Hard Luck Sevilla: Sevilla-1,Barcelona-1

Sevilla might be cursing their luck after Barcelona managed to take a draw from a match in which they shut off barcelona completely till the 75th minute. Sevilla showed the signs of the previous season, which took them to enormous sucess. If it was not for a sudden, unexpected Goal from Xavi and sending of Keita, Barcelona might have staing again at a nine point lead. Now it will only become eight point lead, is that too much of variation - God Knows? In contrast to Sevilla's goal, which came everyone expected it to come, Barcelona's Goal came from no where. Sevilla will have only themselves to blame as they could have shut off Barcelona with atleast a dozen goals. The official Barcelona site reports " With commitment and a desire to win, Barça managed a draw in the always difficult Sevilla stadium. " Maybe I was sleeping as I didn't see any above mentioned commitment or desire. Maybe only the clever gets to see it, and obviously I am dumb.

Rijkaard staretd with Oleguer at Right Back joining hands with Thuram, Milito and Abidal. The midfield position was occupied by expectedly Edmillson, Xavi and Iniesta. Messi started in the centre along with Henry on left and Giovani on Right. The game started with Barcelona matching Sevilla with some agressive running into the Box, but soon Sevilla was to shut off Barcelona. Luis fabiano and Kanoute was creating havoc for Barcelona defense, with an understanding which remembers the way Eto and Ronnie used to play two season ago. As expected almost all the problem for Barcelona was coming from the wide angle in the two wings, especially Capel was at his menancing best. In the ninth minute Capel gets a free kick for a foul on him by Oleguer, Dani Alves took the resulting free kick and valdes has to produce the first of string serious of saves he made yesterday. The rebound somehow found fabiano and Valdes produce another good save to deny him. Barcelona responded with Xavi placing a cut through pass to henry in the 12th minute, but he couldn't find a final pass to Messi in the box. In the 14th minute kanoute misses a very good chance in the box from a cross from the left. By that time Sevilla has taken full control of the game and every time the ball reaches Dani Alves or Capel Barcelona defense were having nightmares. In the 18th minute Milito gets booked for a desperate lunge on Keita. In the 21st minute Xavi finds Giovani in the box but he is blocked comfortably by the Goal Keeper, he should have taken the shot a bit earlier. By that time Luis fabiano was creating havoc in Barcelona defense - 25th minute he gets a free kick in a very promising position but Alves wastes it. In the 30th minute Alves finds Kanoute through a long pass, who places the ball back to Fabiano whose shot was saved by Valdes. In 32nd minute Valdes throws up another wonderful save to deny Kanoute header from a Capel cross. then in the 35th minute as everyone expected Capel scores with an easy tapping from Jesus navas cutting cross across the goal mouth. Again it was Alves who cleverly slipped the ball to Navas. If anyone expected that barcelona would be shaken by the Goal, they were all wrong - Barcelona was struggling to find the ball. In the 41st minute Keita fails to convert from a free header of a corner. Barcelona was really lucky not to have a much bigger goal difference by half time.

After the half time the only thing that changed was Sevilla allowed Barcelona to take a little more of position. barcelona players looked not interested in getting the goal back. Its one thing that Sevilla was shutting them off, but not trying hard has no excuse. Rijkaard put on Ronaldinho and Marquez in place of Thuram and Edmilson but things did not improve much. To top it all every one of them is ready to fall over for the slightest of touch by defenders. In the 50th minute iniesta found Henry on the left of the box with a wonderful pass, who did well to cross the ball across the Sevilla goal mouth but none of other players seemed to be interested. In the 61st Xavi's long range went wide. In the 58th minute Gudjohnsen came on for Henry and messi moved to the right - he looked so comfortable there. In the 68th minute milito saves Barcelona with a desperate intervention which some how save navs wonderful run and subsequent shot. The frustration of Barcelona players were eveident when Messi got booked for an unwanted challenge. In the 75th minute Marquez almost scored the goal but in the wrong goal, when he truned a Luis Fabiano shot to his own Goal. Valdes was sheer lucky to save that and that save proved so dearly as Barcelona against the run of play found the equaliser within 3o seconds. gidjonsen placed the ball to Messi who placed a absolutely inch perfect pass to xavi who made no mistake. In the 78th minute Keita was sent off after a second yellow card for a foul on Messi, who suddeny seemed to woke up from his deep slumber. Keita was really unlucky as his first yellow came for nothing. That sent off changed the match and Barcelona slowly took control of the game. Messi was finding so much space ahead of him and utilising it. In the 81st minute another woinderful Messi run creates havoc resulting in another free kick, this time Ronnie hits high. In the 84th minute Oleguer makes a mess of a high bouncing long ball and let Capel free with the ball who shoots high. In the 85th minute Ronnie free kick earns a corner, Messi plays back the resulting corner on to the Goal line, but nobody reaches it. In the 89th minute messi gets another free kick and Ronnie again hits on to the wall.

Barcelona should consider themselves very lucky to get a point out of this match. The lack of commitment from players was evident throughout the match. If it was not for valdes we would have been in deep trouble. Messi looked like he was not at all interested to play along with the team till the first goal came. Its time he start from the bench. The Sevilla forward line were defending upfront but Barcelona forwards were not willing to do that.

Bojan and Giovani - Firmly Striding Forward

In the begining of this season it was clear that the two wonderfully talented kids - Bojan and Giovani ,from Barcelona youth Academy will get their first taste of first team football. But a series of injuries and loss of form of the senior players have made sure that both of them remain an integral part of Barcelona team this season. In the start of season , there was too much of pressure on Rijkaard to include them in the side inorder to avoid other clubs robbing them. In contrast to some of their seniors who went in search for better shores, these two had made it clear in advance that their future lies with Barcelona. Giovnani was expected to make a sizeable number of appearances and Bojan was expected to make his debut this season. But as destined they both have made a sizeable number of appearances and also have made it into starting eleven on many number of occasion. This also has a downside with fans and media criticising them (like Giovani was criticised some game before) for the lack of impact in some games. The media and fans will do a world of good to the club if they take the time to remember that they just made their debuts this season. Messi, when he debuted some season ago was similiar to them, but ofcourse had more talent.

Of these two, Bojan Krikic looked to me more comfortable with rigour of La Liga football. This may be of the fact that he is an out and out striker, and (apart from Eto we don't have one also) he gets to play in his favourite position more often. Giovani had made much bigger impact when he was brought as a substitute but in matches where he started have to admit he was a dissappointment. Don't have to look too far the last match against Osasuna will act as a testimony for what i have written here. But I believe this may be because of the lack of centre forward in the Barcelona player setup. He is asked to do so much more than he might be capable of. Bojan already has four goals from 18 apperances which is very good as debutant, but also reiterates the fact that he is a out and out Centre Forward. Along with messi, these two will for the future of the Barcelona attack line up. But overall we can confidently say that these two kids have taken their baby strides in the big leagues of football very firmly.

Rijkaard's trouble in the match against Sevilla doesn't looks like ending - now Deco and Sylvinho has been declared unfit for the tie. The three reserve players - Espasandín , Víctor Vázquez and Víctor Sánchez have been named in the squad. Out of which Víctor Espasandín has a high chance of making his debut as he is considered as a solid Left back. As i said in my last post it maight be time for Messi to justify world's belief that he is the New Maradona. This match will depend upon him a lot. Thinking about Ronaldinho, some strange idea came to my mind - we can place him in the Midfield may be in the position Gudjonsen is playing. That will cut down the expectation on him of scoring Goals and will surely help him in assisting more. Every time I see him on pitch he looks like trying too much for scoring Goals, because of which he is not assisting his fellow players or creating chances.

Barcelona Goes To Sevilla

Now its confirmed that Barcelona will miss the service of Bojan and Zambrotta for the upcoming crunch match against Sevilla. Zambrotta will be out for a week with the injury he picked up in the match against Portugal. Bojan, who is still suffering from gastroenteritis, which has delayed his much published debut for Spain. Barcelona is unbeaten in the last eight away matches in all competition - in the league they have drawn twice and won twice. But remaining unbeaten does not solve Barcelona's problem. As everyone knows they have to pick up every available point in order to launch a final assault on the Championship. Mexican internationals Rafa Márquez and Giovani dos Santos are expected to be back in Barcelona by Friday after a friendly match against United States. Rijkaard had a depleted squad for yesterday's training because of the international duties (i will not call it a commitment) of the players. The players who trained at La Masía are Milito, Oleguer, Xavi, Valdes, Edmilson, Gudjohnsen, Iniesta, Messi and Ronaldinho.

The injury to Zambrotta would be a serious setback to Rijkaard as Oleguer will be the only person left to take up that job. Edmilson should be able to fit into the defensive midfielder job. Oleguer never had any competitive game since last October or so, should be expected to be a little rusty. Another question is that whether Sylvinho be picked ahead of Abidal. I expect so. When the last time Barcelona went to Sevilla they came up with a spirited 1-1 draw. They opted for a defensive minded approach that time, but that will not help their cause this time. That was a two legged tie and Barcelona di plan well. But anything less than a victory here now will spoil all the good work done last week when Madrid slipped. Adding up to the Barcelona's worries are the fact that Kanoute, Fabiano and Alves will be available for Saturday’s tie. These three especially will be a very big headache for any defense. Therefore Barcelona has to show their offensive strength more over here. They need to surprise them in the early encounters and need to make sure that Sevilla does not dominate game for extended time. If they get to dominate for more time they will surely crack the Barcelona defense. Barcelona still have a very dangerous side even with all the injuries. We can expect Milito and Marquez to make up the defense. The attacking lineup would be made up of Messi, Henry and Iniesta, with Gudjonsen and Xavi pairing Edmilsson in the middle. To win they have to dominate, they have to defend upfront and importantly not to give away possession cheaply. My prediction will be Barcelona winning 3-1 with Messi scoring a brace. This is the time when Messi has to move out of the shadow of his legendary colleagues.

There is a sense of resentment among Barcelona fans - that the international duties will be the one harming Barcelona's chances. I always believe that a player belong to his Country more than the Club. Barcelona has a very big squad to work with and the unavailability of some players should not harm them. If Barcelona is finding them in a very tough situation, it’s solely because of their lack of commitment, not because of any international duties.