Athletic Bilbao vs FC Barcelona Preview

Xavi Hernandes has been ruled out of today's match against Athletic Bilbao. His ommision has been explained as a precautionery measure in the official club website. Xavi is making googd progress from a harmstring problem and should feature in the mid-week Champions League encounter with Basel. The squad chosen are Valdés, Pinto, Alves, Víctor Sánchez, Puyol, Márquez, Piqué, Abidal, Sylvinho, Busquets, Touré Yaya, Keita, Iniesta, Bojan, Hleb, Henry, Eto'o and Messi. Notably Hleb makes a comeback and should see some time in the pitch. But the absence of Xavi throws up the usual combination used by Guardiola. In the absence of Xavi the creative spearhead role in the midfield should be done byu Andres Iniesta. Keita may be inadequete to do that role. That opens up a place for Thierry Henry on the left side of the attacking trio.

Athletic Bilbao lies fifteenth in the La Liga table. Barcelona in the last game has thrashed a far superior Atletico Madrid side and Athletic Bilbao should not come as tough. But how many times we have seen FC Barcelona failing miserably after an international break. Alves is back and should start at the right back position. Puyol is expected to start along with either Pique or Marquez. Abidal will be starting as left back with enough confidence from his performance against Atletico Madrid. The midfield most probably would be made of Keita, Iniesta and Toure. The forward trio will be Henry, Messi and Eto. FC Barcelona fans would be expecting great things from their side after the Atletico Madrid thrashing. But my advice - keep your expectation low; a 1-0 or a 2-1 victory would be as good as last match.

Do Messi deserve the Ballon d'Or?

Goal.com has already running a poll to gather support for Lionel Messi as the choice of this years Ballon D'Or. The early statistics suggests that huge number of soccer fans are in favour of seeing Lionel Messi win it. Even I wish to see him holding the Ballon d'Or. But the biggest question is "Does he really deserve the Ballon D'Or. The huge number of support for Lionel Messi is due to the fact that he is having a great season now and looks like getting better each day. But does that justify giving him the award. Not for me. The award is presented for the achievements of the past season. It is already billed as a match up between Messi and Ronaldo. But it is rather starnge to match up Ronaldo's achievement of last season to Messi's. Christiano Ronaldo was instrumental in winning the Champions League and English Premier League for manchester United. In contrast Lionel Messi couldn't help Barcelona in winning anything.

I am not blaming Messi for last seasons failure. He was really unfortunate to miss the majority of the season through injury. Or rather I would say FC Barcelona was unfortunate to miss him for long time. But that is not Christiano Ronaldo's problem. He has been great last season; eventhough he was overshadowed by Messi in the Semi Final legs. For me the real competition to Ronaldo in this years Ballon D 'Or should be Iker Cassilas. I haven't seen the list nor I am sure whether the official list has been released; but there are reports of Iniesta's name missing in the list. If that is true then it is really unfortunate. He was great through last season and had a great Euro 2008. He deserved to be in that list more than Lionel Messi. Now coming back to the Iker Cassilas vs Ronaldo match up - Iker has won the La Liga and Euro cup whereas Ronaldo has the Premier league and Champions league. You cannot match these titles to each other. If Ronaldo was the catalyst in last season's great run of Manchester United; so was casillas for Spain and Real Madrid.Historically Goal Keepers are over looked for this prestigous prize; but this year that may not be the case. What might go against Christiano Ronaldo would the fact that this year was a Euro Cup year and his biggest competition led his team to the title. Even though he is a Real madrid player, this is one footballer I love. May be its time that Goal Keepers get the respect they deserve.

Mark My word guys - next year it will be Messi or Iniesta.

International Matches - 15 th October

The second leg of this international stopping is almost over. FC barcelona players had a pretty bad night overall. Lionel Messi's Argentina tasted their first defeat of the campaign. Uruguay were held for a 2-2 draw at Bolivia. In Europe it was much better with Spain and Iceland both registering victories. Belarus whose star player and Barca winger Hleb is absent due to injury wend down to England. The surprise result of this leg has to be the 1-0 defeat of Argentina at the hands of Chile. This is Chile's first win over Argentina since 1973 and their first in a FIFA world cup qualifier. This defeat leaves Argentina at third position. They are tied with Chile in points but with a better goal difference. Argentina missed Riquelme due to suspension and couldn't find their free flowing attacking style with the absence of their creative play maker. Fabian Orellana's 36th minute goal was enough to beat the fancied Argentina whose best chances were produced by Lionel Messi.

Uruguay on other hand did well to fight back to win a point from Bolivia. Martin Caceres started for Uruguay. Bolivia went two up by half time with two goals from Marcelo Martins. But the Uruguayans turned around the game in the second half to snatch a point from the host. Carlos Bueno and Sebastian Abreu scored for Uruguay. In Europe Spain continued their excellent run in the campaign. Spain went surprisingly behind in the 7th minute from the goal of Wesley Sonck of Belgium. But Iniesta equalised in the 36th minute and David Villa as usual grabbed the winner in the 88th minute. Gudjonsen's Iceland also helped themselves with a 1-0 victory over Macedonia. Belarus who is missing Hleb due to injury went down to England. Wayne Rooney scored twice in the second half after Sitko has cancelled the 11th minute Gerrard goal.