Through To The Last Eight; Barcelona-1,Celtic-0

With the help of an early Xavi goal Barcelona now are through to the quaterfinals of Champions League. On a night which saw the defending champions crashing out, Barcelona could only muster up only one goal inspite of having the majority of possession. But all was not good for Barcelona in the night which saw Messi getting injured. The extent of his injury will be known today only when he undergoes scan. Barcelona was forced to sit out Milito as he was down with fever, Thuram partnered Puyol in the centre of defense. Sylvinho came in place of Abidal, Deco in place fo Iniesta nd the forward line up was restored to Ronaldinho, Eto and Messi.

Barcelona took the lead with just three minutes into the game. Messi moved inside the field and found Xavi at the edge of box, Xavil laid off the ball to Ronaldinho who with his trademark pass placed the ball to sylvinho in the left. Sylvinho's cross was well directed by Xavi into the goal. Barcelona then dominated the initial exchanges but was unable to find one more goal despite all the possesion. In spite of the fact that Ronaldinho and Sylvinho were working well together down the left, there was no serious chances created by Barcelona. In the 29 th minute Ronaldinho fed Puyol perfectly into the box, but Boruc pulled out a wonderful save. In the 34th minute Messi got injured, which saw Henry coming to the centre and Eto moving to right. That basically sums up the first half. In the second half things were mucd duller. In the 59th minute Ronaldinho exchanged passes with Eto, before sending a thunderous shot into the goal. Again Boruc pulled up another brilliant save. From the resulting corner Deco send in a wonderful volley which was well saved by Boruc. I have serious doubt whether Celtic will be able to hold onto this guy, he is a terrific Goal Keeper. It was only towards the end McDonald and Nakamura tested Victor Valdes.
The goal from Xavi in 3rd minute killed the match. Ronaldinho had a good game. But everyone will be having their fingers crossed when Messi is taken for scan today. Anyway this injury vindicate Rijkaard of his decision to exclude Messi from starting eleven at Athletico Madrid.

Xavi Goal


Messi Injury

Camp Nou Gets Ready to Welcome Celtic

As Barcelona prepares to host Celtic at Camp Nou, the biggest question on every bodies mind will be "What will Rijkaard be unto this evening?” Anyway Rijkaard has included Yaya and Bojan in the squad. We can expect Yaya to start the game since edmilson is excluded from the squad along with Giovanni. Marquez still hasn't recovered from his injury so he joins the injured list along with Ezquerra. The back four does not leave too much for Rijkaard for experimenting as Sylvinho is expected to start on the bench. But we might see Deco starting the lineup ahead of Iniesta. Deco has been Rijkaard's favorite even though his current form should place him automatically on the bench. I would love to see Gudjonsen in the starting line up as i thought he looked ok in the last match. But the biggest headache for Rijkaard will be to decide the front three. On current form it should be Ronaldinho, Eto and Messi who should be starting.

Celtic away record in the Champions league may not be great, in fact its somewhat close to pathetic, but their record at Camp Nou is not bad. I don't think they have ever lost a match at Camp Nou. Barcelona's biggest advantage is the fact that Celtic needs to win with a two goal margin to qualify for the next round. Adien McGeady will be the player for Barcelona defense to watch upon. He might still make some excellent run down the left. But then who knows, there may be one more Celtic trump card in the game - I hope his name is not "Frank Rijkaard"

Frank Rijkaard - Rafael Benitez of Spain?

There are too many similarities with the men in charge of Liverpool and Barcelona. Both have been able to taste the success of Champions League, were very successful in Spain and both are also placed in the elite group of Managers. But is that all which unites them? Not at all! Both of them head a bunch of highly talented players available in Europe. Both of them have a highly functional brain, which works overtime to find the most stupid solutions for the most simplest of problems. They both have an addiction to the concept called "Rotation Policy", which both claims are due to their "Problem of Plenty".

Benitez was able to convince me much early that he is a "Masterpiece in Operation". But with the last Saturday’s stunning blunders Rijkaard gave me the pleasure to announce that he is not afraid of any Benitez. Actually he showed us that he can get better of Benitez. Benitez has got lost in the EPL title race much faster than the Concord, at least at this moment he can only try to get back to Champions League contention. But Rijkaard's case is much different. After Christmas even the most optimistic Barcelona supporter had serious doubt about our title contention. Then with huge piece of luck at Sevilla and Zaragoza, combined with Madrid's problem while traveling, we were able to crawl back to contention. The only thing he needed to do was to continue with his best side and make sure that the title can be settled at the worst at Barnebeu. But then Rijkaard is following a quest to stupidity, you can't stop him. He decided to use Eto in the right, Ronaldinho (he is coming back to form) in the centre. He decided to rest Yaya as the season will be very busy. These all were done to surprise Athletico Madrid at their home, the result - Barcelona surprised themselves. Edmilson made a mockery of himself in Yaya's shoes, Ronaldinho apart from that great goal looked totally confused - he was desperately trying to feed Eto, but according to formation it was Eto who was supposed to feed him and Iniesta and Xavi had no idea to whom they should pass. In all these turmoil happening ahead of them the defense lost it completely and conceded four stupid goals to say. The most ironic fact is that Athletico, who started the game totally confused, looked the brighter of the two sides.

What makes Rijkaard a much more stupid is the fact that he decided to experiment at the most critical juncture of the season. We need to win at Valencia and have to be on our toes to prevent Madrid from repeating last season success. It would have been great for the team to go to Valencia with a good result in their bag, but instead their defense now has conceded four in a tough away match. The core to Rijkaard's problem for me lies in an apparent disrespect for his opponents. He would have never tried these things against Madrid, Chelsea etc. Athletico has always a difficult ground for Barcelona to travel and I thought with his strategy - Rijkaard was trying to say that "Without Torres, Athletico is a piece of Cake". Funny that Aguera just showed him the size of the piece he was trying to mouth. Hope sense prevails him and he takes some sensible actions.

Always remember “Arrogance diminishes wisdom”.