A Must Win Match - FC Barcelona vs Shaktar UCL Quarter Final Preview

FC Barcelona will resume their quest to regain Champions League title when they host Shaktar Donetsk tomorrow night at the Camp Nou. Considering Guardiola's away record in Europe ( He is yet to win a Champions League away leg in the knock out stage), you don't have to be a genius to realise hos important is this match. Our last visit to Shaktar ened in a very tight 2-1 victory for us. The victory on that day came very late and in a bit of controversial circumstances. So it is safe to say that we should definitely have to finish the game at home tomorow night. Shaktar is kind of a bogey team who could trouble Barca, something the best in Spain and Europe failed to do. They would prefer to play a defensive setup at Camp Nou and would look to hurt us on the counter. If we don't secure atleast a two goal advantage, we could be in some trouble with our visit to Ukraine. And moreover the visit to Ukraine comes just ahead of teh Bernebeu visit and we would ideally like to rest some of the stars to the build up of that.

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Villareal - 0, Barca - 1

FC Barcelona has one hand on the La Liga Trophy

FC Barcelona has opened up an eight point lead at the top of the league with a hard fought 1-0 victory at El Madrigal. On a night in which Jose Mourinho's unbeaten home record ended with a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Sporting Gijon, Pique's goal was enough to secure three points for us. With such a lead the title hunt has effectively come to an end for Real Madrid. Mathematically they still have a chance but practically its an impossible task for Jose Mourinho. Guardiola brought in some changes to the defense - Busquets and Pique formed the cetre defensive pair with Alves and Adriano lining up as full backs. The midfield had Mascherano, Thiago and Keita. Affellay, Iniesta and Villa formed the midfield. Messi started on the bench and Valdes wore the captain's armband. What would have been a very crucial game was made much easier by the fact that Real Madrid lost their unbeaten home record to Sporting Gijon early on the night.

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King Abidal visiting Camp Nou

Villareal vs Barca Preview

David Villa against Villareal

As I said in my last post, this is going to be the most vital game of this season. Its all about not conceding any ground to Real Madrid before meeting them at their home in two weeks time. Lionel Messi was a serious doubt for this fixture when I wrote the last post, but luckily our worst fears were removed when the club doctor's ruled out any injury to Messi. Now most probably he will play in this match but we still will be missing Xavi, who is suspended for this match. Bojan Krkic who had an injury scare while playing for Spanish U-21 side has recovered, but we still have major absentees in the defense namely Abidal and Puyol.

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Taking Stock after the International Break



Iniesta in Action Against Villareal



Ok, finally it was ruled today that this weekend's fixture of La Liga will go ahead as planned. I have to admit that I was praying for this weekend's fixture to be called off. But now that's the judge's decision, we have to face Villareal on Saturday. We always struggle coming from an international break and this fixture has more issues to deal with other than that. There is a growing list of injuries which have to be dealt with . Boja Krkic, who suddenly found some form has suffered a sprained ankle while playing for Spain's U-21 team. He has not been ruled out for the Saturday's match but everything will depend on how he makes the progress in coming days. Lionel Messi is the latest to be added in the injury list, eventhough its not yet clear about the extent of his injury. The Argentinian coaching staff has denied that he is injured but there is some issues which kept him out of the goalless draw against Costa Rica.

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