FC Barcelona Opens Pre-Season with Golaless Draw against Hajduk Split

FC Barcelona opened their 2011 pre-season with a rather entertaining goalless draw against Croatian side Hajduk Split. As expected Guardiola started with two different side in each half. The first half saw majority of Barca B players start along with the likes of Keita, Afellay and Villa. The full line-up for the first half is Valdes, Dalmau, Fontas, Lobato, Camona, Thiago, Jonathan Dos Santos, Afellay and Villa. The first half had Barca controlling the majority of possession but the better chances came from the Croatian side. it wasn't like we were not creating anything - there was a stupendous strike from Villa which hit the crossbar, another wonderful shot from Thiago after some dashing run through midfield, but all these was far in between. The second half saw a completely different side - Pinto, Balliu, Abidal, Rosell, Maxwell, Iniesta, Busquets, Riverola, Cuenca, Jonathan Soriano, and Jeffren. Definitely we started taking full control in the second half with Iniesta, featuring a new hair cut running riot. The finishing at times have been poor but still there were enough positives from some of Barca B players performances. The likes of Soriano, Thiago, Jonathan dos Santos all impressed. They all should see more playing time with majority of starting eleven players from now on.

Alexis Sanchez In, Bojan Krkic Out

FC Barcelona has made an official announcement regarding the signing of the Chilean striker on the official website. The agreement reached with Udinese will se Barca paying 26 Million Euro upfront and another 11 million later as variables. My assumption is the variables will be linked to not only his performance also to the playing minutes. The Chilean striker has been linked to Barca since the end of last season. Udinese played their part in hiking the value of a player who scored 12 goals last season, four in one match. The amount of 26 Million says how highly Rosell and Guardiola rate the player and he is expected to give cover to Barca's front line and also a bit of competition to likes of Villa and Pedro. Meanwhile as expected Barca has announced the departure of Bojan Krkic to Roma after four less than successful seasons. Barca will get 12 Million Euros for the player and also have a buy-back clause of 13 Million if they decide to bring back the striker in the end of 2012-13 season.

Messi and Argentina Back on Track

Millions of Argentinian fans can breathe a sigh of relief today after their team's sensational performance against CostaRica. May be beating CostaRica should never be considered sensational, but then considering their last two performance this was nothing short of sensational. It's not only the Argentinian fans who are relieved, but also the Barcelona ones. Messi unfortunately have come under lots of flack from press in home country and right now there is a change in the mood. It is rather unfortunate to put the whole blame of pathetic performance on Messi, who honestly was the best player against Bolivia and Colombia and also created a host of chances but for his team mates to waste it. Finally he was given a team to express himself and boy oh boy he did really well. Two assist and a number of would have been assist summed up his great night. The match started with a nervous Messi but the second half saw the great one who love to go in those mesmirising runs. He should be a bit agitated with the number of chances both Aguerra and Higuain have wasted, but he wouldn't mind that much as he knows clearly that his coach now know the system which works with him.

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