FC Barcelona vs Mallorca Preview

FC Barcelona will be missing two of their biggest stars while they prepare to take on Real Mallorca at the Camp Nou. Xavi hernandez, Barca Vice-Captain has been injured and will miss this match. David Villa also will be missing this mathc courtesy of the needless red card he picked up against Athletic Bilbao. FC Barcelona's title defense will be officially back on track after that dissappointing lose against Hercules. We had two very difficult away match after that and the team has made us all proud with very hard working performances. Mallorca's last visit to Camp Nou ended for them in a 4-2 defeat. This time around also it is going to be a very difficult travel for them. At home they had been brilliant this season so far, but the same cannot be said about their away matches. Barca meanwhile will be looking to get back to winning ways after their draw at Rubin kazan. That draw was never a bad result, but still the momentum of winning has to be regained.

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Rubin Kazan Holds Barca Again - Barca-1,Rubin Kazan-1

FC Barcelona failed once again to register a victory against the Russian side Rubin Kazan. That is quite an understatement, as Barca trailed for large part of the match. A first half penalty gave Rubin Kazan the lead but a second half penalty from Villa equalised for Barca. We once again had the most of the possession and had some seriously good chances to put the match to rest. But faile dto take any. With a 5-4-1 formation Rubin kazan's idea was to choke Barca and had to admit that they seriously managed it for the most part of game. Contrary to expectation Guardiola brought in Mascherano in place of Keita. We thus had a mmidfield of Xavi, Mascherano and Busquets and it was destined to lack creativity and it did show up throughout the first half. The defense had the now familiar look of Pique, Puyol, Alves and Maxwell. The attack had Villa, Pedro and Iniesta.

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Rubin Kazan vs Barca Champions League Preview

The name Rubin Kazan does not invoke happy memories for Barca fans. Last season, they were the one of the few teams who managed to gain an upperhand against us. Even against Inter we had a record of two wins, 1 defeat and a draw. Rubin Kazan visited Camp Nou shocking us all with a victory, and the return visit to Russia ended with a goalless draw. That draw did raised doubts about our qualification chances. In the end Barca came out of the group on top is a totally different matter. Lionel Messi who was in doubt for this clash has got the all clear from the medical team. He has been included in the squad but is definite to start the match only from the substitute bench. It would be better if he does not play in this match. Guardiola would be pretty much happy with the effort put by his team at Athletic Bilbao. This is the third extremely difficult away visit we are making within the last two weeks. First it was to Atletico Madrid, then it was to Bilbao and we all hope this vist also end up with a similiar result. Rubin Kazan will present a considerably difficult challenge to Guardiola in terms of tactics. They are definitely going to be more physical than any of the opponents we have faced this season. More over Guardiola also hasn't have registerd a victory against them.

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