FC Barcelona took a firm step towards retaining their La Liga crown with a comfortable 3-0 victory over visiting Deportivo La Coruna side. First half goal from Bojan and two second half strikes from Pedro and Toure helped Barca increase their lead on top to six points. Real Madrid who play tonight could cut that lead back to three. Guardiola went with the 4-2-3-1 formation for this encounter. The defense had Alves, Marquez, Pique and Maxwell infront of Valdes. Xavi and Toure paired infront of the defense and infront of them Jeffren, Messi and Pedro lined up. Bojan remained ahead of Messi as a sole striker. Sometimes I feel keeping Xavi so far behind the pitch would hamper his effectiveness, but the little maestro is proving me again and again.
Apr 15, 2010
FC Barcelona - 3, Deportivo - 0
FC Barcelona took a firm step towards retaining their La Liga crown with a comfortable 3-0 victory over visiting Deportivo La Coruna side. First half goal from Bojan and two second half strikes from Pedro and Toure helped Barca increase their lead on top to six points. Real Madrid who play tonight could cut that lead back to three. Guardiola went with the 4-2-3-1 formation for this encounter. The defense had Alves, Marquez, Pique and Maxwell infront of Valdes. Xavi and Toure paired infront of the defense and infront of them Jeffren, Messi and Pedro lined up. Bojan remained ahead of Messi as a sole striker. Sometimes I feel keeping Xavi so far behind the pitch would hamper his effectiveness, but the little maestro is proving me again and again.
Apr 14, 2010
Vicente del Bosque can No Longer Ignore Valdes
My last post on Valdes and Spanish National Team ended with a hope that Valdes somehow manages to get into the World Cup squad. How things have changed drastically. When I wrote my previous post I was conviced that Del Bosque was never going to pick Valdes for Spain. Such has been Valdes' performance since my post, Vicente del Bosque can no longer overlook Valdes for the World Cup squad. Last week's El Clasico saw Valdes comfortably seeing off any danger from one of the most attacking teams in La Liga. Prior to that we saw some exceptionally solid acts against the likes of Arsenal and a host of Spanish side. Valdes has been always considered as an error-prone keeper, hence it is quite surprising that I can't remember the last mistake he did. Yes, he has been playing in an error-free way for some time, completely unlike the Valdes we know. Hence it is no surprise that he is leading the Zamoras list by a comfortable margin.
Iniesta Out For a Month
Andres Iniesta has been ruled out of action with a calf tear in his right leg. The medical staffs have confirmed that he has suffered total rupture of the right femoral biceps muscle, and could be out for action for four weeks. With this injury Iniesta will will be missing the Champions League semi-final against Inter Milan. He is also set to miss a set of La Liga matches - Deportivo, Espanyol, Xerez, Villarreal, Tenerife and Sevilla. FC Barcelona has coped well with Iniesta's absence but against a team like Inter Milan, his service could be very crucial. Iniesta has been plagued by injuries this season and with World Cup fast approaching no one wants to take any risk. He is expected to return for Champions League final, if Barca get past Inter. Keita and Toure could be very good cover for Iniesta, but they both cannot match Iniesta for skill. Let's hope we can get past Inter without "San Andres".
Apr 13, 2010
FC Barcelona vs Deportivo Preview
FC Barcelona could Make Life miserable for Deportivo
After the exceptional night at Bernabeu, FC Barcelona will be hosting Real Club Deportivo La Coruna at the Camp Nou on Wednesday night. The euphoria surrounding the victory at Bernebeu has not yet settled but we can expect the players not to get carried away by that win. One of the major achievement of Guardiola is the fact that he make sure that his team remains focused regardless of the surrounding hype. The last time these two teams met was at the Riazor where Barca emerged victorious - Deportivo - 1, Barca - 3. Deportivo were lying at the fifth position at that time, but they looks like been in a downhill path after that loss. Deportivo arrives at Camp Nou with a six match winless streak, losing four in a row prior to last week. FC Barcelona on the other hand is brimming with confidence after dispatcing both Arsenal and Real Madrid in pretty dominant fashion. Ibrahimovic, who missed Barca's last two match against Arsenal and Real Madrid is expected to miss this one too. He and Abidal trained seperately yesterday.
Apr 11, 2010
Barca vs Real Madrid - A Tactical Review
Yesterday's 2-0 victory over Real Madrid is Barca's fourth consecutive Clasico win following the 4-1 disappointment at Bernebeu two seasons ago. That statistics alone shows the difference in quality between these two sides at this moment. This FC Barcelona is considered as one of the best in the history, made up of stars coming out of Barca's youth academy. It is ironic that yesterday's two goal scorers were product of Barca's youth academy and the assist to both the goals came from Xavi, another La Masia veteran. In contrast Real Madrid was trying to buy their way into greatness. This Real Madrid, one of the most talented side in recent past has been assembled at a cost of over 300 million dollars. Florentino Pérez's neo-Galactico policy has failed to guarantee victory over their arch-rivals and also demands a bit of introspection from the Chairman about his methods. But as we all know Perez is not a man who is going to change due to pressure. What we will see this summer is another spending spree, already there are a number of big names in which Madrid is interested - Rooney, Gerrard etc. Returning back to yesterday's game, what we saw was nowhere near a classic Clasico. It resembled at times a clash between two top English teams rather with chances at premium. In the end the quality of talents Barca possess and the fact that their team looked a more compact was the difference in the game.
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