Villareal vs FC Barcelona Preview

FC Barcelona would be playing their last match of 2008 against Villareal at El Madrigal. FC Barcelona enter this match clearly knowing the fact that a victory at Villareal's home would take them eleven points clear of their rival. Real Madrid continued with their recovery under Ramos with a hard fought home win against Valencia. That lose of Valencia means Athletico Madrid who won against espanyol hold the second spot. A victory for Villareal would take them to the second spot. Barcelona would love to end this 2008 in a great note with a victory against Villareal; that would do justice to the way they played and fought in recent matches. Traditionally FC barcelona have struggled at El Madrigal and would like to correct that here. This is going to be a really tough match for Guardiola and there were questions asked about the squad after the Real Madrid encounter. Especially Messi, after a not so brilliant Classico performance he wanted to get things right back on track.

The squad selected for the Villareal travel is Valdés, Henry, Xavi, Piqué, Puyol, Cáceres, Sylvinho, Bojan, Eto'o, Messi, Hleb, Dani Alves, Abidal, Keita, Gudjohnsen, Touré, Pinto, Sergio Busquets and Víctor Sánchez. Marquez is injured and hence rested; there were reports of Iniesta being given green signal by Medical staff but he is also rested. The side should be similiar to the recent starting eleven. Valdes should start at the Goal. Abidal, Puyol, Pique and Alves should make the defense. Xavi, Toure and Busquets would be making up a very tough midfield. Eto, Henry and Messi would be the attacking trio. Messi has to lift his game as the midfield would be packed with more defensive minded players. This would be a tough match and expect a tough Barcelona victory with a score line of 1-2.

Xavi Extends Contract till 2014

Xavi Hernandez has signed a new deal which would keep him with the club till 2014. And if some club manage to convince him to move away they would have to sell out a whooping 80 million Euros as buyout clause. This ia a welcome relief for Barca who took sometime to ready this contract. This also effectively ends the rumours of Xavi moving out of Barca. Actually Guardiola had made it clear from the onset that Xavi is the most important part in his puzzle. Exact contract compensation is not known but it is rumoured that Xavi will become the third highest paid player in barca after Messi and Eto. Xavi has reitered his dream to retire at Barca. I know one person who would not be happy with handing out lengthy contract to players is Cryuff. But with the tough competition out there FC Barcelona have to shell out a deal which is better or on par with others can offer. It is rumoured that he will make 7.5 million Euros per year.

Xavi Hernandez is one of the most prized outout of Barca's excellent youth system. Xavi made his debut in first team on August 18,1998 against RCD Mallorca. He quicly went to become an essential part of FC barcelona's title team. Xavi is considered an ideal replacement for Guardiola, the current Catalan coach. Xavi has become a essential part of the Spanish national team. He was elected as the player of the Tournament at the Euro-2008 when an under achieveing Spanish side fianlly won a trophy. He has scored 29 goals for Barcelona and 8 for Spain; and created numerous goals for his team mates.

FC Barcelona to Face Lyon In Champions League

FC Barcelona once again got an easy draw compared to their opponents in the Champions League second round. FC Barcelona has been drawn against the French Champions Olympique Lyonnais. Like FC Barcelona Lyon is on the top of their respective League. When I say that Lyon would be an easy draw, it just mean that out of the all possible opponents Lyon would be the easiest (no insult to Lyonis meant here). It would be a Herculean task for Barcelona to get past the French Champion. They got quality players like Benzema, Juninho, Govou in their line-up. But I already metioned in my previous post Champions League Opponent that I would prefer to play Lyon compared to an Inter or Chelsea. Lyon would be playing a much more open game rather than the other two opponents and that increases FC Barcelona's chances of proceeding to the next round.Last season FC Barcelona and Lyon met in the group stage; Barca won the home leg comfortaby but drew in the away leg. FC barcelona has scored 18 goals in their Champions League campaign and Lyon are not far behind scoring 14 goal; that makes this the most exciting tie of the second round.

Fc barcelona would be playing the second leg at home and that would be a serious advantage. The other tie ups are:

Chelsea v Juventus
Villarreal v Panathinaikos
Sporting Lisbon v Bayern Munich
Atletico Madrid v Porto
Lyon v Barcelona
Real Madrid v Liverpool
Arsenal v Roma
Inter Milan v Manchester United

There are some serious rivals being joined once again in thos ties, like the Mourinho vs Ferguson rivalry, Madrid would be facing Liverpool and to make things worse would be playing the second leg away; Villareal looks to have got a much easier draw - but when you put this into perspective that Panathinaikos quialified ahead of Inter; that makes thing tricky. Athletico Madird also looks to have a good draw against Porto but plays the second leg away.