Shaktar - 0, Barca - 1

Clinical Barca seal Semi-Final spot

FC Barcelona finished off the good work they did in the first leg with a 1-0 victory against Shaktar at the Donbass Arena. In an arena, where many of the Europe's finest struggled, Barca produced a very efficient display to book their place in yet another Champions League semi-final and an aggregate score of 6-1. Lionel Messi has started a new goal scoring streak scoing in the second consecutive match. Let's all hope he carries on with the streak for the next two to three weeks atleast. Guardiola was taking Shaktar very seriously and decided against resting any of his major stars. Victor Valdes was back in goal. Busquets and Pique formed the centre of defense with Alves and Adriano playing the full back role. I expected Milito to start as I very much expect him to start against Real Madrid. The midfield had Mascherano, Xavi and Keita. The front trio was made up of Villa, Messi and Afellay. Meanwhile Shaktar also didn't have their normal defensive line availabe - Chygrynskiy, Srna, Kucher and Razvan Rat all were our for this tie.

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Shaktar vs Barca preview - Finishing Off The Good Work

Carrying a 5-1 lead from the first leg, the biggest worry for Guardiola could be complecency creeping among his wards. He will be without the service of Iniesta, who is suspended for this leg but otherwise have taken almost all available players to Ukraine. Iniesta could definitely do well with some deserving rest and most probably we can expect Guardiola to rest more players. Shaktar Donetsk has one of the most amazing home record all over Europe. They haven't lost a home match in 58 consecutive matches and clubbed with the climate over there - our boys could be in for a tough night. The 5-1 scoreline is not going to bother Shaktar and they will be going to go out with their heads held high. That could be a big problem for Barca, a Shaktar which has nothing to lose could be really handful for us. Even in the first leg, Shaktar did trouble us at times especially with their pace. So what we need tomorrow night is an efficient performance, that could be consider as a trial run for the match at Bernebeu.

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FC Barcelona - 3, Almeria - 1

Ok, this was supposed to be a walk in the aprk with a big scoreline. But it turned out in the end as a huge struggle. FC Barcelona looked completely out of focus and had to comeback from a goal down in this match against the bottom placed team in La Liga. In the end we managed to secure the three points and keep the eight point cushion going into the "El Clasico" at the Bernebeu. In what was a very tough match two goals from Messi and one from Thiago cancelled out the opening goal from Corona. There was confusion over who would be the goal keeper but all those confusion were laid to rest after Pinto was declared fit. The defense had Alves, Pique, Milito and Maxwell. Guardiola decided against resting xavi for this match. So we had Xavi, Thiago and Mascherano made the midfield. Iniesta, Messi and Bojan formed the front trio.

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Iniesta Celebrating his Goal against Shaktar

FC Barcelona vs Almeria Preview

Ok, tomorrow Almeria visits the Camp Nou. I am just trying to remind you that, Its no wonder that everyones focus is alreday on the Clasico at the Bernebeu. But we have a task on hand tomorrow, before we can think about our Eternal Rivals. Considering the fact that nobody expected Sporting to win at Bernebeu, it would be foolish to consider that we are going to win tomorrow by just turning up. With a series of Clasico on the corner, it is pretty easy for all of us and our players to lose focus. Almeria is currently lying at the bottom of the table and should possess little threat to us. But still it's a job that has to be done with. The last time we met Almeria in the league, we all knew what happened. That 8-0 victory was followed by a 3-0 away victory against Panathanaikos and then the great 5-0 victory over Real Madrid. The omens are good once again, after tomorrow's match against Almeria we will be travelling away in Europe then will meet Real Madrid. The last two matches exposed enough of defensive fragilities in the side and with Puyol's continuing absence, Guardiola would be looking for back up players against Almeria.

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