FC Basel vs FC Barcelona Preview

FC Barcelona resume their Champions League quest against FC Basel away from Home. FC Basel lies at the bottom of Group C and this would be the perfect oppurtunity for Barca to take a giant step towards qualification. Barca fans would be hoping that their players would be able to round off the match much earlier than like the Shaktar match. Guardiola will be missing the service of Keita as he has been confirmed to be out of the game for two weeks. But this should not worry Guardiola as Xavi and Caqceres returns into the squad.Gudjonsen and Pedro both are continuing their recovery program along with Milito and is missing from the squad. The squad picked by Guardiola for FC Basel match is Valdés, Pinto, Alves, Víctor Sánchez, Puyol, Márquez, Martín Cáceres, Piqué, Abidal, Sylvinho, Busquets, Touré, Iniesta, Xavi, Bojan, Hleb, Henry, Eto'o and Messi.

Messi, Eto and Iniesta is expected to rejoin for the match. The midfield could threw up some surprise. Xavi is the only certainity there. With the absence of Keita and Gudjonsen, Victor Sanchez stands a good chance to making his Champions League debut. Toure or Busquests would play the holding midfielder role; may be Busquests would be preferred as Toure is carrying a knock from last match. Another possibility would be Iniesta dropping back to the middle with henry taking up the front left position; in that case Victor Sanchez is definitely going to miss out on a start. The back four ideally would be made up of Abidal, Alves, Puyol and Pique.

Athletic Bilbao vs Barca Photos

Strolling On; Athletic Bilbao-0, FC Barcelona-1

FC Barcelona extended their winning streak to seven matches in all competition with a single goal victory against Athletic Bilbao. Samuel Eto'o strike in the 56th minute was enough to see past a spirited Bilbao challenge. Victor Valdes would be delighted with his performance as he was able to keep a clean sheet for first time in this season. Guardiola rested Puyol and Messi for the match. That threw up some interesting combination. Alves, Marquez, Pique and Abidal formed the back four ahead of custodian Victor Valdes. The midfield was made up of Victor Sanchez, Toure and Keita. Iniesta moved to the right in the absence of Messi and Henry and Eto took their usual position.

The home side started putting pressure on Barca from the start. Just after the start Athletic Bilbao won a free kick which resulted in Valdes pulling out an excellent acrobatic save to keep the ball out. FC Barcelona replied soon enough through Eto who turned inside of his marker but his shot was saved by Iraizoz. In the 22nd minute Valdes agains have to pull out another excellent save from a Yeste free kick. In the 29th minute Keita got injured and was replaced by Busquests. In the rest of half there were only some half chances which involved Eto - first his shot was saved and just before the break his header went agonisingly wide.

In the second half Iniesta started switching to the left more often and that started showing results. In 48th minute Victor Sanchez shot high from and Iniesta cross. Then in the 57th minute FC Barcelona took the lead from a splendid strike from Eto. Henry dribbled past defender and placed the ball on to Eto who got past the defender and blasted a fierry shot. FC Barcelona next best chance came with Iniesta's cross getting diverted to goal by defender. Then Eto had a decent chance but he shot wide. Overall this was a pretty decent game. For the second game running Abidal did well.

Athletic Bilbao vs FC Barcelona Preview

Xavi Hernandes has been ruled out of today's match against Athletic Bilbao. His ommision has been explained as a precautionery measure in the official club website. Xavi is making googd progress from a harmstring problem and should feature in the mid-week Champions League encounter with Basel. The squad chosen are Valdés, Pinto, Alves, Víctor Sánchez, Puyol, Márquez, Piqué, Abidal, Sylvinho, Busquets, Touré Yaya, Keita, Iniesta, Bojan, Hleb, Henry, Eto'o and Messi. Notably Hleb makes a comeback and should see some time in the pitch. But the absence of Xavi throws up the usual combination used by Guardiola. In the absence of Xavi the creative spearhead role in the midfield should be done byu Andres Iniesta. Keita may be inadequete to do that role. That opens up a place for Thierry Henry on the left side of the attacking trio.

Athletic Bilbao lies fifteenth in the La Liga table. Barcelona in the last game has thrashed a far superior Atletico Madrid side and Athletic Bilbao should not come as tough. But how many times we have seen FC Barcelona failing miserably after an international break. Alves is back and should start at the right back position. Puyol is expected to start along with either Pique or Marquez. Abidal will be starting as left back with enough confidence from his performance against Atletico Madrid. The midfield most probably would be made of Keita, Iniesta and Toure. The forward trio will be Henry, Messi and Eto. FC Barcelona fans would be expecting great things from their side after the Atletico Madrid thrashing. But my advice - keep your expectation low; a 1-0 or a 2-1 victory would be as good as last match.

Do Messi deserve the Ballon d'Or?

Goal.com has already running a poll to gather support for Lionel Messi as the choice of this years Ballon D'Or. The early statistics suggests that huge number of soccer fans are in favour of seeing Lionel Messi win it. Even I wish to see him holding the Ballon d'Or. But the biggest question is "Does he really deserve the Ballon D'Or. The huge number of support for Lionel Messi is due to the fact that he is having a great season now and looks like getting better each day. But does that justify giving him the award. Not for me. The award is presented for the achievements of the past season. It is already billed as a match up between Messi and Ronaldo. But it is rather starnge to match up Ronaldo's achievement of last season to Messi's. Christiano Ronaldo was instrumental in winning the Champions League and English Premier League for manchester United. In contrast Lionel Messi couldn't help Barcelona in winning anything.

I am not blaming Messi for last seasons failure. He was really unfortunate to miss the majority of the season through injury. Or rather I would say FC Barcelona was unfortunate to miss him for long time. But that is not Christiano Ronaldo's problem. He has been great last season; eventhough he was overshadowed by Messi in the Semi Final legs. For me the real competition to Ronaldo in this years Ballon D 'Or should be Iker Cassilas. I haven't seen the list nor I am sure whether the official list has been released; but there are reports of Iniesta's name missing in the list. If that is true then it is really unfortunate. He was great through last season and had a great Euro 2008. He deserved to be in that list more than Lionel Messi. Now coming back to the Iker Cassilas vs Ronaldo match up - Iker has won the La Liga and Euro cup whereas Ronaldo has the Premier league and Champions league. You cannot match these titles to each other. If Ronaldo was the catalyst in last season's great run of Manchester United; so was casillas for Spain and Real Madrid.Historically Goal Keepers are over looked for this prestigous prize; but this year that may not be the case. What might go against Christiano Ronaldo would the fact that this year was a Euro Cup year and his biggest competition led his team to the title. Even though he is a Real madrid player, this is one footballer I love. May be its time that Goal Keepers get the respect they deserve.

Mark My word guys - next year it will be Messi or Iniesta.

International Matches - 15 th October

The second leg of this international stopping is almost over. FC barcelona players had a pretty bad night overall. Lionel Messi's Argentina tasted their first defeat of the campaign. Uruguay were held for a 2-2 draw at Bolivia. In Europe it was much better with Spain and Iceland both registering victories. Belarus whose star player and Barca winger Hleb is absent due to injury wend down to England. The surprise result of this leg has to be the 1-0 defeat of Argentina at the hands of Chile. This is Chile's first win over Argentina since 1973 and their first in a FIFA world cup qualifier. This defeat leaves Argentina at third position. They are tied with Chile in points but with a better goal difference. Argentina missed Riquelme due to suspension and couldn't find their free flowing attacking style with the absence of their creative play maker. Fabian Orellana's 36th minute goal was enough to beat the fancied Argentina whose best chances were produced by Lionel Messi.

Uruguay on other hand did well to fight back to win a point from Bolivia. Martin Caceres started for Uruguay. Bolivia went two up by half time with two goals from Marcelo Martins. But the Uruguayans turned around the game in the second half to snatch a point from the host. Carlos Bueno and Sebastian Abreu scored for Uruguay. In Europe Spain continued their excellent run in the campaign. Spain went surprisingly behind in the 7th minute from the goal of Wesley Sonck of Belgium. But Iniesta equalised in the 36th minute and David Villa as usual grabbed the winner in the 88th minute. Gudjonsen's Iceland also helped themselves with a 1-0 victory over Macedonia. Belarus who is missing Hleb due to injury went down to England. Wayne Rooney scored twice in the second half after Sitko has cancelled the 11th minute Gerrard goal.

Is It Good-Bye Yaya?

Barcelona based news dailies are full of rumours of a possible mid season transfer of Yaya Toure to Juventus. One Juventus based daily has already claimed that FC Barcelona has set a price on this Ivory Coast holding midfielder. The amount is rumoured to be around 10 million euros. These rumours have been strengthened by Guardiola's attitude towards Toure. Somehow Guardiola has already decided that Toure does not fit into his style and there were strong rumours of his transfer during the summer. Somehow Yaya Toure survived it; but the emergence of Busquests has indeed unsettled the player. The worst matter in all these is that we cannot expect Guardiola to persuade the player to stay in the club.

Yaya was our best player along with Iniesta in last season. He showed tremendous commitment by delaying a much needed syrgey and kept on playing for the club. But it was a huge surprise that Guardiola preferred Keita ahead of Toure. Keita from whatever he looked like cannot play the Holding midfielder role confidently. With Busquests playing well and Iniesta occupying the front left; it is difficult to see Toure joining Busquests in the midfield. If Busquests start, then either of Gudjonsen or Keita is expected to start. So it has become a direct fight between Busquests and Toure; a fight which Toure appears to be losing. He hasn't done much of a mistakes; but it is his bad luck that he is in a team whose manager tends to overlook his effort. It is always good to see such great competition for a postion in the team; but with Manager biased towards Busquests it is difficult to see Toure staying. But the choice of Juventus could be a disaster for him; I personally think Wenger will take note of the availability of this talented midfielder. But for the moment it is becoming clear that Toure might be on his way out of the club.