Tough Run Starts; Sevilla vs Barca Preview

FC Barcelona's quest for the La Liga title enters a very delicate and important phase with tonight's match against Sevilla. FC Barcelona has been in tremendous form and would be looking to increase their unbeaten record at Sevilla. This has to be Guardiola's buggest test of this season and considering the tough matches which is to follow , a victory at Sevilla would indeed make matters easy. This match has already been billed as the contest between the teams which have the best defensive record and offensive record in the league. Sevilla has let in only eight goals until this seaso; FC Barcelona is not trailing badly here with only conceding nine goals till now. But where Barca's superiority is the amount of goals scored this season; Barca has scored 37 goals to Sevilla's 18. This would be first visit for Keita and Alves who moved from Sevilla to Barcelona this summer. Both the players have been included in the squad along with Toure and Puyol who both were rested. The squad selected by Guardiola is Valdés, Pinto, Henry, Márquez, Xavi, Piqué, Puyol, Cáceres, Sylvinho, Bojan, Eto'o, Messi, Hleb, Dani Alves, Keita, Gudjohnsen, Touré Yaya, Busquets.

Valdes is definite to start the match at Goal. But the defense could be a bit tricky to predict. My prediction would be Puyol and Marquez joining hands in the centre with Alves and Caceres on each side. BUt Guardiola could bring in Pique and move Puyol to left. The midfield cou8ld be quite tricky; Guardiola could be tempted to slot in two defensive minded player to shore up the defense. But my opinion is to put Gudjonsen along with Xavi and Toure in the middle. Now against such tough and important match it should be a child's play to predict the front line - Messi, Eto and Henry. Barca could be seriously tested in today's match but I believe they will prevail and my prediction is 1-3. But it would be very much essesntial for Barca to take the initiative pretty early in the match. They cannot go behind in this match; if that happens we could be chasing the game for majority of the match.

Sporting Lisbon vs Barca Pictures 26/11/08

Barca Grabs Top Spot; Sporting - 2; Barca - 5

FC Barcelona assured themselves of the top spot in their group and hopefully increased their chance of meeting an easier challenge in the second round with an emphatic 2-5 victory against Sporting Lisbon. With both team assured of a second round place the only thing that was at stake was the top spot. There is no guarantee that we will have a easy second round opponent; but there is a high chance of that happening. Hnery, Pique, Messi and Bojan all got into the score sheet; a Caneira own goal completes the tally for Barca. For Lisbon it was Veloso and Leidson who scored the goals. Guardiola fielded a very strong side at Portugal. Valdes guarded the goal; in front fo him Alves, Marquez, Pique and Caceres formed the defensive line; the midfield was made up of Xavi, Busquests and Gudjonsen; Messi,Henry and Hleb formed the forward line.The presence of two attack minded players helped FC Barcelona but there is no question of the fact that Messi was the main reason for such emphatic display. This victory would go well for a great display at Sevilla this weekend.

FC Barcelona dominated proceedings from the begining. In the 13th minute Busquets stole the ball from Lisbon and the ball reached Messi on the right; Messi unleashed his trademark dribbling run upto the goal line and pulled back the ball to Henry who completed the formalities. The second goal came in the 17th minute when Pique latched on to the end of a Xavi cross from corner. FC Barcelona went with a two goal lead to the half time. In the second half Henry was replaced by Bojan. In the 49th minute Alves played in Messi with a quickly taken free kick who rounded off Rui Patricio before slotting Barca's third of the night. Guardiola immediately took Messi off and put Pedro in his place. That move looked to have backfired with Sporting pulling two goals back in quick time. First it was Veloso who curled a free kick into the corner; the second came from Leidson after a Marquez's mistake. The recovery was short lived with Barca increasing their lead courtesy of a Caneira own goal after he tried to clear the ball off Busquets. In the 73rd minute Bojan was brough down by Patricio; he was expelled and a penalty was awarded. Bojan slotted the penalty to take Barca's tally to five goal and a welcome personal relief too.