Valencia Blown Away; FC Barcelona - 4, Valencia - 0

FC Barcelona extend their lead at top to six points with a 4-0 thrashing of Valencia. Earlier on the night Villareal made an unbelievable comeback to grab a draw against Getafe after going three goals down. That draw means FC Barcelona would have a comfortable lead of six points when they will visit Bernabeu next week. Thierry Henry scored a hat-trick and Dani Alves scored one to complete the destruction of Valencia. Barca played so well that Valdes hardly made a decent save throughout the match. Guardiola decided to field Abidal as left back and he had one of his best games of the season. He was improving when he got injured; that made me worried he would let go off all the good work he did; but he looks like improving very well. Puyol moved to centre along with Marquez and Alves as usual was stationed at the right. The defense was same as I wrote in preview with Gudjonsen and Xavi joining Toure. The forward line up was made up of Hleb, Henry and Messi. My first impression was that Henry was slotted to play the centre role; but he occupied pre domiantly the left position with Hleb and Messi constantly inter-changing their position.

FC Barcelona dominated the game from the very first whistle. In the 2nd minute the make shift Valecia Centre-Defense gave away the ball to Xavi who found himself in a one on one situation with the keeper Renan; but his well placed shot was denied by the post. In the 3rd minute Henry saw his shot from outside the box comfortably saved by Renan.In the 19th minute Alves shot was saved by the goal keeper after a great 1-2 with Messi. But in the next minute Barca went deservingly ahead with a great finish from Henry. Toure found Henry with a great long pass who chipped the ball over an advancing Renan. That was a vintage Henry goal which we were so used to see while he was in Arsenal. In the 21st minute Joaquin wasted a great chance to equalise when he sent ball high but it seemed like it was Marquez desperate defending which made that mistake. In the 28th minute Barca extended their lead from Henry's second goal of the night. Hleb placed the ball in Henry's path after receiving Alves pass and Henry made no mistake with the finish. In the 34th minute Messi starts his trademark run skipping past defenders and earn a free kick outside the box; But Messi's free kick hit the wall, that could be one attribute he could look to improve along with his aerial ability. In the 37th minute Messi was denied by Renan after a great run.

Barca extended their lead early in the first half from a controversial goal from Alves. Alves received the ball from xavi on the left and finished it well past Renan into far corner; but Hleb who put the ball back to Xavi looked to have backtracked from an offside position. In the 53rd minute Alves free kick went brushing the bar. In the 63rd minute Hleb was denied by Renan after a defensive mix-up gave the ball to Hleb. In the 72nd minute Bojan came in place of Hleb. In the 79th minute Henry compleetd his hat-trick courtesy of the hardwork done by Bojan. Alves sent in Bojan on the right; Bojan skipped past two of centre-back before pulling the ball back to Henry for a simple finish. In the 81st minute Messi was replaced by Pedro and in the 84th minute Xavi was taken off to be replaced by Keita. In the 92nd minute Keita saw his header going high from an Alves cross.

The performance against Valencia can be simply described as Majestic. But as Puyol said "We haven't won anything till now". So everyone have to keep their foot firmly placed on the ground. Guardiola would have his best team to chose from against Madrid barring Iniesta and Milito. We have a mid-week match against Shaktar; with already securing the first place in the group, this could see a bunch of members getting rested.

FC Barcelona vs Valencia Preview

With Fc Barcelona's prolific scoring machine, Samuel Eto missing in the game, every fan will be looking upto Lionnel Messi to churn up another magical performance to see them past Valencia. Valencia is in the midst of a financial trouble but that would be the last thing that would be on the mind of their players. Valencia visits Camp Nou this night lying in third in the standings with a five points difference seperating them. Valencia would be hoping to cut down the lead whereas FC Barcelona would be aspiring to repeat last week's performance and move further away from contenders. Valencia's away form has been good this season, they are yet to be beaten away from the home. FC Barcelona's home form has not been that good as their away form. In the past thsi fixture has yielded some great games. Guardiola has been very cautious and has restrained from naming the squad early. Eric Abidal has been given the green light but the chances of Guardiola starting with him is very unlikely. The key would be how he will for the front line up. Bojan and Hleb are contenders for that fron line-up and it is yet to see whom he will prefer.

Guardiola is certain to start with Valdes in the Goal. Valdes has some nightmarish experience against Villa in the past. Hope he does not repeat any of them. The defense should remain unchanged with a combination of Alves, Pique, Marquez and Puyol. The midfield would ideally feature two attacking players in the form of Gudjonsen and Xavi along with the the big Ivorian Yaya Toure. The forward line up would be made up of Messi, Henry and Hleb. I would love to see Bojan in the Centre role but that seems very unlikely. Valencia has some great players in their squad, they would be missing the likes of Edu and David Silva, a player in which the Catalan's are interested; then there is the prolific scorer David Villa, Marquez and Pique would have a tough time to deal with him and then there is Joaquin. Even then the home advantage of FC Barcelona should come to their rescue and they should atleast score three goals.

Will the crisis at Valencia benefit Barca?

La Liga is indeed a strange place, there would be no shortage of stories in this great footballing arena. End of last week the entire media was concentrating on the immediate signing of Huntelaar by Real Madrid. Now it's Valencia's turn to be in the headlines. After a rather disastrous last season, it appeared that Valencia has finally turn things around with the team in contention for the title; or simply put Valencia got back to where they belong to. Now it looks like the hapiness of turning around the perforance would be over-shadowed by another bigger crisis they have to face. Valencia is reported to be in a midst of a Financial meltdown and there are huge rumours about the club going bankrupt. The report also suggest that they might be struggling to pay their player's wages and have to pay back a huge 50 million Euros by the year end. At the time their looks like some hopes are left for Valencia with their President assuring that a back up startegy is in place.

Valencia is the third most famous La Liga club after Real Madird and FC Barcelona. That makes the club too important to fail. In the summer there were rumours about the financial difficulties and everyone expected them to off load atleast two of their start players. Now if they fail to avert this crisis they would have to sell these stars for a much lesser price. This is where FC Barcelona would come to benefit from it. FC Barcelona have made it known about their intention to sign David Silva last summer. Now this presence an ideal oppurtunity for them to go for the player. In a survey conducted by Mundo Deportivo a whooping 83% of people has voted in favour of Barcelona takling steps to benefit from this financial crisis by signing Silva. But interms of the La Liga's future the failing of such a club would be disastrous; nor does the weekening of Valencia ahead of January transfer market. They are a real title contender this season and this crisis comes at the most disturbing time with Valencia taking on FC Barcelona at Camp Nou this weekend. One can only pray that they are able to come out of this crisis properly. Already there is a situation developing with David Villa - it seems Manchester City, Chelsea and Madrid all are interested.