Despite suffering a 5-1 defeat at the hands of Getafe at the weekend, Barcelona loan-out and Xerez midfielder Victor Sanchez (22) is in high spirits ahead of Xerez’s rescheduled clash against Barcelona. The two teams meet on Wednesday due to Barcelona’s Club World Cup commitments, but Sanchez insists that his side could spring a surprise. “It’s not a good time to face a team like Barca,” he explained to Catalan sports paper Sport.

“They are the best team in this league, but we are confident of receiving them and we will go out onto the pitch looking for the three points in order to try and be calmer and more confident.” Xerez are currently bottom of the Spanish league, having scored only four goals in twelve games. Barcelona, on the other hand, have scored 30 league goals and are coming off the back of a victory in el Clasico, and Sanchez knows that Xerez has to “play strongly and fight to get something positive” from the game.

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Spanish newspaper Diario de Sevilla claims that Spanish top clubs, including Barcelona and Sevilla, would be ready to sign Ajax left winger Urby Emanuelson (23) during January’s transfer market. Barcelona would reportedly see the Dutchman as a long-term prospect in the left full-back slot. It is thought that a bid of ten million euros would bring Ajax to the table, a fee that both sides are willing to meet. However, Emanuelson’s defensive performances this season have prompted a tactical reshuffle, with the player moving into a more advanced role and appears settled in his new position. Barcelona have Eric Abidal and Maxwell who can operate on the left flank, but it seems that Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola is looking for a new blood.

Catalan newspaper El Mundo Deportivo reports that Barcelona defender Gabriel Milito (29) could make his return to action for Barcelona on Tuesday against Xerez after spending 19 months on the sidelines recovering from a knee injury. The Argentinian defender has been building his way back to full fitness for the past few weeks, but has now been given the all-clear by the medical staff to start playing again.

Barca play Xerez in midweek as they will be away in December at the Club World Cup and Milito is set to make his first appearance after being sidelined for 580 days. On April 29, 2008 Milito damaged his anterior cruciate ligament in the second leg of the Champions League semi final against Manchester United at Old Trafford. In order to repair the injury surgeons had to take tissue from Milito’s other knee and that caused his comeback to be delayed even further.

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Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet claims that there could be some chemistry problems between Lionel Messi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The star forwards are reportedly not in speaking terms, said commentators from Swedish television channel TV4 with insight into Barcelona. Barcelona coach Josep Guardiola’s official explanation of why he left Ibrahimovic on the bench against Real Madrid was that the Swede was not quite ready to play a full match after his injury. But commentators from TV4, Jesper Hussfeldt and Pontus Kåmark, believe that the reasons are different.

According to Hussfeldt and Kåmark, who follow Barcelona very closely, there is a conflict between the two stars. “This is nothing we have made up. But we know that it is the case. Messi feels threatened by Zlatan, and will sometimes not play. Moreover, they are not talking together outside the football field,” says Pontus Kåmark. Tension between the two superstars began to show during the Barcelona games. “The last matches we have seen big and strong tendencies that Messi will not even give Zlatan the ball,” said Hussfeldt. The commentators claim that if Guardiola can’t resolve the conflict between two of the world’s best football players, Barcelona could get in major troubles during the season. “You can say that Barcelona had an issue with Samuel Eto’o, but if this continues, they get a new problem.”

FC Barcelona

ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC: “The credit goes to Dani [Alves] who put an excellent cross into the middle. I just tried to hit it and it went in. It’s a great moment, in my first Clasico. It was a fantastic atmosphere, I’m really happy.”

ANDRES INIESTA : (reacting to an on-pitch incident with Cristiano Ronaldo) “It disturbed me that Cristiano felt the need to tell me that I should not dive. Because he is not the most appropriate person to be doing such a thing.”… (commenting on the game) “It’s a great result and now we must stay focused and continue working.” Continue reading »

Catalan newspaper El Mundo Deportivo reports that Barcelona defender and Mexican international Rafael Marquez (30) has signed the new contract that will link him to FC Barcelona until 30 June 2012. His buyout clause remains at 100 million euros. His current contract was in force since June 2006. Marquez himself and his agent Jorge Mendes, president Joan Laporta, Sport Vice President Rafael Yuste, corporate general director Joan Oliver, the technical secretary Txiki Begiristain and football director Raul Sanllehí attended the contract signing event.

Speaking about the renewal, Marquez said: “I knew that at first there might be differences, but we should reach an agreement. So I never doubted the renewal option. When you have stability in your work you feel much calmer. Now I promise to maintain a very strong mentality to continue performing at the highest level and then I can practically finish my career at Barca.”

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Original article @ http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/nov/30/ronaldo-ibrahimovic-real-madrid-barcelona

Posted by Sid Lowe

Monday 30 November 2009 13.06 GMT

This time, Iker Casillas wasn’t wearing his Iker Casillas face, the one that says “you call that a defence?!” This time, his defence was a defence. He was, though, wearing the face of an idiot. Up the tunnel and through the plywood door, chapel to the left, dressing room to the right, Dani Alves was wearing the face of a grinning simpleton, all glazed expression and cheeky smiles. Xabi Alonso was wearing the face of the disappointed, doe-eyed and sad, Pepe was wearing the face of Stanley Ipkiss, and Cristiano Ronaldo was wearing the shiny but not particularly happy face of someone who applies too much lotion. It was hard to see what kind of face Carles Puyol was wearing but he was probably smiling behind all that hair.

Manuel Pellegrini, meanwhile, was wearing what the Spanish describe as a face of circumstances, skin dragged down as if an invisible weight hung from his chin. His side had just produced their best league performance in the biggest match – an intense, high-tempo display in the clásico. One in which he insisted “we were better than them in just about everything”, in which Kaká showed flashes of his class, Alonso and Lass Diarra smothered Barça’s midfield, and Ronaldo looked dangerous; in which almost everyone played well, in fact. But still they had lost 1-0, despite playing almost half an hour with an extra man. Still they’d lost top spot; still Barcelona had secured their best ever start. Only two coaches had reached week 12 unbeaten before – Bobby Robson and Terry Venables.

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With their 1-0 home win against Real Madrid in last night’s el Clasico Round 1, Barcelona regained la Liga lead (30 – 28) after 12 rounds of matches. It was a match filled with uncertainty in the line-ups of both teams due to recent injuries and was a pretty balanced contest with the visiting side taking the early initiative but unable to capitalise on it.

The winning goal came courtesy of Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the 56^th minute.

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In a statement he made with French magazine ‘France Football’ today, FC Barcelona midfielder, Ivorian Yaya Toure (26) has expressed his disappointment at the loss of his status as a regular starting eleven player in the team after was again left out of the starting line-up for last night’s el Clasico. He only got to play some twenty minutes in the match, and that was forced on Pep Guardiola due to Sergio Busquets dismissal.

Recently discharged from his H1N1 quarantine, the player said he understands the line-up is a decision for the coach to make according to the situation but he still complains of not getting enough playing time ever since he renewed his contract with the club.

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“Cristiano Ronaldo fell slightly short of his promised 10 or 20 goals”
Barcelona Right back defender Daniel Alves in the aftermath of his sides 1-0 win over arch rivals Real Madrid.

A Johan Cruyff penalty when he was an Ajax player

FANTASTIC WEEK!

A great Ibra’s goal knocks Madrid down

Barça 1 – 0 Madrid

Leaders in both Liga and Champions League. Barça victorious over Madrid 5 days after humiliating Inter in Europe.

In the picture: Ibrahimovic came in the second half of the match and only needed five minutes to score the winning goal.

HEROES!

Barça 1 – 0 Real Madrid. Barça, the leader.

Ibra scored a great goal which broke Madrid’s best in an intense Clásico; Puyol and Valdes were superb.

Barça displayed a great collective spirit playing with 10 (players) for 30 minutes.

La Liga: Barça 30 points, Madrid 28, Sevilla 26, Valencia 25.

Hereford United related website Bulls News reports that Northampton forward and former English C-team international Steve Guinan (33) has shown his interest towards Barcelona. Barcelona are looking for a forward during winter transfer market and Guinan would be eager to represent the Catalan giants. Asked what team he would like to play for the rest of his career, Guinan commented: “If I had the choice abroad I would say Barcelona or Real Madrid. You know that you are very priviledged to be a footballer. It’s always something I wanted to do when I was very young. I think you realise how lucky you are when you have been in it quite a few years.”

British tabloid newspaper The Sunday Express claims that Barcelona would be following Tottenham forward and English international Jermain Defoe (27). Defoe has been in a sensational form lately, scoring five goals in Spurs’s 9-1 win over Wigan last weekend, and is hotly tipped to partner Wayne Rooney for England national team at next summer’s World Cup in South Africa. His goalscoring abilities have reportedly alerted Barcelona and reports say that Barcelona will esquire about Defoe’s availability at the end of the season.

Defoe has already scored fifteen goals this season, but it is likely that Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp will reject any attempts to lure the forward away from White Hart Lane. Barcelona purchased Swedish international Zlatan Ibrahimovic (28) during the summer, but with Thierry Henry’s lack of form so far this season Barcelona coach Josep Guardiola would be keen to strengthen his squad and has pinpointed Defoe as the player who can add more scoring power to his squad.

56′ Z. Ibrahimovic [1 - 0]

FC Barcelona – Real Madrid
(Sunday November 29, 2009 @ 19:00 Barcelona time – Convert to local time)

Chat Link: http://fcbarcelona.hopto.org/

Facebook Application: http://apps.facebook.com/fcbarcelonachat/ (direct chat through Facebook)

Have you ever sat in front of your TV or computer while you were watching a FC Barcelona game and hoped you could share your excitement, feelings, and opinions with other fans LIVE as it happens?

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Barcelona have completed their usual matchday training session this Sunday morning at the Camp Nou pitch that involves all members of the first team except the still recovering Gabriel Milito.

During home games, it is common for Pep Guardiola to hold his final training session at the stadium, focusing on game strategy.

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According to Madrid based sports papers Marca and AS, though as yet has to be confirmed officially, Real Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini has already named his starting eleven for tonight’s el Clasico match at the Camp Nou.

The papers claim French striker Karim Benzema will be sacrificed to make way for the recently recovered Cristiano Ronaldo, and captain Raul Gonzales will start from the bench.

If correct, according to the report, los Blancos will start the match as such: Continue reading »

The prestigious French magazine ‘France Football’ announced this Sunday the name of 10 football players who will compete for this year’s Ballon d’Or award. Four of the names in this final list are Barcelona players.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Andrés Iniesta, Xavi Hernández and Lionel Messi are still in the race for the award, though it has been predicted that the Argentinian is the shoe-in favourite.

Former Barcelona striker, Samuel Eto’o, has also made the list.

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Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo in an article today claims that Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez, this summer, made a phone call to Barcelona’s technical secretary, Txiki Begiristain, offering him the services of Xabi Alonso (28), if the Blaugrana club would refrain from pursuing their intended target Javier Mascherano. This conversation was alleged to have taken place just days before the English Premiership side agreed to let the player leave for Real Madrid for 30 million euros.

It was well reported during the summer that Txiki and Raul Sanllehi, the club’s Director of Football, was making a concerted effort for the Kop’s Argentine defensive midfielder, Javier Mascherano (25), and the rumours was further flamed when Sanllehi was seen meeting with Walter Tamer, the player’s agent, in Barcelona that June. However, the negotiations ran into difficulties because of Benitez’s insistence on keeping the player, refusing to even contemplate the possibilities. “Mascherano is not for sale at any price,” he was once quoted as saying; even though it was believed that Liverpool was looking at a 50 million euros price tag, way beyond what the Catalan side was willing to pay.

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SPECTACULAR BIG MATCH*

Barça – Madrid (19h, Gol TV/C+ Liga)

Record audience: about 1,000 million people in the world will watch the match.

All the cracks (will play): Messi against Cristiano and home-grown players against expensive signings.

Guardiola - Pellegrini: Barça’s coach won’t modify his philosophy  and los Blancos will play counter-attack.

Laporta – Florentino: Their last face to face

* “de cine” means wonderful, spectacular… but they chose this expression to say that because it contains “cine”, which means cinema, refering to the fact the match will be shown in the cinemas.

FORÇA BARÇA!

Barça – R.Madrid, 19h. The football feast.

Barça wants to impose their football in today’s passionate big match and recover the league lead.

Ibra and Messi, ready to play if Guardiola says so. Guardiola: ‘I’ll decide in the last minute’

Pep is the best coach in Barça’s history, with the 71% of his League matches won.

In an analysis he made for France TV Canal Plus, former Real Madrid’s galactico and current Florentino Perez’s adviser, Zinedine Zidane confessed to his admiration for the footballing style practiced by Barcelona and acknowledged that in light of the Catalan side’s last Champions League win over Inter Milan (2-0), it will be very difficult to stop the Blaugranas, at least for now. And Real Madrid, in his opinion, is comparably inferior, and believes that only the ‘non-presence’ of Barcelona’s maestro midfielder Andres Iniesta can level the playing field.

The football exhibition displayed by a well-oiled Barcelona machine against Inter Milan has made an impact in Europe, according to Zidane: “I pray that players like Iniesta could not play against Real Madrid (this Sunday),” he declared, adding, “Playing the way they play, neither Real Madrid nor any else can stop them. It is almost impossible.”

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November 29, 2009, 19:00 CET – Camp Nou, Barcelona

Calderón: Florentino, our worst fears have become a reality, our nightmares have escaped the captivity of our dreams to torture us. Barcelona have ripped away from us the title of the best team in Espanya!

Pérez: Relax Ramón! This has happened many times before, Real will bounce back, as always.

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According to ESPN Soccernet, Manchester City forward and Brazilian international Robinho (25) is no longer agitating for a move to Barcelona as he prepares to return to action for Manchester City. A month ago, Robinho caused controversy at City when he told Brazilian radio station Radio Bandeirantes: “I’m very happy about the interest that Barcelona have in me. Playing at Camp Nou, it is much easier to be the best player in the world than at City.”

Sources close to the player have reportedly told that “it is not true” that Robinho no longer wants to play for Mark Hughes and has set his heart on a move to Barcelona. There are strong reasons Robinho has been advised to forget his desire to play for Barcelona and to knuckle down at Manchester City. Firstly, and perhaps most significantly, the usual behind-the-scenes preliminary negotiations between third parties have broken down. Reports claim that Barcelona do not have the funds available at the moment and have only been seeking a loan deal, which City have ruled out without much consideration.

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In the el Clasico pre-match press conference today, Real Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini, said his team is equal or better in stature than the Catalan side, and feels his team has the ability to beat Barcelona at the Camp Nou tomorrow night.

“Barcelona is not only Xavi, Iniesta and Messi, but is an established style,” Pellegrini opened the question and answer session, “Perhaps we lack the ease with which they play, but we can also dominate in possession and have more shot on goals than all of our past opponents.”

“I disagree with those who say that they play better than us. We have established that, because they are neither ahead in la Liga nor in the Champions League (10 points to 8). They neither score any more goals nor a fitter side. We are just different. Real Madrid plays well, though at times we got a bit stuck,” he added.

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