FC Barcelona - 2, Osasuna - 0

FC Barcelona secured three precious point tonight at the Camp Nou with a not so inspiring performance against Osasuna. Goals from David Villa and Lionel Messi maintained Barca's eight point lead on top ahead of the big away leg of Champions League this Wednesday. Real Madrid who played earlier at Valencia, has cut the lead back to five points with a spectacular 6-3 thrashing. Valencia players were so focussed on giving that Guard of Honour, that they were all over the pitch once that match started. So our effort naturally was to have the lead restore to eleven ahead of the crucial Champiosn league encounter with Real Madrid. Osasuna were lying at sixteenth position and that meant they will fight tooth and nails to stay afloat. Guardiola rested Messi, Iniesta, Xavi and Pedro for this match, actually they started on the bench. Puyol and Pique were ommitted from the squad. The defense had Alves, Mascherano, Milito and Maxwell infront of Valdes. The midfield had Busquets, Thiago and Keita formed the midfield. Jeffren, Villa and Afellay made the front trio.

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Regrouping After a Miserable Defeat

It took me almost a day to come to terms with the defat and start looking at what all went wrong in the match. Victories and defeats are a part and parcel of this gane. This unique team has made us all hook onto victories that we at times find it difficult to come to terms with defeat. The bottomline is that yesterday the best team won. Yup, Real Madrid was the better team when you take the overall game into perspective and they deserved the triumph. All the players have expressed an eagerness to get over this result as soon as possible and start afresh in the pursuit of La Liga and Champions League title. We were rocked yet again by another injury news. This time it is Adriano, who in recent outings were our best defender and now would be out for atleast 3-4 weeks. Now that's driving me crazy to see Adriano going out when Puyol is coming back to the team.

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FC Barcelona - 0, Real Madrid - 1, Real Madrid wins Copa Del Rey

Cristiano Ronaldo's goal secured Copa del Rey triumph over FC Barcelona

Guardiola had the first taste of defeat in an El Clasico match and a cup final with a 1-0 defeat against arch-rival Real Madrid. In a toughly contested final it was a goal from Cristiano Ronaldo which secured the first trophy available in Spain to Real madrid. Has to admit that pretty sloppy performance in the first half was responsible for giving the initiative to Real madrid and losing this match. With this win the initiative has gone to Madrid based side and now Real Madrid definitely has the initiative going into Champions League tie. Guardiola as said in the pre-match press conference went with Pinto in the goal. Puyol missed out of the starting eleven, that means Mascherano came into the side after the one match suspension. The defense had Alves, Pique, Mascherano and Adriano. The midfield had the usual formation of Xavi, Busquets and Iniesta. The front trio remain unchanged with Pedro, Messi and Villa. Mourinho as expected moved Ramos to centre back and brought in Arbeloa. The other change from Saturday were Ozil coming in for Benzema, that meant Ronaldo was playing in the centre forward role.

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FC Barcelona vs Real Madrid Copa Del Rey Final Preview

FC Barcelona will be looking to officially win their first silverware of this season, when they take on Real Madrid in the final of Copa del Rey tomorrow night. Ok, technically since we have already won the Spanish super cup, this is going to be the second silverware and applying common sense this would be actually our third, considering that we have almost sealed the La Liga trophy with the draw at Bernebeu. Since Mathematically Real Madrid have the chance to win the league and the fact that Super cup is kind of a silverware which always is a timid affair, the Copa Del Rey as I said officially would be the first Silverware could win this season. After the 1-1 draw at Bernebeu, both cammps were in overdrive, claiming victory belongs to them. Real Madrid did took pride of the fact that they almost won against us after going down to ten players and a goald down. The criticism of Stefano did dampen that spirit a bit but still they seemed up beat. Meanwhile the Catalan press celebrated the fact that we have pushed Real madrid out of the League with that draw. There were a lot of criticism about Mourinho's strategy but in the end eventhough we were done in by a dubious penalty call, we the general optimism was that such a tough fight prepares the team well for the tough task ahead. Mestalla, where the final is due to take place tomorrow has been a very good ground for us as far as King's cup is considered. Two seasons ago we won their first Silverware of that season by defeating Bilbao 4-1. The last time Real Madrid met Barca at Mestalla in Copa del Rey final, they ended as the losing team which happened in 1990.

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Real Madrid - 1, Barca -1

FC Barcelona failed to muster three points against ten men Real madrid

FC Barcelona maintained their eight points lead at the top of table with a 1-1 draw at the Santiago Bernebeu. Messi never had scored against Mourinho and Ronaldo niether against Barca coming into this match. In the end both of broken that dubious record were broken courtesy of penalties on either end. Mourinho will claim moral victory as he managed to draw with Barca with ten man. So this result put Wednesday's final a huge affair.Guardiola started with Puyol who just came back from injury. He partnered Pique, Alves and Adriano in the defense. The midfield had Iniesta, Xavi and Busquets, Messi, Pedro and Villa made the attacking trio. Mourinho went with a tighter defense with Pep playing a deep lying midfielder role. We believe that he will employ this tactic, but never expected him to do this in the League match. They had Ramos, Albiol, Carvalho and Marcelo in defense. Pepe played the deep lying midfielder role. Khedira and Alonso played the usual double pivot role in midfield. Mari, Benzema and Ronaldo made the attacking trio. Without Ozil, this was a very defensive set up and Mourinho was looking to break Guardiola's winning streak with such a line-up.

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