Cesc Fàbregas opened the scoring within the first quarter of an hour and Alvaro hit a late equaliser. The draw leaves Barça five points behind Real Madrid in second spot.
12 of the 23 players that FC Barcelona have taken to Japan have never appeared in the competition before. However, Valdés, Puyol, Iniesta and Xavi are going for the third time. Before this Tuesday’s training session in Yokohama, Barça players and technical staff met with children from Fukushima, in solidarity with Japan and its nuclear accident.
No team has more candidates than FC Barcelona at the FIFA FIFPro World XI 2011. The association of professional footballers announced the final list of 55 players who are candidates for the best eleven of 2011. 20% of them are from the FC Barcelona. In 2010, Barça already had six players in the winning team.
Spain boss Vicente Del Bosque has called up 8 Barça players for the friendlies against England and Costa Rica . FC Barcelona manager, Josep Guardiola, will be able to call on them for this week’s Spanish Cup tie against the modest Hospitalet.
The Barça goalkeeper has said that it was his manager who taught him a number of things on a tactical level. Valdés also denied that there are any problems between Villa and Messi, and feels the comments were intended to destabilise the team.
FC Barcelona have beaten Viktoria Plzen thanks to a Messi hat-trick and another goal from Cesc Fàbregas. Barça also made the 500th goal in the Guardiola era and qualified for the second round of the Champions League.
This season, FC Barcelona’s first team will have eleven players that came up through the club’s youth system. Fifty per cent of the 2011/2012 team is from La Masia.
FC Barcelona have a foot and a half in the semi finals of the Champions League thanks to a 5-1 win over Shakhtar Donetsk at the Camp Nou. In a gripping game, all of Iniesta, Alves, Piqué, Keita and Xavi found the target.
FC Barcelona have won away to Villarreal and are now eight points clear at the top of the table. Piqué’s second half goal was the reward for a game in which Barça were by far the better side, and Valdés was outstanding in goal.
FC Barcelona host Zaragoza tonight (20.00 CET) in another important game after winning away to Mallorca and Valencia. The good news is that both Valdés and Jeffren are back in the side.
The Cuban pianist presented his new album ‘Chucho’s Steps’ at his performance during the Barcelona International Jazz Festival. He was accompanied by ‘The Afro-Cuban Messengers’.