Barcelona one goal away from Moscow

Barça’s Champions League challenge came to end this evening away to Manchester United. They gave it their all and took every risk they had to, but once again the lack of goals proved costly. A thunderous strike from Scholes after Barça had dominated the first quarter of an hour put the home side in the driving seat, but Rijkaard’s knew that if they could equalise, they would qualify by virtue of the away goals rule. But it wasn't to be, and Barça's unbeaten record in Europe this season came to a sad end.

Scholes destroys Barça’s promising start

From the outset, it was clear that Barça were going for it in a big way. They piled on the pressure from the very first minute, and Manchester United were held back in their own half as they had been at the Camp Nou. It was the dream start, but disaster struck after 14 minutes when Scholes latched onto an unfortunate clearance from Zambrotta and slammed the ball into the top left corner from 25 metres, leaving Valdés well beaten.

End to end stuff

The goal seemed to knock the stuffing out of Barça, while the Red Devils burst into life and started creating all kinds of problems for the Barcelona defence. The action was relentless, and Barça picked themselves up after a brilliant individual run from Leo Messi, followed by a Park effort for United that just went wide of the post, and two dangerous shots from Deco that missed by inches.

Intensity rised every single second

The game pressed on at the same extraordinary pace, with Nani almost scoring from a header after 40 minutes, and Milito going close with a similar chance at the other end. The first 45 minutes had offered some memorable football from two great sides desperate to secure their places in Moscow, and the second half proved to be just as much of a thriller. Deco led the Barcelona midfield in style, and the United fans held their breath every time an electrifying Messi came near the ball as the visitors pressed forwards in search of that elusive equaliser.

Miracles were not supposed to happen...

Manchester United decided to withdraw and keep things tight at the back, yet still looked dangerous on the counter attack, which was how Tevez almost scored in the 57th minute, but Valdés got a hand to the ball. Henry and Bojan were sent on to add some new spark to the Barcelona attack, and the Frenchman came frustratingly close to scoring with a 78th minute header that brought out the best in Van der Sar.

As the minutes ticked by, the tension reached boiling point, with Cristiano Ronaldo and Thierry Henry spearheading their respective sides’ attempts. But try as they could, Barça just could not score, and the game drew to a close. They can go out of the competition with their heads held high, but it will be the Premiership side, and not FC Barcelona, that will be enjoying a trip to Moscow in May.

Barcelona kill Man Utd without scoring

Barcelona's Champions League Semi Final first leg game against Manchester United ended just minutes ago and now its time for a short summary.

Barca played their game and totally commanded the field with a possession higher than 65%. We contained the ball most of the time and the only reason the game ended 0-0 was the fact that our attack was lacking creativity.

Manchester had the chance to score from a penalty in the 3rd minute of the game but Cristiano Ronaldo sent the ball over the crossbar. The penalty was inflicted by the hand of Gabi Millito and actually was pretty obvious and undoubtful.

The game was full of fouls and the game often was stopped. There were yellow cards and lot's of tackles in the middle of the field. Both teams were playing carefully and while Barca was constantly on the attack , the Red Devils were counting on counter attacks organized by the fast Ronaldo.

Leo Messi was above all in tonight's game , organizing Barcelona's attacks and being the most dangerous played on the field. He was later substituted by Bojan and was loudly applauded by the fans.

Eto'o had bad luck and was unable to complete succesfully several good attacks that Barca's midfielders had organized.

Henry , who substituted Deco tried several shots but nothing serious came out of his feet.

This Champions League semi final cannot be remembered with anything significant and the only think we should hope is that Barcelona will have more luck next week at Old Trafford.

Henry shakes off fever and is ready to return

Thierry Henry spent today's morning training alone at Camp Nou in order to be ready to play against Manchester United and is set to join the rest of FC Barcelona's squad for the evening session.

With the first leg of the Champions League semi final approaching, Barca's head coach Frank Rijkaard was recovering most of his players and now Henry is set to be given the green light and play against the Red Devils. The Frenchman has missed two training session because of a severe fever, but he is now back and looked in good shape as he worked with the team's fitness coach - Albert Roca.


Three goals in this year's Champions League

This season, Henry has played in eight of Barcelona's ten Champions League games and has three goals. Two against Olympique Lyonnais and Rangers at Camp Nou and one at Parkhead against Celtic in the quarter finals.

Barca and Manchester United have similiar road to the semi-finals

Both FC Barça and Manchester United have reached their semi-final without facing any real difficulties and what is more interesting – they have statistically identical records in this year’s Champions League.

Two of Europe’s biggest football clubs are going head-to-head in one of the Champions League semi-finals super clashes. And in fact the Catalans and the Red Devils have taken absolutely identical routes to get there.

Eight wins out of ten games:

Both teams have deserved their way to the semi-finals having won 8 out of their 10 matches so far in this season’s Champions League. As if that weren’t enough, in the quarter finals both FC Barcelona and Manchester United won both the home and away legs against their opponents. The Catalans passed through Schalke (0-1, 1-0) while the Red Devils put out Roma (0-2, 1-0).

Unbeaten throughout the whole campaign:

As if that was not enough - neither side has lost a game so far in this year’s edition of the Champions League, drawing the two games they didn’t win. Barca drew in the group stage versus Lyon (2-2) and Glasgow Rangers (0-0), while Man United drew in their group with Roma (1-1) and in the away leg of their last 16 tie with Lyon (1-1).

Same goal records - amazing:

And if this was not convincing enough let me round things off by just saying that both Barcelona and Manchester United have absolutely equal goal records. Each of the teams have scored 18 goals and conceded 5 (only Chelsea is better – 4) so far.

I think all this is just a drop in the sea of reasons that points at this semi-final clash as one of the most anticipated ties the Champions League has ever seen.

Final preparations for the Champions League Semi Final behind closed doors

Barcelona’s first team is continuing with its preparations for the upcoming first leg of the Champions League Semi-final against Manchester United. Our today’s training was held at the Miniestadi and was preceded behind closed doors.

Henry, Thuram and Edmilson were absent…

Henry, Thuram and Edmílson were all three missing from the training as were the injured Ronaldinho and Jorquera. Henry still has a high temperature which stopped him from joining his teammates at Miniestadi for training this Monday. Thuram was given the morning off by the club and is to train this afternoon, while Edmílson stayed in the gym due to problems in his back area.

The players began training as usual with a warm-up, though Gaby Milito spent the first few minutes apart from the rest of the squad as he worked with a fitness coach as part of his recovering program.

Training on Tuesday

The Barça players will be training again this Tuesday at 7.30 pm. Prior to that Rijkaard and a player will be at a press conference set for 6.45 pm. After the training session, which will be open to the press for the first 15 minutes, the team will head off for their pre-match hotel.

Cheering up with some Barcelona highlights

We are in a hard period and I decided to post this two videos in order to cheer you guys up. The first one reminds us of the best moments in the past 3 years and the second one is a compilation of the best plays of our current team leader that is injured - Leo Messi. Enjoy!

Thierry Henry is the richest sportsman in France for 2007

Barcelona's supesrtar striker Thierry Henry is officialy the highest-earning sportsman in France for the last 2007. The French magazine "Equip" has estimated that Henry has earned the amazing 17.4 milion euros in 2007.

Second is the point guard of San Antonio Spurs Tony Paker with 9.6 milion euros. Other famous soccer players in the top-list are Patrick Viera (8) , William Gallas (5.9) , Djibril Cisse (7) and Nikola Anelka (5.8).

According to the american edition "Sports Illustrated" the highest-earning sportsman in the world for 2007 is golf superstar Tiger Woods.

Barca players speak after yesterday's draw againsta Getafe

After the dissapointing draw last night against Getafe FC Barcelona didn't manage to melt down the lead of the leader in Primera Real Madrid. The players were dissapointed but they all made it clear that Barca won't give up till the very end of the season.



Xavi

“I’m disappointed because I thought we were better.”

“We tried our best but the ball just wouldn’t go in.”

“It’s another missed opportunity.”

“It’s now very hard, but we still haven’t given up on the League.”

“The players are down but we’ll try to turn things round.”

Valdés

“It’s a pity that we haven’t got the three points and yet again we haven’t taken advantage of Madrid slipping up.”

“Every game that goes by when we don’t cut the gap will make life harder. We’ve had lots of chances, not only today, when we could have done it but didn’t. As players and professionals we’ll keep on trying.”

“We have to change our mindset. We have a good chance of getting into the semis of the Champions League. We want to win a trophy or two.”

“Arguments about non-sporting matters affect the team.”

Eto'o

“Every day is hard. But while God continues to give us health, we have to be thankful. There are more important things than football.”

“We aren’t going to give up – we’ll keep fighting to the end.”

“I still reckon we have a chance in the League and on Wednesday we could get through to the semis of the Champions League. We have to move on.”

“We’ve have lots of opportunities to catch up with the leader but we haven’t taken advantage of any of them.”

“Getafe played well and we were unlucky.”

“Me being substituted? The coach did what he thought was right and thought about Wednesday.”

“I want to win the European Cup because I know what these fans going out into the street to celebrate is like.”

Zambrotta

“It’s a pity but we’re still just seven points behind.”

“We did everything we could to win, and we played well.”

“We hit the woodwork three times which shows you how unlucky we were.”

“Sometimes when you win people say you didn’t play well, and today we played well but we didn’t win.”

FC Barcelona 0 - 0 Getafe CF

Barca played another dissapointing game that ended just minutes ago. Rijkaard's players played againsta Getafe and the result was more than dissatisfying - draw.

Barca's players had their chances - they hit 3 sidebars but still were not able to score a goal. Xavi and Iniesta played really energetic , distributing the ball during the entire game but this was not enough and Getafe took a point from Camp Nou.

In the end of the game the Barcelona's fans that were on the stadium took out white handkerchiefs and waved them in sign of protest.Joan Laporta left the stadium with the sad face on and I think that we all know it is time for changes...

Rijkaard uses same players as in Germany for the next 2 games

Frank Rijkaard will use the same 18 players for the upcoming matches in Primera (against Getafe) and in the Champions League Quarter Final Seond Round match against Schalke 04 as he did last week. The squad is Valdés, Pinto, Thuram, Zambrotta, Sylvinho, Abidal, Edmílson, Milito, Puyol, Márquez, Touré Yaya, Gudjohnsen, Xavi, Iniesta, Bojan, Henry, Giovani i Eto'o.

All of the mentioned players have travelled to Gelsenkirchen for the first match.By this uncommon move Rijkard is showing that he is happy with the performance of thoose players.Furthermore he is short-handed by the numerous injuries in the team.

The good news are that Rafael Marques will eventually play his first game since February 3 so we can expect a better level of defence than that of the last few games.

Ronaldinho six weeks out .Rijkaard calls "B" Team reinforcements

Ronaldinho

FC Barcelona's superstar Ronaldinho will be out of the terrain for about six weeks due to an injury. He suffered a harmstring strain in his right leg during Thursday's training session.

The Medical staff at the club confirmed this morning that tests have shown that the injury will keep him out for aproximately six weeks.

Deco and Gabriel Miltio

Fali , Pedrito and Toribio were called from the"B" side to help the first team.Deco was present, but he trained at the side with a personal coach as he bids to recover from his latest setback. Milito, like the Portuguese midfielder, also worked on a specific recovery programme.

Leo Messi returns to Barcelona on Thursday

Leo Messi will arrive at El Prat airport on Thursday evening after completing the second part of his recovery schedule in Argentina.The Argentinian striker will be transfered directly to Camp Nou for a medical examination by the Barca's specialists.After the tests Messi promised to give the media a public interview in the stadium's press rooms.


about the injury...

Messi's left thigh femoral biceps was seriously injured during the game with Celtic in the Champions League second round that took place on the 4th of March this year.

Then the doctors predicted a six week absence from the fields for the superstar of FC Barcelona.

Rijkaard is happy with last night's win over Shalke 04

FC Barcelona's coah Frank Rijkaard said that he is happy with the mentality that his players played the game against Shalke (Barca won 1-0). He stated that after the horrible loss against Real Betis last weekend Barca's players have learnt their lesson and are now playing with formidable matureness and mentality.Here are other comments from the Dutch coach:

about the hard work paying off...
Rijkaard wasn't willing to analyze last night's game deeply but he said it clear : "It is difficult to compare the game with Shalke with the one vs Betis , but it is a fact that our team worked hard and earned the victory.Obviously we had to suffer at the end of the game but that is due to the fact that Shalke is one really physical team and they worked hard to challenge the result."

"We started the game well and our positional play was very good and characterised our opening," Rijkaard continued. "We pressurised the opposition defence well too. Later in the game we became too direct at times and we took note of that."

about the scorer Bojan Krkic...
Barca's coach was short in his comment on Bojan's : "He does things that great players do".
Bojan Krkic scored the only goal of the game after 11 minutes and Rijkaard was impressed with the striker, who became the second youngest goalscorer in the competition and the first player born in the 1990's to score.

about the possibilities in the league...
In the end of the interview Rijkaard pointed out that Barça will not concentrate all their strenght in the Champions League: "We still have a chance in the league and we have to keep going in order to be there. What we want now is to win every that we play."

Barcelona beat Shalke with one goal and dissapointing performance

The Champion League Quarter Final game facing FC Barcelona and Shalke 04 ended just one hour ago. I am confused and not sure what to write right now. Once again a dissapointing performance from Barca and yet we won. In fact my opinion is that tonight's game was a result of Rijkaard's upcoming firing. He was aware that if he loose this game he is out of the club and he made everything possible so this doesn't happen.

Barca started without the injured Leo Messi and Ronaldinho but performed really well in the first minutes of the game , maintaining the ball and playing their well known passing game. In the 11th minute a wonderful pass from Iniesta sent Henry in front of the keeper and he made a powerful shot which was boxed out clumsy. This gave Henry the chance to pass the ball and he did , he passed it to Bojan Krkic - GOAL! 0-1

After the goal the picture slowly began to turn around - Shalke's physical game started to override Barca's passing strategy and at the end of first half the strenghts were even. The second half belonged to the Germans. They become the leading team on the pitch with endless counter-attacks and powerful air plays.

In a result of that picture Rijkaard took out one by one our offensive players replacing them with defensive ones.Thanks God , Shalke weren't able to score till the end of the game and we won a very important victory.

After the game was over I stared at the TV for one more minute asking myself all those unanswered questions about the future of my favourite club and now , one hour later, I am still unable to find the answers...