Apr 4, 2010
FC Barcelona - 4, Athletic Bilbao - 1
FC Barcelona moved back to the top of La Liga witha 4-1 win against Athletic Bilbao and will remain there for atleast 24 hours. Bojan who started in place of Ibrahimovic, who got injured in warm-up scored twice and Messi and Jeffren scored one each for Barca. Susaeta scored the consolation goal for Athletic Bilbao. This victory is more sweet considering that many of the regular starters were rested for this encounter and still Barca was able to dominate the game. I have criticised Guardiola's strange tactics many times and this match also I was clueless when I saw Chygrynskiy and Pique in the centre of defense. Not that they did a bad job, but with Chygrynskiy unavailable for Europe, it was stupidity not to give Marquez some playing time. Puyol and Abidal as expected played the full back roles. Guardiola once again adopted the 4-2-3-1 formation, which was very efefctive against Athletic. Toure and Busquets played the pivot roles behind the midfield made up of Jeffren, Messi and Maxwell. That was the first time Maxwell played in midfield and showed his use as a utility player. Bojan played as the striker infront of Messi.
Apr 3, 2010
FC Barcelona vs Athletic Bilbao Preview
For the past few days the entire focus of FC Barcelona was on to the clash against Arsenal. Tonight the focus shifts back to the league where FC Barcelona will host sixth placed Athletic Bilbao at the Camp Nou. With such a tough title race on with Real Madrid, Barca cannot afford to relax a bit. How I wish we hadn't surrendered the healthy lead we had in the league earlier? For Barca it is also a chance to regain the focus after squandering away a 2-0 lead at the Emirates. This match is all about making a bold statement ahead of the Champions League 2nd Leg. And with the Classico happening next Saturday, Barca don't want to conceded any ground to Real Madrid. Guardiola has the entire squad available to him, bar Alves and Iniesta. The former is suspended for this match after picking up a deliberate yellow card his fifth, and the latter is still recovering from injury. Meanwhile Athletic Bilbao will be without Iker Muniain, De Cerio and Pablo Orbaiz. The previous encounter between Barca and Athletic ended in a draw - Barca Drew at Athletic .
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