Barca - 1, Valencia - 1; Copa Del Rey Semi-Final First leg ends in Draw

FC Barcelona took a good step towards proceeding to Copa Del Rey final with a 1-1 draw at Mestella. Considering how tough we have found recently in Valencia, this draw is as good as a win - especially because of the away goal. In the 27th minute Jonas put Valencia ahead, but Carles Puyol equalised for Barca in the 36th minute. It was a on-off perfromance from barca. To be fair, Valencia was the better of the two team in overall play, but we were able to create more scoring chances - but we never took any of that. We were anyway lucky not to have Pinto seen a red card for handling the ball outside the box. Lionel Messi continued with his goal scoring drought(three match is not a big deal) , missing a penalty in the match. Now with the away leg over, we have to finish the job at home. Pinto as in all Copa games occupied his position under the bar. Pique, Mascherano, Puyol and Abidal formed the defense. Thiago, Busquets and Fabregas made up the midfield. Cuenca, Messi and Sanchez formed the attacking trio.

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Barca - 0, Villareal - 0, Barca's La Liga Defense Could be Over

FC Barcelona could have handed over the Liga title to Real Madrid unofficially after drawing away at 17th placed Villareal. The lead at the top of the summit is seven points which could be too much for our boys to climb. Already with a very depleted side, we weren't helped by Guardiola's decision making all night. And whatever he gives as excuse, he had to take teh majority of the blame for this performance. Leaders Real Madrid won earlier in the night and that took their lead at top to 8 points. With 14 first team players only available, Guardiola had not much choice to pick the first eleven. Victor Valdes came back a sthe keeper. The defense had Puyol, Pique, Mascherano and Abidal. Xavi, Busquets and Fabregas made up the midfield. And Adriano, Alves and Messi fromed the forward line. We were so stretched that we have to take Sanchez to the stadium eventhough he was injured, because Pedro picked up a late injury problem.

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El Clasico Review, A Day After

Thank God, It's over, that definitely was the reaction of every Barca fan once they heard the final whistle. I don't remember that in recent history we coming out with such a reaction towards the end of any match. That was the way we performed in this match, may be that's how they performed. From being a regular exercise of Barca winning Clasico matches, suddenly they were once again back to the promised intensity. It was once again back to being a contest between the best in the world, our complacent approach made that very much possible. No one in their ideal state of mind never thought Barca will haved to suffer this much to go through, but in the end they did precisely enough to hold on and maybe it's better to say Real Madrid didn't do enough infront of the goal. And precisely that what was the problem - When you play the best team in the world, you cannot afford to miss their chances. Barcelona at the same time made it all simple for Real Madrid with a defensive display, which would have made school boys embarassed. But then you cannot expect this team to be on top of their game all the time. We may feel a bit diasppointed by their display, but we have no right to complain. This team has given us so much that it's ungrateful to criticize the team for a minor blip, and that too a blip which never cost us. And that's what worrying for Mourinho - his team threw evrything at Barca but still couldn't win.

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FC Barcelona -2, Real Madrid -2 Highlights

FC Barcelona holds off Madrid Comeback to Proceed to semi Final; FC Barcelona -2, Real Madrid -2

FC Barcelona secured a semi-final birth in this season's Copa Del Rey after knocking out holders Real Madrid with a sensational 2-2 draw. Barcelona who went into the break with a 2-0 lead had to hold off a sensational fightback from Mourinho's boys to secure the semi-final birth. To an extent we had to say that we were lucky after putting up the worst defensive display of the season, and courtesy of the fact that Madrid missed a number of chances. Mourinho's boys were all in crisis coming into this match. But as I said in the preview they came out like a roaring, but they were a bit hasty in front of goal and that resulted in all those missing chances. Guardiola went with an unchanged side which featured in the 2-1 away victory at Santiago Bernebeu. Pinto, Alves, Pique, Puyol, Abidal, Xavi, Busquets, Iniesta, Cesc, Messi and Sanchez all started as expected. As I wrote in in the preview, Pepe started for Mourinho at centre back partnering Ramos, Arbeloa and Coentrao in defense. The midfield had Diarra, Alonso and Kaka. Ozil, Higuain and Ronaldo formed the attacking trio.

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