Agreed. Great awareness from the young lad, timed his run to absolute perfection, slipped assertively and gracefully behind the defender and a very cool, composed finish.

Yeah.
A promising future Too bad we lost.

This week end preview:
We are going to face UD Almería, laying at the 9th place.
Good news, Midfielder Yaya Toure and fullback Gianluca Zambrotta are expected to return from injury in time for promoted Almeria's visit to the Camp Nou.
But in the other hand Messi can be rested.

VS

2-0 with about 6 minutes to go.

It hasn't been a great game, but the 3 points will do just fine.

Henry has missed 2-3 very good chances so far. It's good that he keeps scoring but he's definitely not as lethal as he should be.

That penalty was a joke

Well executed though.

Oh and marios. You should've bought Drogba instead. He would finish those chances!

Yes Henry needs 200 chances to score a goal, Eto'o would score more goals.

Fixture 10: Vallololid 1 - Barcelona 1

V


A rather lackluster performance from Barca in mid-week has left many fans fearing that the team is making the same mistakes as last season. The players looked uninspired and generally didn't look bothered to play. This weekend, they have the perfect platform to relaunch their season as they come up against a struggling Betis side who were hammered 3-0 at home to Osasuna midweek. The side has only won once so far this season and sit just above the relegation zone on goal difference.

The pressure is on Barca to deliver, Frank Rijkaard has called on the players to show more fighting spirit and make sacrifices for the team, and they should convincingly beat the Andalucian club, but Cules will all too painfully remember the last time the two met at Camp Nou; a 1-1 draw that effectively ended their title hopes.

The game kicks off at 19:00 local time.
Chance to close the gap since Madrid lost to Sevilla.

This is a must-win game for us. Any other result will be a failure and the players/manager can expect a lot of criticism, imo.

Definitely

Announced squad:

Valdés, Jorquera, Sylvinho, Abidal, Zambrotta, Puyol, Thuram, Oleguer, Márquez, Xavi, Iniesta, Touré Yaya, Gujohnsen, Giovani, Messi, Ronaldinho, Henry and Bojan.

Milito is rested. Will mean that Puyol will likely pair with Marquez. The latter cost us again a goal against Vallololid, like he did in many games last season.
Abidal is back, therefore a little confidence.

FR probable line up
--------------------------Valdes

Zambrottta ----- Puyol ------ Marquez -------- Abidal


--------------------- Toure Yaya

---------- Iniesta ------------------------- Xavi


Messi ---------- Ronaldinho ---------- Giovani( Henry )

Henry I heard that perhaps he couldn't play against Rangers because he was injured and now I see that he can play this game. If Henry doesn't play I hope that Bojan plays, he is playing very well.

Henry is playing very well so far. He just scored his 5th Liga goal, he had a penalty decision go aganst him when there was definitely contact in the box and he hit the (inside of the) post, all within 34 minutes.

Iniesta, who gave the assist, is also quite good so far.


EDIT: Ronaldinho made it 2-0 with a nice free-kick
EDIT 2: and now 3-0 in injury time with a sly free-kick!

Wow, 2 FK goals in one game for Ronnie!

Wow, you don't see that often.

Barcelona are horrible against Getafe. One of the worst Barca games i've ever seen.

We're losing 1-0 with 7 minutes to go, Rijkaard benched Messi, Henry is doing nothing in offence and Bojan/Giovani aren't effective tonight.

And Zambrotta was just red-carded!

Terrible performance...

EDIT: 2-0 in the last minute

Great job, guys...

The attitude of Barça players when play away is lamentable.

I watched most of the Real match tonight and even though it looked like Mallorca would grab the away draw RVN managed to score a 4th goal for Real and the 3 points. Bad result for Barca.

Robinho, Raúl and Van Nistelrooy are spectacular when they connect

Raul, you should start a similar topic for Real's season. I think we need one.

Has Robinho won you over yet marios?

He's stunning! Tonight he was outstanding. He left a defender on his arse with his skill and nearly scored an amazing goal to complete his hat-trick.

Start a new thread.

Okay, but since there's only Sticky and me as Real Madrid supporters, I don't know if it'd get many responses...

That was the best individual performance I've seen from a player in a long, long time. He was unreal! I often find Robinho can be a bit wasteful and often makes the wrong decisions but I couldn't beleive what I was seeing. Tore Mallorca apart. If he maintains that form throughout the season I have no doubt Madrid will lift the title again as well as maybe a few individual awards for the wee man (I know 1 players performances wont win the title but if Robinho plays well, Madrid plays well)

Yeah, you're right about that. We only won that game because of Robinho. We conceded way too many goals, but were fortunate enough to have an amazing Robinho to play a major part in 3 of our goals.

Raul deserves a mention as well. He played well.

Guys, it doesn't matter that there are only 2 of you. Just start a thread. It's ridiculous to have half a page full of comments about Real in a Barcelona season thread.

Anyone wanting to comment on a Real game they can do so in that thread instead of any other random one.