Barca vs Bayern Munich Champions League Semi-Final 1st Leg Preview

FC Barcelona will face Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena tomorrow night in the First Leg of the UEFA Champions League 2012-13 Semi-Final. The newly crowned Bundesliga Champions will present a huge challenge for this Barca side, especially with a number of players missing especially in defense. Inspite of all the issues with the missing defenders Barca fans were given some good news or partial. Lionel Messi has been included in the squad and has actually travelled to Munich. He is yet to receive the clearance from the medical team. Regardless of that everyone expect him to feature in the starting eleven. Barca team has already reached Munich and the squad includes Valdés, Pinto, Dani Alves, Piqué, Fàbregas, Xavi, Villa, Iniesta, Alexis, Messi, Thiago, Dos Santos, Bartra, Sergio, Pedro, Jordi Alba, Montoya, Abidal, Song, Tello, and Oier. Even though the absence of Puyol and Mascherano could be a problem for Vilanova, but the performance of Abidal on the weekend may have created some selection head-ache for him.

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FC Barcelona - 1, Levante - 0

FC Barcelona kept on with their march to the La Liga title with a 1-0 victory at home against Levante. We did left it pretty late with the deciding goal from Cesc Fabregas coming in the 84th minute. The scoreline did not exactly tell the story of the game as we dominated it from the beginning. We were sloppy in the second half, but Vilanova was smart enough to make the necessary substitution in order to secure the important three points. With this win we remain thirteen points clear of Real madrid and will require only two more wins to secure the league title. People were expecting that Messi would get some playing time today. But the medical team never gave him the green light. As per the medical team Messi is only 70% match fit. Vilanova went with the usual 4-3-3 formation. Abidal made his first official start after coming out from injury, and that was the greatest news for Barca fans. We had Alves, Abidal, Adriano and Montoya in defense. Thiago, Song and Iniesta made the midfield trio. Tello, Cesc and Villa formed the front attacking trio. Xavi, Batra, Alba, Busquets, Pinto, Pedro and Alexis started on the bench. Pique and Dos Santos didn't make the final squad.

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Barca - 3, Real Zaragoza - 0

FC Barcelona stretched their lead on top of la Liga to sixteen points after a 3-0 away victory against Real Zaragoza. Real Madrid who are yet to play this week will have a chance to reduce it. Two goals from Tello and an splendid opener from Thiago gave us the three points in a match where a lot of our stars were rested or not available. On top of a comfortable victory against a team which is fighting a regulation battle, Victor Valdes would be over joyed by the fact that he gets to keep a clean sheet. Above that we got to watch Eric Abidal playing on the field, which is a miracle considering what he have gone through. In a match where majority of stars were unavailable because of various injuries, everyone's eye was on the kind of starting line-up Tito will sent. The attack was an unchanged one from the one which started at home against Mallorca - Alexis, Cesc and Tello. The midfield had Xavi, Song and Thiago, that was quite a surprise as everyone was expecting Xavi to start from bench. Alves, Batra, Adriano and Montoya formed the back four and Valdes was back after serving four match suspension. The bench had Oier, pique, Abidal, Dos Santos, Sergi Roberto, Pedro and Villa.

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It's FC Barcelona vs Bayern in UEFA Champions League Semi-Finals

FC Barcelona has been paired with Bayern Munich at the semi-finals of the 2012-13 UEFA Champions League. The first leg of the tie will take place at the home of Newly crowned BundesLiga Champions on the 23rd of April. The return leg at the Camp Nou will be held on the 1st of May. The other semi-final is between Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid with the first leg taking place in Germany. The winner of this tie will be seeded as the Home team in the Final at Wembley on 25th May 2013.

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MESSIah Comes to Save Barca - FC Barcelona - 1 : 1 - PSG

What will we do without this Guy - Lionel Messi. There were debates going on about how much this Barca side depends on him. Going by the stats it looked like they could do without him, having a 78% win record when Messi does not start. But Jesus this match showed why we depend on him so much. he may not have scored but when we went down a goal, the first thing Vilanova did was to ask him to get ready. The moment he entered the entire tempo of our game changed. We started pressing well, there was more space to operate, Villa and Pedro suddenly appeared back in the game and that the MVP trio combined to make it 1-1. Without Messi we were so poor that it is not an under statement to say "PSG was winning most of the midfield battle". Cesc Fabregas contributed the most of that inept performance. He was all over the place without actually occupying the zone he was given. He looked at times occupying the same position of Villa or Xavi.

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