Real Tough Task at Estadio Mestalla

When Barcelona drew with Valencia in the first leg of the semi final, there was a basic belief among the Barcelona fans that they could surpass Valencia at Estadio Mestalla. Considering Valencia's form throughout the season and the promises Barcelona showed three weeks back, that was a fair assessment. But the last three weeks were the toughest for the fans and players and now does sow some doubt about the possibility of going beyond Valencia. Three weeks back ours was the meanest defense in Europe, but now they are draining goals. Under these circumstances Rijkaard's decision to leave out Ronaldinho may raise some eyebrows. But I tend to agree with Rijkaard, as anyway Ronaldinho was not at his best this season, so it’s better to wait till he gets fit fully. But the most promising of the returnees are Zambrotta and Toure; they should add stability to defense.

For me Barcelona should start with Sylvinho ahead of Abidal as he looks a better option upfront than Abidal. But picking up the midfield might be a little tricky. There is no sense in giving Bojan a start in such a crunch match. Iniesta could start up front on left along with Henry and Eto. This should give us space to include Gudjonsen and Xavi in the midfield. Maybe Rijkaard can think about modifying the formation a bit, not too much. He should go with a 4-3-3 style but with Iniesta playing in the pocket behind the two centre forwards - Eto and Henry. This may resemble a formation like 4-3-1-2. This would be prefect for Iniesta as he don't have to worry about converting too much of chances and do the best he is at - assisting. This will also add stability in the midfield as he can get back much quickly to retrieve the ball. Then in this formation it would be better to have Abidal as the Left back as all the attack is going to be through the centre. Abidal, in this case will give more protective cover than Sylvinho. Secondly such a formation will see Gudjonsen playing a much better part as he and Iniesta can freely switch places. I do agree such a crunch match is not the right places to try these, but this could be safe as you are not changing too much of the formation.

Barcelona management has promised incentive for the team if they can get past Valencia to reach the final. I cannot judge the morality of such a move, but hope this really inspires the team. And Valdes really need to come up with some showing to get us past Valencia.

School Boy Stuff; Almeria-2,Barcelona-2

With the ever increasing injury list, Barcelona's visit to Almeria was not a easy one. But even in my wildest dream I never thought that we will come from there being the second best team. Our team resembled some high school team with their passing, actually that would be an insult to high school team. They had an opportunity to cut the lead to five points, in the end I will say we were pretty lucky to cut the lead to 7points. A repeat of the same performance, Valencia will murder us on Thursday.

Barcelona decided to keep Henry on the bench and started with Bojan, Eto and Iniesta upfront. Gudjonsen started in midfield and for me was a pretty consistent fellow. Puyol filled in as Right Back and Milito and Thuram joined in the middle. Almeria started the game much brighter than Barcelona; they had few futile runs before Barcelona converted from their first real attack. In the 19th minute Bojan put Barcelona ahead after Diego Lopez, the Almeria keeper only could push an Iniesta shot onto Bojan. Iniesta received a ball from Abidal and cut inside two defenders to test the goal keeper, it was the keeper's mistake which gave away the goal. In the 32nd minute Almeria equalised from a corner when Abidal forgot to mark Pulido. In the 35th minute Valdes had to be on his toes to save another Almeria shot. In the 42nd minute Bojan's effort was saved by Diego Lopez. The second half also started the same fashion with Almeria in complete control. Henry was introduced shortly and that seemed to settle the team a bit. In the 57th minute Henry run from the left produced the second goal when he found Eto in the middle. In the 63rd minute Henry effort saved by Lopez after a wonderful pass from Bojan. In the 71st minute Milito was sent off for a second yellow card when he lunged on the defender. The way Barcelona was defending it was a disaster waiting to happen. Then in the 85th minute, Almeria grabbed the well deserving equaliser from another corner.

Barcelona played terribly. It looks like Madrid cannot win any of their away matches now, but we can't win any actually. Every team comes with a plan against Barcelona, to choke them for space by defending upfront. It’s not a new thing but the disturbing fact is that we can't find a way out of it. We don't have a plan B; we don't have a player who has a different style. We are lacking a winger kind of player who can simply run past defenders and cross from the sides. That would have drawn defenders from the centre. It was terrible to see Almeria defenders expecting every time Barcelona players to cut to the centre, they could have used the wings a little better. One more thing Sylvinho looks a better player than Abidal while going forward and considering the fact that Barcelona need to win at Valencia he needs to start.

To Cheer You All Up

To all those Barcelona fans who are very much disappointed to see yesterday's performance, this is to cheer you up. We can hope the best. Hope this encourages the players too.