FC Barcelona produced a brilliant display especially in the second half to move fourteen points clear of their greatest rivals Real Madrid. Goals from Luis Saurez, Lionel Messi and Aleix Vidal capped an emphatic night of Barca.
FC Barcelona visits Santiago Bernabeu for La Liga 2017-18's First 'El Clasico'
All is set for the first 'El Clasico' of the La Liga season. FC Barcelona goes to this match with a six point lead over second placed Atletico Madid and a big eleven point lead over fourth placed Real Madrid, even though Real Madrid have one game in their hand. A victory tomorrow will increase that lead to fourteen points and that would be an enormous task for Real Madrid to surpass even if they have a game in hand (remember that game will be played mostly at the very end of the season). The first two Clasicos of the season, the Super Cup encounters was more or less a forgettable event for Barca; but a lot have changed from the end of those two games. Barca remains unbeaten in all competition since that game where as Real Madrid has went downhill since then.
Source : Barca4Life - FC Barcalona Match Pictures
FC Barcelona made the perfect preparation for the first Clasico of the season with a brilliant 4-0 victory over Deportivo at the Camp Nou. Luis Saurez and Paulinho both struck twice to give Barca a comfortable victory over the visitors; even though had Messi was wearing his scoring boot, the Barca's goal tally would have moved close to double digits. I cannot remember a game where we hit the wood work this often and in this season we have been denied by the woodwork a whooping 27 times in all competition; most of them from Messi. Barca lost Paco Alcacer early on the match but would be happy to have all of the other players more or less available for next Saturday's encounter.
Enjoy the Full Barca vs Deportivo Match highlights of the match below:
Barcelona Futbol Club will be facing English side Chelsea in this season's Round of 16 Knockout round. The first leg will he held at Stamford Bridge on the 21st of February 2018 and the return leg will be on March 3rd 2018 at the Camp Nou. For some reason Barca keep on getting tough opponents in this stage - last year it was PSG, before that Arsenal, before that twice Manchester City, before that AC Milan and so on. One have to seriously ponder whether it's just Bad Luck or whether it's something UEFA do! Especially considering that some big teams keep on getrting smaller oppositions till they reach at least semi-finals. Regardless of all that we need to get ready for two nights of very challenging football. Funny enough in my preview to UEFA Champions League Draw, I mentioned two teams in the best to avoid category; we got one from that only.
Barcelona visit Villarreal on Sunday hoping to maintain their five point lead at the top of the La Liga table. After picking up 34 points from their opening 12 games of the season, Barca have been held in their last two league matches against Valencia and Celta Vigo. Samuel Umtiti and Ousmane Dembele are both major doubts for the game, while a return for Rafinha also looks unlikely as he battles back fitness after a long spell on the sidelines.
Bookmakers don't believe those absences will affect Barca, with the table-toppers priced at 8/15 to win the game. Villarreal are available at 9/2, with the draw on offer at 13/4.
All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.Walt Disney
With last night's round of matches, this season's Champions League Group stage has come to a conclusion and we now clearly knows who all moves from Group Stage to Knockout Stage. The teams apart from FC Barcelona which have qualified for the knock out stages are Manchester United, FC Basel, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Roma, Chelsea, Juventus, Liverpool, Sevilla, Manchester City, Shaktar Donetsk, Besiktas, FC Porto, Totenham and Real Madrid. Since we cannot play teams from the league we will be avoiding Real Madrid and Sevilla both who finished second in their groups. Which leaves five opponents we could face - FC Basel, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Shaktar and Porto.
FC Barcelona secured a 2-0 victory over Sporting Lisbon in the last match of the league and consolidating their top place in the group. Enjoy the highlights, before it is taken down!!
Luck is not chance, it's toil; fortune's expensive smile is earned.Emily Dickinson
Strange is football at times and that was reminded again this weekend when a set of Crazy results ended up Barca increasing their lead on top. It was quite funny to an extent, when Barca dropped two more points suddenly Barca's unassailable position in League was under threat. Suddenly Valencia could cut the lead by two, Real Madrid could get back to league race by cutting lead by two points and so on. But in the end Barcelona increases their lead on top at the league by one more point, leading Valencia by five points. The lead on Real Madrid remains at eight point even though the other major side from Madrid, Atletico Madrid have moved two points ahead of city rivals and sit six point adrift of Barcelona. Quite a turn around in 36 hours!
Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.Albert Einstein
Sometimes, or may be many a times, football results are evoke the emotion expressed by the above mentioned quote. Many a result is all about the things which actually can't be measured easily rather than the ones measured. Barca's draw against Valencia was one such episode. Depending on from where you look what actually matters differ. For the Madrid fans and media, it was the result which counted. Suddenly they proclaimed that the "League is Back in Play" after Barca dropped two points. For Valencia fans and media, there was a pride in their performance; may be a bit of disappointment as they could have won it in the end. But the pride was evident from the headlines that rolled out like "Not even the Best Barca of the League could beat Valencia" and "Only Messi could stop Valencia" etc. For Barca fans there were a lot of disappointment following the unfairly ruled out goal from Messi. That would have changed the complexion of the game in itself.
Highlights of Barca's 5-0 demolition of Real Murcia in the second leg of their Copa del Rey clash. With this victory Barca moves to the next round with a 8-0 aggregate scoreline. Once again it was the fringe players who got the chance to showcase their talents.
FC Barcelona secured the passage to next round of 2017-17 La Liga with a goalless draw away against Juventus. With the draw, Barca maintains the three point lead at the top of group table. With a positive 6 goal difference compared to Juventus, we should be comfortably holding on to the top spot unless something disastrous happens when Sporting visits Camp Nou in the next match. Meanwhile the coach needs to get a bit concerned about the missing spark in Barca's last few performances.
Barcelona may have lost Neymar in the summer transfer window, but the Blaugrana are showing no signs of missing the Brazil international forward at the moment. Barca are four points clear at the top of La Liga after 11 rounds of matches and eight ahead of bitter rivals Real Madrid. Ernesto Valverde’s side are at the top of Champions League Group D and are playing pretty decent football. Neymar who?
Every artist was first an amateurRalph Waldo Emerson
Ter Stegen was signed by FC Barcelona in 2014 for a sum of 12 Million Euros. That amount is so low by today's standard that a 12 Million sum would be consider as an investment. But I am not talking about the financial investment but the emotional investment Barca put in. He was scooped in because he was the perfect Barca style keeper available and we didn't want another competitor take a look at him. And we have been proven right. Thanks to him currently we lie on top of the League and as per a summary of the latest betting odds we are the favourite to win the league. And if we did that at the end of the season, Ter Stegan would have played a huge role in that.
Difficult Roads often lead to Beautiful Destinations -
Barcelona football club is getting ready for a tough round of fixtures; may be better to say we already are in. The visit to San Mames was the start of the same and it will continue at least till the end of the first Clasico at the Bernebeu. If we comes out of this challenge unhurt we may have already have one hand on at least the La Liga title. But everyone knows this is not going to be easy! One of the major reason looks like we may be stuttering a bit after the initial high flying start in the last couple of matches. There is nothing to panic yet for Valverde but it's better he keeps the focus on the group so that things don't drift too far.
FC Barcelona more or less secured the passage to next round in 2017-18 UEFA Champions League with a victory over Olympiakos at the Camp Nou last night. Lionel Messi scored his 100th Goal in Europe in the victory.
Barcelona return to Champions League action on Wednesday night, with Greek outfit Olympiakos the visitors to Camp Nou.
The Catalan giants have been handed a tricky draw but Ernesto Valverde’s men have taken control of Group D with consecutive wins over Juventus and Sporting Lisbon. Olympiakos have lost both of their first two games in the competition this year and as such Barcelona are overwhelming favourites to record victory on Wednesday - punters using their Sportingbet Promotional Code 2018 can get odds of 1/11.
Cometh the Hour; Cometh the Man.
How things change in a week's time? Last week there was despair and fear of Lionel Messi not being in 2018 next Summer. It was too much for me to even imagine! But on Tuesday night all balance was restored and by the Messiah itself. Such was the brilliance in the performance that everyone have started the "Greatest of All Time (GOAT)" debate once again for the umpteenth time. Everything was stacked against him and Argentina - the altitude, the improbable point situation, surrounded by a bunch of player who has been massively under-performing, a Nation doubting him and the team, the haters waiting to jump on him; in the end nothing of these mattered as Messi decided to end all those doubt by himself.
His arrival at Barcelona may have raised a few eyebrows amongst Nou Camp supporters, but Samuel Umtiti has certainly made his mark. Since arriving from Lyon last year, the €25 million price could even be considered a bargain, given the consistently high form and performance of the Frenchman.
Umtiti expertly navigated his first season at the club, showing absolutely no fear of the responsibility that comes with the Barca shirt, whilst adapting swiftly to the style of play demanded as if he were born for it. His appearances were considered talismanic for a large part of the season, with the team seemingly unbeatable whenever he featured.
Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success. Henry Ford
Barcelona Football Club fans could not have ever dreamed of such a perfect start. When this season started no one would ever have thought of such a start. The Club was in total disarray with Neymar's transfer and the extremely poor performance against Real Madrid in the Super Cup. From there onward things have turned around a lot, currently we lead the betting charts to regain the La Liga title with a 8/13 Odd in favour (Courtesy of the seven point lead against defending Champions Real Madrid).
If you find those odds compelling at the current point of time, as odds change from week to week, be sure to place your bet on Barcelona with a free bet from Freebets.co.uk on them winning La Liga and Champions League this season. We all believe this is going to happen anyway, might as well cash in on it.
It might seem like a distant light on the horizon right now, but in reality, the Russia 2018 World Cup is just around the corner. With national team places up for grabs ahead of the illustrious tournament, more than a few players will inevitably be thinking ahead and aiming throughout the 2017/18 domestic campaign to prove they’re worthy of selection with their best displays.
Of course, there’s no shortage of international stars amongst the ranks of Barcelona, some of whom already know the joy of hoisting aloft the most coveted trophy in world football. Impressively, amongst the 24 players in the current Camp Nou first team squad list, only one represents a country outside the top 15 favourite countries. Indeed, such is the current strength and depth at the Catalan club, it’s entirely possible that every current Barca squad member could feature at Russia 2018. Few clubs can boast that strength of quality in their roster, that’s for certain!
Without further ado, let’s take a look at the five favourite countries, along with the Barcelona players who will be hoping to book their passage to Russia next summer.
- "Messi" (CC BY 2.0) by jeroen_bennink -
When the final whistle blew at Montilivi it was after another Barca master class as they ran out 0-3 winners against Girona. Two own goals and a Luis Suarez strike was enough to keep Barcelona top and stretch their unbeaten run to 6 games this season.
It is 6 wins from 6 and all the early signs are ominous for the chasing pack including bitter rivals Real Madrid. Barca look as fluid as ever and are a real threat going forward. Teams will be scratching their heads and wondering how to stop Barca picking them apart and running riot. It often turns into a rout once they get to 5th gear.
The glimmer of hope for the rest of La Liga will be the fact that Messi was contained last night after being man marked for the entire game. His threat was snuffed out by defender Pablo Maffeo as the youngster didn't give Messi a moment’s rest. The on loan defender from Manchester City stuck to his task and was able to negotiate the mastery of Messi.
FC Barcelona continued their winning ways in the League with a 6-1 thrashing of Eibar at home. Once again it was Lionel Messi who was the chief architect of the victory scoring four meanwhile the heroes from weekend - Paulinho and Dennis Saurez repeated their feats scoring one each.
