Archive for the ‘FC Barcelona’ Category
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008
It seems that relationship of Ronaldinho with FC Barcelona is every time much more distant and that the Brazilian star, far away to be the same player than two years ago, could leave Barça soon. The last new is that Dunga, the coach of Brazil national team, has refused to take in account Ronaldinho for any future competition, including the Olympic Games in Beijing next August. On top of this Ronaldinho has not been concentrate for both last Liga and Champion League matches. Assis, Ronaldinho’s brother and manager, has assumed when he talked to “Globoesporter” in Brazil, that his brother could cancel his contract with Barcelona after paying to the Catalan club the equivalent of their future salaries and a percentage of the amount of the initial cost when he was transferred from PSG. Assis who also do not discard Real Madrid as future destination of Ronaldinho as it happened some years ago with Luis Figo, seems convinced that his brother will abandon Camp Nou soon because every day in newspaper first page appears the comment that the cycle of Ronaldinho at Barcelona has already finish making also reference to the party nights he organises a lot of days now much more popular than his performance in the pitch.In the other hand nobody from FC Barcelona clearly mention what it is happening with the player and nobody justifies why he is not training and playing.Anyway Assis is also convinced that wining the Champions League would completely change all. “The situation is now very bad but imagine that Barcelona arrives and win the Moscow Final. Perhaps with this tittle things could be quite different”, he said.Johan Cruyff, former Barça player and coach, had also attacked Ronaldinho few months ago and the player defended himself saying that he will replay to all criticisms in the pitch although this unfortunately has not happened.
Tags: Camp Nou, Johan Cruyff, Ronaldinho
Posted in FC Barcelona | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
According to British newspaper Daily Mirror, Rafael Benitez is expected to become the new coach of FC Barcelona if Rijkaard leaves Camp Nou at the end of the season. This newspaper also insists Johan Cruyff, president Laporta’s closet adviser, has already made a report urging the club to ignore the options of Jose Mourinho an instead pursue Benitez to replace Rijkaard, who could leave Barcelona this summer. So far, Mourinho is the candidate that vice-presidents Ferran Soriano and Marc Ingla defend.If the Spanish manager decides to leave Anfield by the end of the season to come back to Spain, he could choose between Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid or Valencia, the club that Benitez left to join Liverpool.Anyway the Liverpool coach has frequently maintained he wants to stay at Anfield for the foreseeable future and still has more than two years remaining contract. But Barça president Jan Laporta has placed Benitez at the top of his wanted list to replace Frank Rijkaard as coach because despite guiding Barça to the Champions League quarter-finals, Rijkaard’s future at the Camp Nou is under threat because is behind Real in the Liga for the second successive season. However, any move for Benitez will only take place if Laporta himself remains at Barça beyond the end of the season.While there is a perceived lack of respect in England for his achievements at Liverpool, Benitez is one of the most sought-after coaches in Europe after leading the Anfield outfit to two Champions League finals in three years.
Tags: Rijkaard
Posted in FC Barcelona, Liverpool, Real Madrid | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
Schalke 04 will play against one of the biggest clubs in European football. The Royal Blues will host Barcelona in the first leg at Veltins Arena on Tuesday 1st April, with the return taking place at the Camp Nou on Wednesday 9th April.Once again Schalke fans will be able to attend the Champions League quarter-final second leg against Barcelona thanks to principal sponsor Gazprom. Flights to attend this crucial game on the Mediterranean coast will have an accessible cost plus the price of the match ticket which will be provided the travel agency organising the flights without the need to address to the National Supporters Club (SFCV) for tickets. For Schalke 04 and their players Barcelona is a great team and this clash suppose a tremendous challenge. For their fans it is obviously an outstanding game because every Barcelona player is a superstar but Schalke fans hope that with their support they can put in a really good performance in the home game and get a good result for the second leg in Barcelona. With Toure Yaya, Henry, Eto’o y Bojan and all the other players Barcelona obviously have some great individual quality although ultimately the key factor in games like these is how well the players function as a team. They also know that if Schalke 04 progresses to the semi-final they will face the winner of the match between AS Rome and Manchester United. In this case the first leg would take place at the Veltins Arena on Wednesday 23rd April and the returnon Tuesday 29th April, but let wait for the two matches against Barcelona.
Tags: Bojan, Henry, Shalke 04
Posted in FC Barcelona | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008
Since 1966, Ricardo Pastor, a veteran sports journalist, predicts in detail the final position in the league table for First Division clubs in Spain. Everyone use to do the same every Sunday along the season but the merit of Ricardo Pastor is that he announces his predictions when still 10 Day matches must be played and also the most important is that in 42 years predictions he has only gone wrong 4 years and, honestly, the failures have been due to completely unusual performance of most of the clubs during the last matches of the league. One example was last season (2006/07) when FC Barcelona squandered his advantage over Real Madrid during last matches (unforeseen points looses at home in front of Betis and Espanyol among others abnormal results of both Barça and Madrid). In the predictions of Ricardo Pastor there is a lot of objective study about the performance of clubs along the season and overall doing a rigorous study and prediction for the results to be achieved during the last 10 matches. 90% success in 42 years in the variable world of football is a fantastic percentage very difficult to obtain.
His predictions for the present season, made on 20th March, are as follows: Real Madrid with 81 points will obtain the championship followed by FC Barcelona with 77 points, Villarreal with 71 points, Sevilla with 65 points (all 4 teams will obviously play next Champions League next season), Atletico Madrid with 64 points and Espanyol with 59 points (both will play for UEFA Cup). Ricardo also predicts that the three clubs that will go down to Second Division will be Valladolid with 42 points, Murcia with 37 points and Levante with 29 points.
So in eight weeks time or even less we will know the grade of success of above advanced predictions. Wait and see!
Tags: Ricardo Pastor, Spanish League, UEFA Cup
Posted in FC Barcelona, Levante, Murcia, Real Madrid, Sevilla FC, Valladolid, Villareal | No Comments »
Friday, March 7th, 2008
After the matches played last Tuesday and Wednesday, Barcelona, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Rome, Ferenbahçe and Schalke 04 are already qualified for last-eight games of Champions League 2007/08. Internazionale and Liverpool will play on March 11 to decide the last team to be qualified for this phase which corresponding matches (as well as possible semi-finals) will be draw on Friday March 14 in Nyon.
But one of the important facts is that Lionel Messi will miss both legs of FC Barcelona’s UEFA Champions League quarter-final tie after being ruled out for six weeks with a torn thigh muscle. The 22-year-old Argentinean was forced to leave the pitch 38 minutes into Tuesday night’s 1-0 win against Celtic FC, which completed a 4-2 aggregate victory for Frank Rijkaard’s side. Suffering the damage during a sprint, Messi left the field in distress having also torn muscle in his left thigh in a league game against Valencia CF in December, an injury which resulted in a one-month absence from the first team.
Club doctors have ruled Messi out for six weeks, meaning he will miss a crucial period with Barça still in the running for three trophies. He is expected to miss six Liga First Division games, both legs of the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals and he will also stop his career to obtain the tittle of maximum scorer where he is now on top together with Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United with 6 goals each. He will also miss the second leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final against Valencia and also the final on April 16, should Barça make it.
Tags: Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, UEFA Champions League
Posted in AC Rome, Arsenal, Chelsea FC, FC Barcelona, Manchester United | No Comments »