Fresh from their fourth manita of the season, Barcelona fly East to face Viktoria Plzen this Tuesday evening in the fourth installment of Champions League Group H action.  Knowing that a win will book their progress to the knockout stages provided that BATE Borisov fail to beat AC Milan, the Catalans will look to extend their run of eight clean sheets in all competitions and shore up their position atop Group H.  As the first of seven matches in what is a crowded November calendar, Tuesday evening offers a perfect opportunity for Guardiola to fine tune his squad ahead of the decisive trip to the San Siro later this month.

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For those in the world who celebrate it today, totalBarça wishes everyone a Happy Halloween or Barça-ween!  Thanks to a Blaugrana twist recently sent in by Kevin in Orlando, Florida, USA.

You’ll know what we mean after the jump.  By the way, anyone dressing up culé style?

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The Barça squad has arrived in Prague ahead of their Champions League match on Tuesday against Viktoria Plzen. At around 18:15 Josep Guardiola and Gerard Piqué will address the media at a press conference and at 19:00 the team will train at the Eden Stadium, the venue for tomorrow’s match.

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“Pep, tell us how you rate the comfortable victory against Mallorca?”

“Victory? I’m only thinking of Viktoria Pilsen!”

Moudrid becomes leader

Pep: “Right now they are all puffed up … in December, we’ll see…”

Barca B striker Gerard Deulofeu made his senior team debut during Saturday’s 5-0 mauling of Mallorca, making him the 19th member of Barcelona’s youth squad to make debuts under Pep Guardiola. Deulofeu, still just 17, entered the match in the 63rd minute to take David Villa’s place in attack. Even more interesting: Deulofeu’s debut, on October 29, comes exactly nine years to the day after the debut of a certain Andres Iniesta, who himself tasted senior team action for the first time on October 29, 2002.

Stats: MundoDeportivo: • Image: Pep Morata [MD]

THERE IS NOT A BETTER TEAM

Guardiola and Messi, the key-members of the greatest Barça ever

Pep, 199 matches. 143 victories, 39 draws and 17 defeats

Leo, 199 goals. 1 “poker”, 12 hat tricks, 41 doubles

Cuenca and Deulofeu, almost ready. The coaches have blind faith on them.

To Prague with Alexis

MESSI, TOTAL “PICHICHI”

Leo has scored 13 goals so far in La Liga and leads the European goal-scorers classification

He has scored three goals than Cristiano Ronaldo, who didn’t score against Real (Sociedad)

Víctor could break Reina’s record tomorrow in Champions

Alexis travels today to Prague, where he will get medical clearance to play against Viktoria

The adventures of “Tintin” Deulofeu and Isaac Cuenca

Alves and Adriano, the kings of the wings.

A goal by Carlos Carmona in the first half earned FC Barcelona B their first win at home and another three points that now sees the team jump to 13th in the table with 14 points. More details of the game along with Eusebio’s post-match comments can be found after the jump.

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In a post-training press conference, FC Barcelona midfielder Seydou Keita (31) discussed the 5-0 win over RCD Mallorca and the competitive midfield lineup. “We all feel important,” said the Malian. “I feel great. On this team there are many players and we all have chances to play. The most important thing is that everyone here feels important and helps the team.”

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After the match against Mallorca, FC Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets sat down with Barca TV to speak about yesterday’s game at Camp Nou as well as the storm of criticism that the club and especially Lionel Messi had faced for their lacklustre performances in the last few games. As Barca were back to their usual manita winning ways, Busquets was satisfied with the result but chose to remain grounded. “It’s never easy,” he said, echoing a statement more often attributed to his manager Pep Guardiola. “We know that we’ve got people so used to winning. We know that we can’t always win 5-0. The main thing is to know what we’re doing well and what we’re not, and try and improve.”

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“It’s crazy to say I was in crisis, just because I’d gone three games without scoring. I’m not interested in how many goals I can score or not – what matters is that the team won.”

Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick against Mallorca and dismissed all doubts about his form after he had gone three games without scoring. The forward has now scored 199 goals for the club and leads the Pichichi with 13 goals.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMXQS44FhSE

Chilean winger Alexis Sánchez, despite not yet having his medical clearance, is on Guardiola’s list of 21 players called up to travel to the Czech Republic for the match against Viktoria Plzen in the Champions League on Tuesday. Also included on the list are Cuenca and Oier from Barça B.

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Messi: “Hey, I ended my goal drought!”

Caparros: “For me, I didn’t need this flood of goals!”

Messi is finished 5-0 Mallorca

MESSI CONTINUES IN CRISIS

He couldn’t score the fourth … Zero goals in the second half … His bad streak now stands at 60 minutes …

Mallorca was one of only three teams to have avoided defeat at the Camp Nou last season, along with Deportivo and Hercules. Better luck next year. On the defensive end of the pitch, Barcelona on Saturday equaled two club records: the team has now gone for 9 home matches, and 8 official matches [home and away], without conceding a single goal. Continue reading »

1, 2, 3 … MESSI AGAIN

‘Hat trick’ by Leo to shut the critic’s mouths

Barça 5-0 Mallorca

Total fiesta

Cuenca started and scored his first goal, Deulofeu debuted and Alves closed the account with a spectacular golazo

[Non Barça Related]

Real Scoiedad 0-1 Madrid

Another goal by Higuain … and very little more from Madrid

Calcio: Roma 2-3 Milan

Ibrahimovic scored two and Bojan only one

1, 2, 3, MESSI!

Barça 5-0 Mallorca

Blunt response to Leo’s ‘goal drought’: he achieved his 12th ‘hat trick’

Barça settled the match with another manita, Cuenca scored his first, and Deulofeu debuted

Leo: “It’s craziness that they talked about a crisis after three games without scoring.”

[Non Barça Related]

R. Sociedad 0-1 R. Madrid

Real deserved a tie but Higuain finished it off

Barcelona have kept their invincibility in all competitions this season with an empathic 5-0 home win over Mallorca. Lionel Messi returned to his very best and scored a hat trick in just 30 minutes. Barcelona have now scored 26 goals and conceded none in their six home league games so far. Key players like Xavi Hernandez, Cesc Fabregas and Andrés Iniesta were rested today, but, inspired by Lionel Messi, Barcelona still had no trouble beating Mallorca.

Here are the ratings for today’s match.

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Watch the amazing moments from last night’s game against RCD Mallorca after the jump!

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A commanding performance from FC Barcelona put 5 goals past Mallorca with Messi scoring a hat-trick within 30 minutes and Cuenca and Alves completing the manita. Watch all the goals after the jump!

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Guardiola’s comments from his post-match press conference can be found below.

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After a 0-0 draw against Sevilla, a lackluster 1-0 win over Granada, and yet again the chorus of naysayers starting up its song, FC Barcelona came back with a vengeance to shut them up. Messi was the man of the hour (or 90 minutes, rather) when he redeemed himself and then some by scoring a hat trick in less than 30 minutes after a three game drought. More importantly, the team put up that revered manita on the scoreboard to prove, once again, that the blaugrana colors are still the best.

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RESULT:

FC Barcelona: 5

RCD Mallorca: 0

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FC Barcelona vs RCD Mallorca in the La Liga!

(Sunday October 29, 2011 @ 20:00 Barcelona time – Convert to local time)

FC Barcelona Chat: http://apps.facebook.com/fcbarcelonachat/ (direct chat through Facebook)

Click here to chat!

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Three players from the reserves, Isaac Cuenca, Gerard Deulofeu, and Martin Montoya, trained this Saturday morning with the first team and have been called up for the match this evening against Mallorca.

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Moudrid is already “grown”

“At these points in the campaign they alway see us as some little sheep that will be taken down by Mou’s wolves … and afterwards the thing ends as it ends and they start to cry.”