UEFA champions league
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Barca survived an absolute onslaught from Stuttgart and came out with an un-deserving 1-1 draw. The crucial away goal could prove to be very crucial in the second leg for Barca. Cacau put Stuttgart ahead in the first half but Ibrahmovic equalised for Barca in the early second half. Johan Cryuff has described FC Barcelona’s performance in last match as their worst, he should have waited till this match. This was the worst Barca Performance for last three or four season. I cannot remember a match were we were so hopelessly over-run by the opponents. We looked like a second division team in the first half, but did well in the second half. We were up against the German efficiency which we usually associate with their national team, and failed miserably to stamp our authority. Guardiola chose Marquez and Pique to be in the defense, Puyol and Maxwell played the full back roles. The midfield was made up of Toure, Busquets and Xavi. The front line had Iniesta, Ibra and Messi.
Barca Players Competed With Each Other on being sloppy
This was the worst start to a match you could ever see. After the initial nerves, Stuttgart took full control of the match. Barca were uncharacteristically sloppy with their passing and was struggling to hold on to the ball. Stuttgart Manager had done his home-work and made sure that his midfield closed ours pretty fast. In the 13th minute Cacau had a good chance but he couldn’t
control his finish. Stuttgart started to atatck Barca from both the wings, especially the left. In the 21st minute Marquez cleared a dangeroius ball into the box with a sliding leg. In the 23rd minute FC Barcelona defense somehow managed to clear the danger from a Hleb free kick. But Stuttgart was not going to be denied. The deservingly went ahead in the 25th minute. Gebhart’s great cross from the right was headed past Valdes by Cacau at the far post. In the 28th minute Stuttgart had a great appeal for penalty after the ball hit Pique’s hand, but the referee waived on indicating that it was unintensional. In the 31st minute Stuttgart should have gone two goals up - Cacau used his body strength to turn Marquez and from a one on one situation tried to square the ball, which was somehow cleared by Barca. That was a big let off for FC Barcelona. In the 33rd minute Valdes makes another great save denying Khedira. In the 40th minute Barca had their first shot on target. Messi sets off on a great run and sends in a low shot which was parried by Lehman on to the post. In the 41st minute Valdes pulls off another save to deny Pogrebnyak to make sure the scoreline remain the same going into the break.
Barca’s Performance Improved slightly afrter the break
Everyone expected Barca to come out firing on all cylinder after the half. That was not to be the case. Their performance in the second half were better than first half, but nowhere near their usual standard. In the 52nd minute we got the equaliser we were looking for. Busquets played a cross into the box, the Stuttgart defense failed to clear, Pique did well to win the header and the
ball fell to Ibrahmovic, whose first shot was blocked by Lehman but luckily for us the rebound fell to Ibra agains and he made no mistake. We started to take control of the game after that goal, but then it lasted only for five minutes and we were back losing our midfield battle. Guardiola brought in Henry for Toure after the goal. In the 58th minute Milito replaced Marquez. In teh 67th minute Messi send in a great cross from right to Iniesta but his shot was blocked. Then in the 68th minute Barca had a definitive penalty appeal for hand ball turned down. Jens Lehman misjudged the flight of a corner and failed to hold or deflect the corner; the ball fell to Ibra whose goal bound shot was deflected wide by Molinaro elbow. That was a real case for penalty but I thought the referee was playing even after he didn’t give the penalty for Stuttgart. The rest of the half ended without too much of a scare. Valdes did really well to cut off any of Stuttgart scare.
As I said this was the worst performance I have seen in last five to six years. We have played much better even two seasons ago, when we finished third in the league. It was terrible to see we losing the midfield battle so easily. From the performance point of view, it will be foolish to judge who was the worst. The easiest option would be to see who was the best Barca player on the pitch - Victor Valdes. Messi at least showed some interest. Iniesta and Xavi were sloppy throughout the match. It is better not to say anything about Toure and Busquets and their performance. At times Toure looked better than Busquets, then he will commit a no-sense mistake. In the defnse I think Puyol was the only one who can hold his head a bit high. I know many would blame Guardiola for not using Iniesta and Xavi in the midfield from the start. But in an away match in Europe, I thought it was quite sensible to have a defnsive minded midfield. But the idea to use Xavi on the left rather than his usual position on right baffled me.
Many of you may consider that we should forget this performance and move forward. But for the last some matches our passing has been sloppy atleast in away matches. Guardiola needs to qaddress it as early as possible. He should show some confidence in Henry too. Ibrahmovic had a betetr night as far as finishing is concerned, but I am still not convinced with his position in our team.
Written by Bibin on February 23rd, 2010 with no comments.
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I missed to write about the Champions league draw. FC Barcelona got one of the easiest pairing with Stuttgart as opponent. No offence meant to Stuttgart fans and players, but there was a potential chance of facing bayern, AC Milan or Lyon. The first leg of the tie takes place in Stuttgart on 23rd of February and the reaturn leg will take place in Camp Nou on 17th of March. Ex-Barca player Hleb is in the squad of Stuttgart and will make his first return to Camp Nou after the transfer. Stuttgart had a great last season but they are way off colour this season. Bundesliga has reached the half-way mark and Stuttgart lie in the 15th position. So Barca definitely could not have asked for a much better tie. Meanwhile all across Europe there has been some interesting paring for the knockout stage. Italina teams AC Milan and Inter will face Manchester United and Chelsea respectively. The English teams will definitely have the advantage of playing the second leg at home, even then an English - Italian encounter always is volatile.
Real Madrid has been paired with Lyon. The french Champions could be a very strong opponent for Real but again Real plays the second leg at home. The whole line up is given below:
Inter Milan v Chelsea
Lyon v Real Madrid
AC Milan v Manchester United
Olympiakos v Bordeaux
FC Porto v Arsenal
CSKA Moscow v Sevilla
Stuttgart v Barcelona
Bayern Munich v Fiorentina
Meanwhile World Club Champions, Barca has arrived in Kuwait for playing a friendly with local club Kazma Sporting Club.
Written by Bibin on December 21st, 2009 with no comments.
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FC Barcelona will come to know about their opponent in knock-out stage of Champions league tonight. The draw will take place at UEFA Headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. Barca’s potential opponents are Bayern Munchen, AC Milan, CSKA Moskva, Porto, Lyon, Stuttgart and Olympiacos. AC Milan with ex-Barca star Ronaldinho. Bayern, Lyon, CSKA and ex-Barca star Hleb featuring Stuttgart all are tough opponents in that group. Even though AC Milan is a pale shadow of their illustrous past, they feature in my list of “should avoid” teams. But a greater look at the other opponents also point to us a fact that this year there may not be any easy fixtures. Barca will be playing the second leg at home, courtesy of emerging as group winners. Bayern Munchen destroyed Juventus away on their way to the knock-out stage, meanwhile Lyon made it through a tough group featuring Fiorentina, Liverpool and themselves. So they all have form in their favour but historically we have done well against these teams.
CSKA will be a tough opponent as they will play more of a physical style and will very tough opponent at home. I would prefer Olympiacos or Porto as opponent. Which is your preferred opponent?
Written by Bibin on December 18th, 2009 with no comments.
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FC Barcelona topped Group F after a 2-1 comeback victory against Dynamo Kiev. Barca went down a goal down in the 2nd minute of play but goals from Xavi and Messi saw Barca registering a well deserved victory at Kiev. Inter meanwhile beat Rubin Kazan 2-0 at San Siro and qualified along with Barca for the knowckout stage. Barca and Inter were everyones favourite to go through this group but nobody expected it will this much dramatic. Courtesy of being the winner of the group, Barca will now play the return leg of the knockout stage at home. Barca’s likely opponents are Olympique Lyon, Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Olympiakos, CSKA Moscow, Porto or Stuttgart. Barca would feel relived to have avoided the chance of pairing with English teams this early in the competition. Guardiola once agained dropped Toure in favour of Busquets. Nown it looks more than certain that wee would see Toure moving out may be in January, if not definitely in the summer. Valdes kept the goal ahead of a defensive line of Alves, Pique, Puyol and Abidal. Xavi, Busquest and Keita formed the midfield. Messi, Ibra and Iniesta formed the attacking trio.
The match started in a complete wrong note for Barca. Kiev went ahead in the 2nd minute from a Milevskiy header. Shevchenko sent in a great free kick from the right side and it got the slightest of touch from Milevskiy, but Valdes made a meal of that and guided the ball through his hands into the goal. That goal looked to have rattled Barca, especially Iniesta who gave away cheap ball in more than one occasion. In the 13th minute Barac had their first shot on target 
from a mistake from Dynamo Kiev goal keeper Shovkovskyy. He kicked the ball staright to Messi but did well to deny Messi by pulling out a great save. In 23rd minute Shovkovskyy once again did well to parry away a Dani Alves effort. By then it was clear that Barca has settled down and was taking control of the game. In the 33rd minute we were rewarded with a Xavi goal. That made sure that Barca will qualify from the group and it alteast settled my nerves. Messi played the ball to Abidal wide on the left, Abidal sent in a great low cross into the box which was met by xavi, who was playing his 100th Champions league match. The rest of the half went without much fanfare.
In the second half we were taking complete control of the game. But it was Kiev who had the first real chance of the half. Leandro headed wide from a great Schevchenko cross. Messi was exquisite throughout the second half. In the 70th minute Magrao had to pull out a great challenge to stop a dangerous Messi run. In the 72nd minute Iniesta plays a great ball to Messi but his shot was blocked by Betao. In the 80th minute Pedrio rpelaced Iniesta. In the 86th minute Barac went 2-1 ahead from a free kick which he only won in the first place. Messi then was injured by a clumsy tackle and now looks like will miss the derby against Espanyol. In the 
first minute of injury time Ibrahmovic terrific strike was somehow saved by Shovkovskyy. It was quite funny, Ibra’s free kick was very powerful that Shovkovskyy didn’t saw it but his struck his face.
This one victory may not have been a very beautiful one, but when we consider the situations and scenarios associated with it, was a very efficient one. The “Toure Saga” looks to have come to an end with this match and I would be surprised to see him playing here next season. Busquets meanwhile is doing good with his chances and has to be appreciated. Iniesta was kind of off-colour last night. he is getting involved in teh match but is not influencing the match like he has done last season. Messi after winning Balon d’Or has gone wild. He is causing terror at heart of defense and was sensational last night. Valdes is back to his best;-).
Written by Bibin on December 10th, 2009 with no comments.
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UEFA has started the process of selecting UEFA Team of the Year on their website. You can pick your best Eleven ast UEFA Team of the Year. Eleven Barca players have been nominated for this year’s award. Manchester United has six players in the list. The Barca players on the list are ValdĂ©s, Alves, Puyol, PiquĂ©, Txigrinski, Abidal, TourĂ©, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi and Ibrahimovic. Meanwhile ex-barca player Samuel Eto’o has also made into nomination list. I am not so happy with the way the formation has been selected. UEFA has gone for a traditional 4-4-2 formation while selecting the eleven. But what makes me angry is that there is no defensive midfielder position, a role which has become the most important one in modern day football. They have the central midfield, attacking midfield, right midfield and the left midfield position. The central midfield role should have been the defensive midfielder. Right now we have Xavi and Yaya Toure together in the central midfield role; it is clear that Yaya after having a great lst season, will not get any vote because he is paired with Xavi. Chelsea’s Michael Essien mysteriously finds no place in the nomination list. My selection is on the picture have a look.
Written by Bibin on December 5th, 2009 with no comments.
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For the second time in a row, I got my Champions League prediction spot on. FC Barcelona registered a 2-0 comfortable victory over Inter at the Camp NOu keeping their qualification hopes very well alive. In the other match in the group, Rubin drew with Kiev; that was a great result for Barca. Now if Barca can avoid a 3-0 defeat at Kiev, we will be in the knockout stage. Courtesy of this performance from the thoughts of qualification, the focus has shifted to topping the group. When Guardiola announced that Barca didn’t need Ibrahmovic and Messi to defeat Inter, everyone had their doubts. The goals from Pique and Pedro proved him right. Abidal was earlier reported to have H1N1 flu, but it turned out to be false. So Guardiola had the familiar formation of Alves, Pique, Puyol and Abidal in defense. The midfield as expected had Xavi, Busquets and Keita. Iniesta , Henry and Pedro formed the attacking trio. In my preview I have written that moving Henry to centre-forward position may prove counter productive. Henry did struggle in his role but Pedro was exceptional on the left and two goals at the right time also meant that we wasn’t bothered by the fact that Henry had an average game.
Inter only needed a draw to improve their chances for qualification. Their approach at the beginning proved that they were not looking for anything more than a draw. That helped Barca a lot. Barca started the game with great intent. In the 7th minute Iniesta, who was constantly 
moving into midfield send in a great cross to Xavi in the middle, but Xavi couldn’t connect. Then in the 10th minute Barca went ahead in an unlikely fashion. Xavi’s corner was flicked and lifted by Henry at the near post and Pique at the far post made no mistake. That was a classic old style of taking corners. That early goal meant Inter have a huge task ahead. But Inter looked not very much interested in getting back to the game. In the 15th minute Xavi saw his free kick go just high from outside the box. Thne in the 26th minute Pedro made the scoreline with a good finish. It was a trademark Barca move, Xavi received the ball from Iniesta in the middle and send in a pass spotting a long run by Alves on the right, only Xavi could see his run, Alves then send in a cross spotting Pedro on the far post who made no mistake with his finish. In the 25th minute Valdes who was virtually non-existent till that time made a horrendous mistake from a Abidal back pass, but luckily Stankovic shot went sailing over the crossbar. In the 45th minute Keita 
saw his header from an Alves corner being held by Julio Cesar.
The second half lacked the tempo of the first half. Barca were more interested in protecting their lead. BUt it cannot be forgotten that they at times displayed some great skills in ball possession. In the 54th minute Xavi almost nade it 3-0 with a great header from an Alves cross but Julio Cesar pulled out a magnificent one hand save. In the 68th minute Julio Cesar pulled out another fine save to deny Alves free kick. Guardiola brought in Bojan for Pedro in the 85th minute. Pedro received a very much deserving standing ovation from the Camp Nou faithfuls. In the 89th minute Maxwell replaced Abidal and in the 93rd minute Jonathan Dos Santos made his Champions League debut replacing Iniesta.
This was a good performance by the ream especially considering that Messi and Ibra were absent. Pedro was exceptional and it is to be seen wehether he gets picked ahead of Hnery in El Classico. Iniesta looked much better that his previous games. There were his usual turns, tricks and passing. He is not at his very best but he is still so dangerous. He showed great vision to drop into midfield and organise play along with Xavi. This performance also calls upon Guardiola to use the 4-4-2 system sometimes, especially with teams which are intended to defend. Xavi simply was the best Barca player on the pitch. He created everything, his vision finding Alves on the right for the second goal was simply out of this world. The rest of the players played their part. It will be really unfortunate to criticize Henry for his performance as he is not used to playing in centre role nowadays.
Written by Bibin on November 25th, 2009 with no comments.
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FC Barcelona has essentially put their Champions League qualification at risk by drawing against the Russian champions. With this draw we stand at second in standing and have a chance to end the night at third in overall standing if there is anything other than a draw in the match against Inter and Kiev. Barca now have to win their remaining two matches to go through to the next round. A failure to see off the Ukranian Champions will effectively kick us out of the competition. FC Barcelona struggled to come to terms fully with the slowness of the pitch and it didn’t aid their attacking play. At Kiev the condition will be similiar to Kazan’s so Guardiola needs to think up something big to get the team through. Guardiola with his stupid idea of not using his substitutions early is not aiding the team at all. Tonight Henry was introduced in the 82nd minute, too late to make any impact. Guardiola started Alves , Puyol, Pique and Abidal in the defnse. The midfield was made up of Keita, Toure and Xavi. The attacking trio were Iniesta, Ibrahmovic and Messi.
For some strange reason Iniesta and Keita swapped their positions in the middle throughout the first half. Barca started the match with serious intent. We had two corners in the first two minutes. In the 3rd minute a delightful Iniesta pass put Ibrahmovic onside but his curling shot hit the outside of the far post. In the 5th minute Keita saw his volley from well outside the box going horribly
wide. Then we had a session where we had all the possesion but with no end products. The man to man marking of Rubin was excellent and the ball was slowing on the pitch too. Then in the 19th minute Xavi tried to chip above the goal keeper but went high. In the 21st minute Ibrahmovic lays off the ball to Messi after some great chest control, Messi wriggles past defenders but goal keeper was quick to come and colect the ball. In the next minute Messi and Xavi were involved in another great move but the defnse somehow clears the danger. Rubin was looking to hurt Barca on the counter, especially through the wings. In the 41st minute Valdes had to make an excellent save to deny Ryazantsev. Barca did try to improvise on the free kick at the other side but Iniesta’s shot was blocked.
In the second half Iniesta went back to his position in the front left and Barca started to conjure up some attacking moves. In the 52nd minute the goal keeper fumbles a long shot from Toure but the defense were on hand to clear the danger. In the 54th minute Iniesta shot wide after shaking off some challenges in getting into the box. By the hour mark Rubin started looking deadly dangerous after the introduction of Bukharov. In the 74th minute Bukharov had a great chance but his chest control wasn’t that great helping Valdes to get hold of the ball. In the 78th minute Rubin had the best chance of the night. Domigues played a beautiful dummy to let the cross from left reach Bukharov, he cut inside Puyol and breaks clean on ball; Valdes reacts immediately and blocks and the rebound was cleared by Puyol. Guardiola finally understood the idea of substitution and brought in Henry for Keita in 82nd minute. he looked dangerous in the time he was on th
e pitch and it only begs one question why he was not introduced earlier. In the 88th minute henry had the best chance for Barc in second half. Alves send in a great cross at the far post, the defnder fail to clear it and it reaches Henry who could not tap it in. Maybe he was blinded by the leaping defender.
This definietly is not a good result for Barca. Now this could turn out to be good only if Kiev and Inter draw at Milan. Then we will go back to top. But now the equation is pretty simple for us - win the next two matches and get in the second round. The last match against Inter looks a better proposition than the away match at Kiev at this moment. Meanwhile Guardiola’s tactics of not bringing on Henry earlier is quite strange. Iniesta had a quite match and as I wrote in the preview that he needs to have a good match for us to feel comfortable. We saw Messi making some runs but was well below par tonight. Xavi and Toure were excellent eventhough they couldn’t quite contribute much in attack. But now its time for us to pick up the pieces and get ready for the challenges in Liga. We had to get some good result in and have the confidence back before we make the trip to Kiev.
Written by Bibin on November 4th, 2009 with no comments.
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I have been on road for last two days and missed the Champions league match against Rubin Kazan. So this one resulted in the first defeat officially this season. Now if we take the last three matches into presective, there could be some alarm bells ringing. The 1-0 victory against Almeria was far from convincing, the draw at Valencia was aided by some heavy fortune and the 2-1 defeat can be attributed to lack of the same. But the cry of a crisi could be too pre-mature but everyone agrees that if we don’t deal with this early this could spell trouble. In the last three matches we definitely had trouble with our finishing especially against a desperately defending side. Complacency could have been a big contributing factor but I think the bigger factor could be that we are not yet playing at the pace which we used to play last season. It is also time for us to understand and plan for ultra defensive opponents. I have earlier explained that rather than crying about these tactics we could do a world of good if we start preparing for these types of matches.
The home defeat against Rubin Kazan put Barca in a precarious position. We are now looking ata possibility of being eliminated from the group. The usual estimation was that by the completion of the match against Rubin at camp Nou we should have taken a sizeable lead in the group. Now this group resembles the real group of death. It is going to be very tough winning at Russia and Ukraine and that has become must win matches for us. The overall performance of the team agaisnt Rubin Kazan was pretty ok. The first goal was definitely a mistake from part of Valdes, If you watch the replays you can cleary see that valdes most probably had it covered but never went in full stretch to take that goal. The second goal has been a usual style goal agaisnt barca. But in between we have made enough chances but could not capitalise on it. May be the international break did effect us. Whatever be the reason it is time for our team to buckle up. On the positive note, this defeat has come very early in the seasona nd could energise Barca back to the best. No team has ever won the Champions League with out losing a single match. Now since we have lost one now we are very well on path to Bernebeu (Ending the post in a positive note).
Written by Bibin on October 23rd, 2009 with no comments.
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FC Barcelona started their UEFA Champions League defense with a goal-less draw at San Siro. This is never a bad result but with the chances we had we could have come out with three points with ease. It was a clash of the best atatck in the world against one of the most organised defense in the world. This was billed as the match-up between Eto and Ibrahmovic. Eto never had a sniff of our goal but Ibrahmovic wasted some golden oppurtunities. From the evidence of tonight’s match, it is clear that Ibrahmovic will take hell lot of time to get in sync with the team mates and it is yet to be seen whether it will make our La Liga title defense more worse. Guardiola decided to start Iniesta from the bench for this match. Valdes started at the goal. Alves, Puyol, Pique and Abidal started in defense. The midfield was made up of Xavi, Toure and Keita. Henry, Ibra and Messi formed the attacking trio.
Barca cam on top in the early exchanges and could have gone three up within the first ten minutes. In the second minute xavi played the ball to Messi; Messi set off in a great run cutting inside two defenders but his low shot was well saved by Julio Cesar. In the 8th minute Ibrahmovic wasted Barca’s best chance of the match. Xavi sent in a great cross to Ibra putting him ahead of the defense; he did the tough job of controlling the ball well with a great first touch 
but then volleyed an easy chance high. Then in the next minute Messi’s header from Alves cross was saved by Cesar. After that our pace drop a lot and Inter started getting a foot hold in the match. Milito and Eto were working very high strangling our defense and that pressure cut off our smoot movement. The absence of Iniesta affected us a lot in this phase as Keita looked completely out of sort. In the 29th minute Inter had their first decent chance when our defense gave Milito a chance to run in from a long ball from Julio Cesar but Valdes did well to save his strike. In the 33rd minute Wesley Sneijder saaw his effort fly over. There was a huge scare when in the 40th minute Abidal slipped in the box giving Eto a sighting but Pique did well to clear. In the 41st minute Xavi played a great ball to Alves breaking the offside trap; Alves played the ball back to Keita who shot wide from an easy position. he should have atleast forced the Kulio Cesar to make a save there. Then in the 45th minute Messi saw his effort tipped over by Juli Cesar but the Inter Milan custodian had everything under control in that position.
Barca started the second half with more intent. We started dominating the possession and pinned the Inter completely back to their half. In the 62nd minute Keita shot high after the ball has been laid off to him by Ibrahmovic. In the 66th minute Eto played a great ball playing Milito on; but luckily for us he loses his footing inside the box allowing Puyol to get back on and rebound 
fell to Stankovic and his effort went just high of far post. Then in the 72nd minute Barca wasted their best chance of second half - Alves and Messi combined well down the right; Alves played the ball to Henry ; Henry controlled the ball and send in a low cross in but both Messi and Alves cancelled each other with their desperate lunge and the ball went wide. Henry had a poor first half but was getting into the game in the second half. And hence it was a surprise to see Guardiola replacing him with Iniesta in the 76th minute, when actually keita was doing nothing on the pitch. In the 85th minute Inter had a great chance to break but Toure read the situation well and pulled back Santon earning him a yellow card in the process.
It was not a classical Barca performance and we lacked the speed and movement for major part of the game. Guardiola’s tactic of not using his substitutes is annoying. Iniesta should have been brought just after the hour mark in place of Keita. Keita looked very poor throughout the match. Abidal had a very tough first half but did well in the second. Toure looked very scrappy in the first twenty minutes but looked composed after that. Ibrahmovic was slowing down most of Barca’s move and he needs to improve on finishing. He was brought to probvide more aerial threat but he never came on top not even a single time in those situations. Messi looked good but the best player on the pitch for Barca was Xavi.
Written by Bibin on September 17th, 2009 with no comments.
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FC Bracelona - 1, Shaktar Donetsk - 0
FC Barcelona won the UEFA Super cup for the third time in history with a 1-0 victory over Shaktar at the Louis II stadium in Monaco. A late Pedro Rodriguez strike in the second half o the extra time was the difference between the two sides. FC Barcelona went with a line-up as I predicted to the build up of the match. Valdes, Alves, Puyol, Pique and Abidal formed the defense; Xavi, Toure and Keita were present in midfield; Henry, Ibra and Messi formed the attacking troika. From the beginning it was clear that Shaktar was taking an ultra defensive approach. Barca started the match very slowly and there was no pace in the build up. This suited Shaktar well and they held firm without creating much of chances. Throughout the first half and upto half way in the second half, the match was very boring. It was so boring that you can confidently take a nap without missing any action, as there were none. In that time there were only three shots on target from both sides.
Once the Half way mark was over in the second half the match started to liven up. Messi was the first one to test Shaktar goal keeper after some fancy footwork and then Henry tested him with a shot from outside the box. Pedro was brought in the second half but never created any special moments. Once Bojan came in there were 
some nice moments when he paired with Messi. In the extra time, it was evident that the defense of both the sides were tired. Valdes had to intervene twice to cut out danger and there were some desperate defending from Puyol. But still Barca looked the only side capable of scoring on the night. Then in the 116th minute of the game Pedro scored the winner with a great finish after some great build up with Messi. Pedro squared the ball to Messi and moved in; Messi place the ball into the centre of box inviting Pedro through the defenders legs and Pedro obliged with a great finish. Many may argue the best Barca player was Messi; but for me the best Barca player on the pitch was our Captain Carlos Puyol. He had a great time in defense winning tackles after tackles and cutting of every Shaktar chances.
Written by Bibin on August 28th, 2009 with no comments.
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Barca survived an absolute onslaught from Stuttgart and came out with an un-deserving 1-1 draw. The crucial away goal could prove to be very crucial in the second leg for Barca. Cacau put Stuttgart ahead in the first half but Ibrahmovic equalised for Barca in the early second half. Johan Cryuff has described FC Barcelona’s performance in last match as their worst, he should have waited till this match. This was the worst Barca Performance for last three or four season. I cannot remember a match were we were so hopelessly over-run by the opponents. We looked like a second division team in the first half, but did well in the second half. We were up against the German efficiency which we usually associate with their national team, and failed miserably to stamp our authority. Guardiola chose Marquez and Pique to be in the defense, Puyol and Maxwell played the full back roles. The midfield was made up of Toure, Busquets and Xavi. The front line had Iniesta, Ibra and Messi.
