FC Basel vs FC Barcelona Preview

FC Barcelona resume their Champions League quest against FC Basel away from Home. FC Basel lies at the bottom of Group C and this would be the perfect oppurtunity for Barca to take a giant step towards qualification. Barca fans would be hoping that their players would be able to round off the match much earlier than like the Shaktar match. Guardiola will be missing the service of Keita as he has been confirmed to be out of the game for two weeks. But this should not worry Guardiola as Xavi and Caqceres returns into the squad.Gudjonsen and Pedro both are continuing their recovery program along with Milito and is missing from the squad. The squad picked by Guardiola for FC Basel match is Valdés, Pinto, Alves, Víctor Sánchez, Puyol, Márquez, Martín Cáceres, Piqué, Abidal, Sylvinho, Busquets, Touré, Iniesta, Xavi, Bojan, Hleb, Henry, Eto'o and Messi.

Messi, Eto and Iniesta is expected to rejoin for the match. The midfield could threw up some surprise. Xavi is the only certainity there. With the absence of Keita and Gudjonsen, Victor Sanchez stands a good chance to making his Champions League debut. Toure or Busquests would play the holding midfielder role; may be Busquests would be preferred as Toure is carrying a knock from last match. Another possibility would be Iniesta dropping back to the middle with henry taking up the front left position; in that case Victor Sanchez is definitely going to miss out on a start. The back four ideally would be made up of Abidal, Alves, Puyol and Pique.

Athletic Bilbao vs Barca Photos

Strolling On; Athletic Bilbao-0, FC Barcelona-1

FC Barcelona extended their winning streak to seven matches in all competition with a single goal victory against Athletic Bilbao. Samuel Eto'o strike in the 56th minute was enough to see past a spirited Bilbao challenge. Victor Valdes would be delighted with his performance as he was able to keep a clean sheet for first time in this season. Guardiola rested Puyol and Messi for the match. That threw up some interesting combination. Alves, Marquez, Pique and Abidal formed the back four ahead of custodian Victor Valdes. The midfield was made up of Victor Sanchez, Toure and Keita. Iniesta moved to the right in the absence of Messi and Henry and Eto took their usual position.

The home side started putting pressure on Barca from the start. Just after the start Athletic Bilbao won a free kick which resulted in Valdes pulling out an excellent acrobatic save to keep the ball out. FC Barcelona replied soon enough through Eto who turned inside of his marker but his shot was saved by Iraizoz. In the 22nd minute Valdes agains have to pull out another excellent save from a Yeste free kick. In the 29th minute Keita got injured and was replaced by Busquests. In the rest of half there were only some half chances which involved Eto - first his shot was saved and just before the break his header went agonisingly wide.

In the second half Iniesta started switching to the left more often and that started showing results. In 48th minute Victor Sanchez shot high from and Iniesta cross. Then in the 57th minute FC Barcelona took the lead from a splendid strike from Eto. Henry dribbled past defender and placed the ball on to Eto who got past the defender and blasted a fierry shot. FC Barcelona next best chance came with Iniesta's cross getting diverted to goal by defender. Then Eto had a decent chance but he shot wide. Overall this was a pretty decent game. For the second game running Abidal did well.