Draw at Mestalla; Valencia-2, Barca-2

FC Barcelona grabbed a point from the match against Valencia with a late goal from Thierry Henry. FC Barcelona now moves seven point clear of Real Madrid, but Madrid can cut that lead back to four points tonight. The pressing and quick counter attack from a very talented and in-form Valencia side troubled throughout the match. FC Barcelona players were sloppy in passing and they have to pay with two dropped points. Guardiola have earlier called this game the pivotal game as far as La Liga is concerned, but he didn't show the respect for the game. FC Barcelona coach and players had their encounter with Chelsea in mind and almost paid dearly for that. Two seasons ago we started a spectacular catapulation after a defeat at Valencia and handed the league title to Madrid. But this time we came out with a precious point from Mestalla. Guardiola decided to rest Toure and Henry and that cost us the win. In my preview to the match - Valencia vs Barca Preview I emphasised the neccesity to start with the best side against Valencia, but we started with a ultra slow midfield and gave up the match because of that. Guardiola paired Pique and Puyol in the centre and had Abidal and Alves as full backs infront of Valdes. The midfield was made up of Busquuest, Keita and Xavi. The atatcking trio was Iniesta, Eto and Messi. The fact that we ahd Busquets and keita in midfield means that we never had a constant service to our front three nor did we controlled the possession.

The match started off with both team wrestling hard to retain possession without any success. But Valencia was taking control of the game slowly. As expected with an ultra slow and defensive midfield we were losing the midfield battle; there were many sloppy passes and nonsense defending. In the 11th minute Alves has to come and clear a great ball toward Villa from the left. Barca's first shot came in the 15th mimnute when Messi shot high from an excellent Iniesta pass. Then against the run of play Barca went ahead with a goal from Lionel Messi. Messi and Iniesta exchanged a couple of passes to split Valencia defense , Iniesta held onto the ball to draw the defense and then squared the ball to Messi who made no mistake. The goal looked to have calmed Barca nerves and the next 5 minutes saw total dominance by Barca. In the 27th minute Keita got into the box and squares the ball to Messi, who shot straight at the Goal keeeper, Cesar. In the 28th minute Eto's shot from outside box goes just wide. But Barca again reduced their intensity and that resulted in relentless pressure from Valencia. In the 29th minute Valencia had a double penalty claim by Villa and Silva, but the referee turned down the appeal. The replays showed both players went down easily. In the 43rd minute a great header from Silva was plamed away by Valdes for corner. The resulting corner resulted in the Valencia equaliser when Maduro got to the end of it. Valdes went for the ball and as expected completely missed the ball and collided with his captain; Valdes for some reason decides to catct the ball rather than punch it away. If he has decided to punch it away that would have been the most harmless corner. FC Barcelona were still reeling from the effect of that equaliser when Valencia took the lead. In the 1st minute of injury time Pablo exchanged passes with Villa to break Barca defense and shot low past Valdes to make scoreline 2-1 in favour of home side. Puyol and Alves stood there watching the entire move.

As expected Barca came out with more determination to win the match. But for some starnge reason Guardiol decided to continue with Busquets who has been poor through out the match. In the 53rd minute Iniesta send in a great ball but both Eto and Messi were not able to reach it. In the 61st minute Valdes comes to rescue a great counter by Valencia. Guardiola finally decided to take Keita off and bring in Henry in the 63rd minute. In the 64th minute Henry shot straight at Cesar from outside the box. In the 66th minute a great shot from henry was saved by Cesar. In the 76th minute a below-par Xavi was taken off and was replaced by Gudjohnsen. Then in the 86th minute Barca found the much awaited equaliser with the help of a huge blunder from cesar. Messi sent in a free kick towards a diving Busquets,; Busquets completely missed the ball but his dive confused Cesar and he failed to hold on to the ball, the ball lobbed back to Henry who lobbed it above the defense into the goal. In the 88th minute Valdes saved a great shot from Villa from the tightest of angle.

Barca has been poor in this match. One of the reason for that was Guardiola's decision to put Busquets in this match ahead of Toure. He might have rested him with Chelsea in mind. But he should have started the game with his best side. In the end he had to bring in Henry, Messi and Iniesta got no rest. Eto was poor throughout the match so was Xavi and Puyol. But a point from Mastalla is not a bad result. Especially it makes sure taht even in the worst case if we lose to Madrid we will stay clear of them by one point. Real Madrid will be playing Sevilla tonigh away, but I don't expect them to drop points tonight. The best thing this season is that we have our destiny in our own hands. The clash at Bernebeu will be the most crucial match of this season. BUt Guardiola has a job in hand re-energising his troop from this tough match so that they look focussed against Chelsea.

Valencia vs Barca Preview

FC Barcelona will be looking to continue their good run with a victory at Mestalla. Valencia is surely in great form and will be difficult to beat. But Barca players know that a defeat at tonight will make life worse in all friends. A defeat here will raise doubts of our chances in Europe and will give new lease of life to Real Madrid. Hence Guardiola has stated that this game will be the most important for Barca. Guardiola has left out Sylvinho and Caceres from the squad which travels to Valencia. The squad consists of Valdés, Jorquera, Alves, Abidal, Márquez, Piqué, Puyol, Touré, Sergio Busquets, Keita, Xavi, Gudjohnsen, Iniesta, Hleb, Bojan, Eto'o, Messi, Henry. Mean while as I have mentioned in my last post, Valencia will be missing Joaquin and Albelda. There were earlier hopes that Guardiola will like to rest many of his players in this game. But with Real Madrid keeping up the pace he will be forced to field his best eleven.

For Barca most of the danger will come from the two Davids - Silva and Villa. Negotiating them will require our midfield to take control of the game and for that we should need Iniesta and Xavi in the midfield. Toure would be expected to join hands with them in the midfield. Messi, Eto and Henry should form the midfield. Alves, Abidal, Pique and Puyol should form the defense infront of Valdes. Once again Barca should look to finish off the game early so that some tiring legs can get some rest. BUt playing Valencia at Mestall is not going to be easy. Valencia went through a prolonged rough patch but now looked like have turned the corner. But still Barcelona's excellent form should take them through this challenge. More importantly Messi is fresh after being rested last game and Iniesta is getting into kind of form which is challenging Messi himself. I expect Barca to win by a margin of 0-3.

4 Reasons Why Eto Won't Leave in Summer

English Tabloid "The Daily Mirror" has reported that Samuel Eto has rejected a chance to move to cash rich Manchester City. Manchester City was reported to be ready to splash 39 million for the service of the Cameroonian striker. Samuel Eto has been in the midst of a contract negotiation and that has resulted in so many rumours. Samuel Eto's current contract ends up in 2010 and it is reported that FC Barcelona don't want a situation where they end up not making any money of the striker. At the start of the season Guardiola was not interested in the Cameroonian and tried every possibility to offload him. But now he has revamped himself as a essential part of Barca's plot. He is looking to get a better contract and all the time and that has lead to all these rumours. But I have reasons to believe that he will not make the shift:

1) La Liga is The Best:

I am not opening a debate of which league is better here. But for a striker like Eto, I think La Liga is the best. Every La Liga team emphasise more on attack rather than defense. Most of the league like EPL or Serie A emphasises more on defense. Eto is a poacher, 80% of his goals will be simple tappin or easy finishes. His vision and aggression makes those 80% chances. In Premier League or Serie A teams tend to be more organised in defense and will take more effort to score, especially the top four.

2) The Best Supply Chain:

No where in the world he will find a supply chain like Barca's. Iniesta and Xavi are world's best playmakers and creates tons of chances for Eto. Actually for every goal he scores he wastes 2, but that is the pace with which Barca play. Even Henry has been assisting him well for Goals.

3) Linking with Messi:

Messi undoubtedly is the best player in the world. Every striker's dream is to play with best player in the world. He already had the fortune of having Ronaldinho supplying him with assists early on, and his understanding with Messi makes everyone believe that he can surely recreate the same.

4) Competing In All Places:

At FC Barcelona he has a better chance of winning trophies than anywhere. Winning trophies at Manchester City could be very tough. Inter may be the Champions in Waiting in Italy, but their form in Europe is very poor. AC Milan may do well in Europe but then they are inconsistent in Italy. FC Barcelona will be a force to reckon with in every competition. They are always the first or second favourite of bookies.

Taking all these into consideration, it is difficult to believe that he will prefer to leave Barca. Barca will offer him a better contract this summer, and I am pretty sure he is going to take that. Do you think that Barca should sign a striker even when Eto decides to stay?