Barcelona’s Brazilian full back Dani Alves (26) will be out of action for the next three weeks due to a torn calf muscle in his right leg. The Brazilian, who initially entered Guardiola’s plans to play in the game against Getafe, suffered an injury during the warm-up to the match and had to be replaced by Maxwell.

Alves, who is one of the most versatile players of Barcelona, will now miss the league games against Atletico and Racing and the first leg of the Champions League game against Stuttgart.

For his part, midfielder Yaya Toure (26) was replaced midway through the second half as a result of a discomfort in his left leg. It seems to be an adductor tear, which will force him to stay away from the pitch for the next ten to fifteen days.

FULL MATCH HIGHLIGHTS:

If you are only interested in watching the goals, they can be found after the jump.
Continue reading »

RESULT:

FC Barcelona: 2

Getafe CF: 1

GOALSCORERS:

FC Barcelona: Messi (7′), Xavi (67′)

Getafe CF: Soldado (90+4′)

LINEUPS:

FC Barcelona: Valdes, Maxwell, Pique, Milito, Abidal, Toure, Xavi, Keita, Messi, Ibrahimovic, Iniesta

Getafe CF: Codina, Mario, Rafa, Cata Diaz, Torres, Parejo, Boateng, Albin, Miku, Rios, Soldado

SUBSTITUTES:

Continue reading »

Albert Dalmau (17) is a right wing back made in La Masia, who has the ideal attributes for a modern number ’2′. The youngster is incredibly fast and technical, but his coaches also stress on his great power.

Dalmau hails from a village named ‘Sils’, which has around 4,500 inhabitants and is located in the middle of the forest region, about 80 kilometers away from Barcelona. This town lives on cattle, swine, poultry farms and farming. From now on, this place can begin to be known as the birthplace of Albert Dalmau, the promising right back of Barca’s Juvenil A side, who has been training with the first team this past week and is an excellent alternative to fill in the right back position against Getafe, if Dani Alves does not recover in time for the game.

From the Juvenil’s to the first team

“I’ve played the preseason with the first team and if I have to play for Barca Atletic or the first team, then Im ready”, Dalmau told Barca TV, moments after Juvenil A’s victory against Girona (5-0) last Sunday.

Continue reading »

“Henry is still several steps ahead of Pedro”

FC Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola during a press conference on friday.

FC Barcelona – Getafe
(Saturday February 06, 2010 @ 20:00 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?

Continue reading »

Juventus defender and Barcelona loan out Martin Caceres (22), could be set to stay at Juventus according to reports from Italy.

Italian sports site Tuttosport reports Juventus directors Roberto Bettega and Alessio Secco will fly to Spain to discuss the transfer with Barcelona president Joan Laporta.

There is a buy-out clause in Caceres loan deal with Juventus for 13m Euro but Juventus are only willing to pay half of this amount according to the report.
Continue reading »

In an interview with Italy sports daily La Gazetta Dello Sport, Palermo midfielder Javier Pastore (20), has stated his dream to one day play for FC Barcelona.

“In 10 years’ time, I can see myself raising a family and hopefully I can wear the Barcelona shirt, I dream of challenging Messi and to have his shirt, but lets go slowly on that”, said Pastore

The Argentinian is having a fine season at the Sicilian outfit, where he has played 21 games so far this season, scoring 1 goal and chipping in with 3 assists. He’s seen as an attacking midfielder in the number 10 mould, and is currently drawing comparisons to some of the greats of world football. “I am getting better slowly, Kaka and Riquelme are two great players, but i still have a long way to go”.

Continue reading »

Dmytro Chygrynskiy is confident that he will succeed as an FC Barcelona player, as he continues his adaption to both the city and the club.

The Ukrainian defender was optimistic as he spoke to the press after training on Thursday and was in no doubt that he would rediscover the form that attracted the Blaugrana to him in the summer. “I am happy with how things have been going in training,” he explained. “The last week has gone very well for me. My level and my state of mind have been improving.”

Period of adaption

“I needed more time to adapt than I thought I would, but I knew that it would not be easy for me to play all the time,” Chygrynskiy continued. “Here there is more pressure from the fans and the press and the way of playing is very different to how the game is played in Ukraine. One thing is desire and another is reality. What I have to do now is show what I can do in training.”

Continue reading »

Former Arsenal manager George Graham, said in an interview that current arsenal boss Arsene wenger is a great fan of Barcelona and their total football but believes Wenger needs a physical presence.

“Arsene is a great believer in total football and I think he is a great admirer of Barcelona.

“Whether Arsenal can do a Barcelona in English football… there’s a big question mark over that. I think Wenger loves the way Barca play and I think he wants Arsenal to evolve in that way.”

Graham adds: “Arsene was the manager who developed that pacy and athletic game in England and I don’t know why he has changed it.

Continue reading »

Dani Alves has trained normally with the squad after working in isolation all week, while Éric Abidal trained with the first team for half the session and spent the other half alone. Youth player Albert Dalmau trained with the first team once again.

On Friday, the FCB players continued getting ready for the visit of Getafe. At the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper, the Barça squad trained on Friday morning behind closed doors, with the temperatures much warmer than they were on Thursday. There was good news in the return of Dani Alves, who warmed up with a fitness coach but then joined the rest of the squad. Due to a pulled leg muscle, the Brazilian has been working alone all week.

The other player with a minor injury, Éric Abidal, only joined his colleagues for about half of today’s session.

Continue reading »

Catalan sports paper Sport today reports that FC Barcelona winger Jeffren Suarez has agreed to renew his contract, pending his agent-father’s arrival on Monday to finalise the negotiation.

The 22-year-old Venezuelan-born player will be assigned the Number ‘20’ jersey – last worn by Deco. If Pep Guardiola chooses to play him against Getafe, he can don the jersey for the first time tonight.

Nonetheless, since UEFA does not allow modifications to the initial submitted players list, Jeffren will still have to play with his No. ‘35’ for this season’s Champions League.

Continue reading »

Speaking to France Football, Bayern Munich winger and France international midfielder Frank Ribery (26), insists that he wants to go to the World Cup knowing where he would be playing next season and expects to decide his future before the end of March.

“What I want is to be in the most competitive team, that offers me the means to win the most number of titles, either at Bayern or any other club. In April I will be 27 and will get to a crucuial point in my career, so I can not be wrong”
Continue reading »

DON’T BE OVER-CONFIDENT, BARÇA!

Three more points to put pressure on Madrid

Ibrahimovic should meet today with the goal again

Getafe “works” for the white ones. The president of the club, the coach and six players (amongst other staff) have white past.

Ribéry doesn’t deny yet to sign for Barça.

Former Barcelona player and currently player/captain of Feyenoord Giovanni van Bronckhorst had scored an fantastic goal that led to the best Eredivie goal of January. The Dutch international shot from a distance of approximately 30 metres and netted in a fantastic goal.
Feyenoord won that away game 3-0 against PSV Eindhoven, which was in the quarterfinal of the KNVB Beker (Dutch League Cup).

Visitors of Dutch newsite Voetbalzone voted 4.1/5.0 for the goal with a total of 20.669 votes.
Here you can see Van Bronckhorst’s goal:

This is a featured post. Please scroll down for all the latest news.

It’s back… This is your chance to prove not only your knowledge about the game of football but also your psychological insight by cracking the code of Josep ‘Pep’ Guardiola’s master brain:

PREDICT BARCELONA’S STARTING LINEUP
You can give your starting line-up until 3 hours before the start of the game against Getafe.

Continue reading »

THIS IS A FEATURED POST. PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ALL THE LATEST NEWS.

Saturday, February 6, 20:00 CET – Camp Nou, Barcelona

It has been a season of resilience. It has been a season of invincibility. It has been a season of sheer brilliance and above all defiance. FC Barcelona have now gone 20 games in the Spanish Primera season without losing a single game and have won more matches then any other side in Europe.

And it doesn’t look like it’s going to end their for the Blaugrana, as with each game the unstoppable Catalan avalanche is continuing to gather momentum and power and is forever casting shadowing doubts over it’s rivals as to whether or not it will ever be stopped.

Continue reading »

In this edition of Cruyff’s Corner:

Madrid’s wake up call at Riazor
The Message that Barca Transmits
The Red Card of Cristiano Ronaldo
Appeals, Sanctions, Cautions
The Test at Riazor
Pointing the finger at Henry and Ibrahimovic
The Goal Drought of Ibrahimovic

Continue reading »

In the Getafe La Liga pre-match press conference today, Pep Guardiola is preparing his players and fans for something so obvious: “If we perform well, it will take much longer, but sooner or later we will lose. I told them (the players) not to feel disappointed (when it does happen) as there are still a lot of league matches to be played, and the five points we have now means nothing yet.”

Touching on their opponent tomorrow, the FC Barcelona coach acknowledged Getafe’s virtues as a tough rival to beat as they have managed to draw at the Camp Nou two seasons in a row before this (0-0: 2007-08, and 1-1: 2008-09) : “They can tie a knot around you, so we must not fall into their trap.”

Continue reading »

Piqué says thank you for all his birthday messages on Facebook.

You can follow the official FC Barcelona Facebook page here. Make sure to also check out the official totalBarça Facebook page. The popular Live Match Chat is also available as an application on Facebook and allows you to chat directly via Facebook and has over 3000 followers.