Preview: Malaga - Barcelona(Click here)

(Sorry for the wait but this 1 is going to be quick and short)+

Kick Off: Saturday, September 26, 2:00pm EST
La Rosaleda, Malaga

The fortunes of Barcelona and Malaga could not have been more contrasting coming into Week 5 of La Liga. Malaga has lost their last 3 games. Barcelona on the other hand has swept away the 4 teams before them scoring 14 Goals on the way. La Rosaleda is an arena that will be fondly remembered by Barça from last season because it was there that Pep Guardiola’s side chalked up a convincing 1-4 win to move to the top of the table for the first time. Last November the team ignored the pouring rain and difficult conditions to overwhelm their Andalucian host to move into first place and they remained their for the rest of the campaign.

PepTalk

Hard work and determination are what Guardiola strives for and he has already told reporters what he thinks of their predictions.

“It is a lack of respect, after only four games, to think the title race will only be between Barça and Madrid. I do not believe that. If we have won until now it is because we have been really good on the ball,”

Once again Guardiola is completely focussed and has no thoughts about Dynamo Kyiv in midweek and is instead only thinking about Málaga.

TEAM NEWS

Malaga

Young midfielder Jordi Pablo remains a long term absentee for the home side due to a cruciate ligament injury. Coach Juan Lopez Muniz is likely to pack the midfield in an effort to stifle Barca, with Nabil Baha the loan front man.

Starting XI : Munua – Cuadrado, Gamez, Weligton, Mtiliga – Juanito – Valdo, Benachour, Xavi Torres, Duda – Baha

Barcelona

Barcelona squad: Valdes, Pinto, Maxwell, Abidal, Marquez, Puyol, Chygrynskiy, Pique, Alves, Xavi, Busquets, Toure, Keita, Iniesta, Pedro, Messi, Ibrahimovic, Henry, Jeffren. Reports suggest that Henry would spear head the attack of our trident, like when he did against Valencia and scored a hat trick(a game in which forgotten one Hleb had many assists to Henry). Ibra has recovered from sprain ankle but is unlikely to play any mins of this match so our

Starting XI could be: Valdes – Alves, Chygrynskiy, Puyol, Maxwell, The Yaya, Xavi,Iniesta, Messi,Henry Pedro

My Prediction

Malaga 1– 3 FC Barcelona

FC Barca Comedy(click here)

Different Speeds Of Our Club

* Barça on the pitch *

* Barça in the offices *

Referring to why our caveman Captain hasn't reach his contract agreement yet.

And now a Kanye West moment!!!!

The most effective start since the 1957-58 season(Click Here)

We already have 14 goals this season

We have not yet achieved the level of game-play wanted by Guardiola, but we have still started in the League at an incredible pace. In four league games we have scored 14 goals, with an average of more than three goals per game (3.5).

It is the highest number of goals at this stage of the season since the 1957-58 season. That team back then added 17 goals in the fourth day, while the absolute record dates back to the season of 1950-51: 21 goals scored on the 4^th day of that season. Interestingly, with all these goals we never became league leader or became League Champions. We finished fourth and third respectively in those seasons.

While our team is not yet fully fit(pending a full recovery of Bojan, Milto and Ibra), we have maintained a free flowing scoring Blaugrana side. Together Ibra and Messi adds nine goals, 64% of the goals of the team. Thierry Henry is the only Barca forward not to have open his account this season.

Our Super Swede once again scored the opening goal (which led to another trashing of a team) and also provided a tremendously accurate back heel to Pique. He was getting back on form before his injury. Hope isn't out to long and BTW why is it that when we face the boys we loaned out to other teams, they end up injuring one of our other players? First Alberto Botia harming Bojan in the Gijon match, with him still out with injury to this day because of that; and now this. Anyone elso nticed that????

As for Leo, he is unarguably the world number one right now. Take five goals in 185 minutes, when he also missed the first match of the league and played only his 1st complete match of the season against Atletico. He is tied on 5 goals with both David Villa and Ronaldo for leading scorer.

Our blaugrana team has scored in every official game so far, except in the Champions League at the San Siro against Inter Milan. But in the league we are showing, by far, the most efficiency.

Messi Hits Back At Critics

Messi is angry about the level of criticism, which he believes is unfounded...

The Barcelona star has been infuriated with all the accusations, which he claims are false. Furthermore, has called on everyone involved in the national setup to pull together in order to qualify for the World Cup finals.After two defeats this month, Argentina slipped to fifth in the South American qualifying table, and reports surfaced that Messi and Maradona are not talking any more.( Maradona blame Messi for all the defeated and truthfully the mistakes were came from his awful tactical strategy !!! )

"It is not true that he does not speak to me," Messi told Argentine radio.

"Our relationship is fantastic and he is great with all the players."Cynics have accused Messi of not producing his club form when he plays for Argentina, but the player points out that lack of practice hinders the team.

"You cannot compare because at Barcelona we train together every day and with he national team it is difficult to all come together for two games and play very well,"

he continued.

"It is true that at Barcelona I have great players next to me, but there are also great players in the national team who can play like we do at Barcelona."But I cannot win a game on my own, far from it. It is the responsibility of the whole team and we have to go out to win every match.

"Accusations that Argentina's European-based players are only motivated by money and are letting the national team down have also angered Messi."To say that is horrendous. We all feel the shirt and nobody likes to lose, even less so with the national team,"

he stated.

"Saying it has to do with money is wrong. If we did not feel the shirt then we would not make the effort to play for Argentina and travel to Australia or wherever the team is playing.

"If it was an economic thing then every player would stay at home. The players in Europe all travel to play."Sadly the results are not going well and we are not playing well, but that will change."We cannot continue to talk all this rubbish. We have to remain calm. This is a country that loves football and we have to stick together."

We May Miss Zlatan In Trip To Malaga

Ibrahimovic ankle injury...

The Swedish striker injured his right ankle during tonight’s 1-4 in the Sardinero. He has a grade 1-2 sprain and will have further tests on Wednesday.Zlatan Ibrahimovic left Santander with another goal to his personal tally but also with a grade 1-2 ankle sprain, as confirmed by Club doctors after the match. Bad luck Ibrahimovic suffered the injury right at the start of the second half in an innocent looking challenge on Henrique. He put his right foot down awkwardly and fell over. He was immediately checked out by doctors and then returned to the pitch. However, he was replaced by Pedro a few minutes later.

According to the Catalan club's official website he has suffered a hefty blow to his right ankle and will undergo further examinations.Ibrahimovic has scored in all four of Barca's league games this season and if he is not able to feature on Saturday then Thierry Henry could be given the chance to fill the central role.

Jonathan dos Santos Gets Mexcico Call up(Click Here)

Jonathan dos Santos as we all know him is a Barcelona midfielder, in the B-side

He is one of 18 players called up by Aguirre to face Colombia in the U.S.

This is the first time Jonathan has been called up to wear the shirt of Mexico, where his brother Gio has become a regular 1^st team starter in World Cup qualifying.

Jonathan has an EU passport and can play with selections from Spain or Mexico and even Brazil.

The list announced by the Mexican Football Federation includes only players who are active in the Mexican championship with the exception of Jonathan,so Marquez wasn't called up...

Review: Racing Santander - Barcelona by Mega(Click Here)

WOW WOW WOW.......Today we defeated Racing 4-1(a prediction I finally got right)with the words of "we have to get better" from both Pep and Cruff in the mind of the squad. They performed ruthless with that lovely tick tacky passing we all came to know.

We basically won this game thanks to a fantastic first half display that left me memories of last season.Three goals in the space of seven minutes from Ibrahimovic, Messi and Piqué was the story of the 1st Half. Messi added his second of the game in the 2nd Half which to me was beauty in motion from our little wizard.Pep only made two changes to the side that beat Atletico Madrid 5-2 on Saturday with Puyol and Abidal returning in place of Chygrynskiy and Maxwell.Surprisingly Yaya was left out after being rest in Saturday but we all know Pep has his reason.(IN PEP WE TRUST)

This game showed that the team is really starting to click with one another as Ibra linked up well with Messi and started to talk with Puyol,Pique and Keita as it was evident in Pique's goal.Although the game started kinda slow we still had five shots in the first twelve minutes of the game.The 1st goal came from a typical wide ball from Xavi to Messi who on the right, crossed the ball and was met by a leaping Ibrahimovic.

He headed the ball to the far post after jumping all over our on loaned Henrique,who IMO need a lot of work in positioning. Ibrahimovic nearly scored again a minute later but his shot from an angle on the right came out off the far post and IMO he is a player who plays depending on his EMOTIONS.Once he scores in a game he is on fire for a while then he eventually dies out.Can't wait to see what he does when he scores twice in a game.

I barely had time to catch my breath from Ibra's missed chance as the second goal came when Messi made it 0-2 after a one-two pass from Xavi (min 23).It was a great goal but the best was still to come as the 3rd goal came from a corner in which Ibrahimovic had his finger-prints all over.He got the attention of five defenders in the Box to back heel an amazing accurate pass to Piqué, who only had to right foot it past an onrushing Racing keeper.

By this time the crowd was in silence as we ran all over them,with slick passing and great control.

However, the second half started shakily for Barça. Ibrahimovic turned his right ankle and had to be replaced by Pedro and Henry moved to centre forward.

Meaning Racing were more effective in holding our pressure. but finally buckled again in the 63rd minute. Messi received the ball on the right wing, darted to the centre and left-footed the ball into the net from outside the box. This goal sent me wild as he faked and left so many defenders in his way.This is our lil Messiah as we know him running a muck at the defenders.

The Match seemed all over until Pep subbed of Pique for Marquez and Messi for Iniesta. The intesity died down and Racing had many chances on our defense. We finally conceded when Serrano took a leaf out of Messi’s book and pulled one back for the home side with a magnificent goal. We kept up the pressure right to the end and had chances to increase their lead but the game ended in 1-4.

It was an all-round performance that has given us a maximum four wins out of four and would've made Pep proud but as we know he is never satisfied(which i love)....Another fantastic performance from the team but I am sure fatigue and tiredness might start to kick in.This weekend we face a tricky away trip to Malaga who face our neighbors Espanyol 2moro.

Events:

Racing Santander: Tono, Pinillos, Morris, Henrique, Sepsi; Arana, Diop (Colsa, min 57), Lacen, Serrano, Munitis (Luis García, min 70) and Geijo (Xisco, min 57).

FC Barcelona: Valdes, Daniel Alves, Piqué (Marquez, min 57), Puyol, Abidal, Xavi, Busquets, Keita, Messi (INIST, min 64), Ibrahimovic (Pedro, min 52) and Henry. +

Goals: 0-1, min 21. Ibrahimovic. 0-2, min 24. Messi. 0-3, min 27. Pique. 4-0, min 63.Messi. 1-4, min 72. Serrano.