We Love Barcelona

The manager of Barcelona, Gerardo Martino, is very happy that his side has performed well in the high pressure games of late.

Barcelona has had some indifferent results in the Spanish top flight in the last couple of months because of which they lost their top position in the points table, but, now, it seems that they are back in rhythm and are well and truly in the race for the title. They are still not leading the table though, but, they are not too far away from it.

In the last few days, Barcelona has won two high pressure games. First, the El Clasico against the arch rivals Real Madrid and then the Barcelona derby against the local rivals Espanyol and in both those victories, it’s their superstar Lionel Messi who played the main role.

Talking to the reporters after the match against Espanyol, Martino said, “I knew it was going to be a tight game and thus, it was important for us to be on our toes. I am really proud of the way the boys showed character. We are peaking at the right time.”

When asked about Victor Valdes who has been ruled out of the season because of injury, Martino said, “This win was for Victor. He has been a great player for Barcelona over a long period of time. It was obviously unfortunate the way he went out, but, that’s life.”]

Victor Valdes would make an away move next summer which means that he would never feature for Barcelona again.
The Spaniard has been at Camp Nou since 2002 and has represented Blaugrana in close to 400 league games.
He had established a ligament injury in the match against Celta Vigo which Barcelona had won by 3-0.

Barcelona manager Gerardo Martino has stated that the players should remain focused if they are to achieve success at the end of the season. The Argentine was speaking after the 2-0 win over Manchester City in the Champions League. The win has helped them get a foothold in the first leg of the last 16 round in the competition.

They are now favourites to progress into the quarter-finals where they could be joined by the likes of PSG and Chelsea. Barcelona have not been up to their usual high standards this campaign.

This has largely been attributed to the tactics of manager Martino, who has been accused of playing the ball too soon to the frontmen. Martino, however, did not change the philosophy of the team during their visit to the Etihad stadium. Barcelona not only dominated possession, but they also created numerous chances over the course of the 90 minutes. Lionel Messi opened the scoring for the first time against an English club away from home with a penalty. The red card to Martin Demichelis during the build-up only helped the situation for the Catalan club.

Daniel Alves scored a late goal to make the game safe for the club. Despite this commanding position, Martino says that the players should be aware of the threat from City in the second leg.

“For 10 minutes during the first half we lost control a little, but in the rest of the game we did well. We have to remain calm and continue along the same path because there is no time to relax as we must now start thinking about our next game in La Liga. We have clear objectives in each tournament. We can play better or we can play worse than tonight but in no way are we going to relax,” Martino told http://www.sublimeshot.com.

The manager of Barcelona FC, Gerardo Martino, has made it quite clear that he is not in any hurry at all to bring one of his superstar players Lionel Messi back into the side.

Messi hasn’t featured for Barca in the last couple of months because of his hamstring problem. However, he has been training since the last few days and is close to achieving match fitness. There were speculations that he might be making his comeback in Barca’s upcoming La Liga game against Atletico Madrid which will be played at Vicente Calderon this Saturday, but, Martino’s statements suggest that his fans might have to wait a bit longer to see him back playing.

According to Martino, he doesn’t want Messi to come back with 90% fitness and then get ruled out again. So, he will bring him back only when he is fully prepared for that.
The fact is that Barcelona hasn’t missed Messi that much. They have been playing quite well in his absence and have been securing points without having too many problems. So, there is no need to risk the 26 years old Argentinean superstar by putting him on the ground immediately.

Talking to the reporters yesterday about Messi’s comeback, Martino said, “Nothing is certain at the moment. We will assess him and see if he is feeling good about himself or not. It’s not only about getting prepared physically. We will have to take the mental thing into account as well.”
“The last thing we want is to bring him back in a hurry and then lose him for another few weeks. That would not be ideal at all.”

Barcelona has won 16 out of the 18 matches that they have played in the La Liga this season.

Spanish giants Barcelona are quite confident that they would agree a contract with Spanish international Andres Iniesta to cover his deal at the club before Christmas in Spain and art the same time end linkups to Manchester United.

The Catalan team has been locked in dialogues as they bid to sway the midfielder to commit his future to Barcelona as rumors earlier suggested that he might leave the club. Iniesta have been strongly linked with English Premier League champs Manchester United as they might offer him a brand new adventure, but the Catalan club believe that they would fend off any interest from other clubs.

According to reports, sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta said a leading radio station that they are close to a new contract with Andres Iniesta. The deal could happen before Christmas break.

Barcelona are weighing up a move for Dimitar Berbatov, the Fulham striker. With Argentine playmaker Lionel Messi ruled out till the New Year, Barca boss Gerardo Martino now wants to tot up cover in his attacking squad.

A leading United Kingdom based tabloid claimed that Dimitar Berbatov, the former Manchester United player, is not happy with his current club Fulham’s perilous league position and the enigmatic Bulgarian could really be Barca’a man. Dimitar’s contract at Fulham ends at the season’s end and if he refuses a new deal with them, then they could get his services for a little fee.

Cristian Tello is regarded as one of the upcoming superstars for Barcelona. He played 34 matches for the club last season and has scored eight goals in those matches. He was expected to kick on even more this season, but so far his only league start has come against Sevilla.

In the previous two matches, he was used as a substitute only, but this does not worry the youngster. He has said that his relationship with the manager Gerardo Martino, who took over the club only in the summer, is excellent. He is looking forward to making more starts in the future.

Barcelona managed a 3-2 victory in the match, which helped them maintain the 100% start to the season. However, they could have easily lost two points in the match had it not been for the injury time winner. Sevilla stunned the home fans by coming back from a two-goal deficit to equalise the match in the late minutes, but Barcelona went ahead and scored with only a few minutes remaining. Cristian Tello has a lot of competition for his place given that the club only recently signed Neymar for £ 50 million. The likes of Alex Sanchez and Pedro are some of the other players competing for his position.

“Martino is adding facets to our game that perhaps we lacked, so as not to be predictable. My relationship with him is very good, it is very close. He asked me to be focused all year and that I would not drop down if I do not play every minute that I would like. For now I have the confidence of the coach and I do not plan on leaving. The coach knows what we need and I believe that we are doing very well. Alexis [Sanchez], Pedro, Neymar and myself are all working for a place,” said Tello.

Celta de Vigo manager Luis Enrique has revealed that the rumours linking him with a move to Barcelona are untrue. Enrique has been linked with the Barcelona managerial job after the Catalan club recently lost manager Tito Vilanova, who decided to step down due to health concerns.

Vilanova has been undergoing cancer treatment in the last few months, and it is believed that the recurrence of the problem has made him step down after just one year in charge of the club. During this period, he managed to lead Barcelona to a league title.

Enrique recently confirmed that he will be staying at Celta at least for the coming season. Enrique has extensive connections with Barcelona after having represented them in the playing days for more than eight years. He was also the manager of the Barcelona B team for three years as well. After the resignation of Vilanova, Barcelona have been linked with several managers in the last few days. Enrique has been one of the most talked about managers, but the former Roma manager has ruled out any chance of him taking over the managerial job at the camp Nou by saying that these are all just rumours.

Enrique recently promised Celta that he will stay at the club for one season at any situation.

“Either from the club or by me, there has been no contact, it is simply hearsay. These are things which from within the club we have been oblivious all week. I’ve been continuing with the same idea of preparing for pre-season. With Barca, I will be eternally grateful because I played there for eight years and they were the first to trust me as a coach. He’s a natural fighter. I hope the recovery goes as well as possible. We are all with him,” said Enrique.

Chelsea midfielder Oscar has said that the England national team players should be warned enough about the threat posed by new Barcelona signing Neymar. The Santos striker recently sealed a spectacular move to Barcelona after agreeing a contract for five years.

The 21-year-old is widely regarded as one of the best young players in the world. Even though he has not been at his best in recent international matches with Brazil, Oscar believes that he will be able to show his true form against England.

Oscar himself only recently moved to England. He had just completed his first season with Chelsea, which has been a relative success after the team managed to win the Europa league and qualify for the Champions League group stages.

After having played more than 70 matches for club and country, Oscar has said that he is looking forward to getting a well-deserved break after the end of the confederations cup. He is expected to be a part of this tournament. Brazil will be taking on England at the new Maracana stadium, which has been completely renovated for the purpose of hosting the World Cup.

After several doubts, the game is finally set to take place at this iconic stadium in Rio de Janeiro.

“Neymar is a big player and his arrival at Barcelona will only increase the level of his game. That will be very good for Brazil in a year’s time. He is a spectacular player and moving to Europe will only help him develop his skill, ability and make him even better. Scolari is preparing this match with every detail. He has made it nearly an official match for us. Brazil needs to improve the image and England is a special test. Our fans deserve to see the best from Brazil before the Confederations Cup,” said Oscar.

Barcelona have been one of the strongest teams in the world over the last few years. They have also been extremely successful since 2005. The success in recent years, though, has been built on a strong foundation of passing and possession football.

However, Barcelona have failed on a few occasions due to conceding a lot of goals. The Barcelona defender Adriano has said that this is one area where the club should improve if they are to be even more successful future. Adriano has seen the club make a spectacular start to the season and then sustain it over the course of the last few months.

Barcelona have been remarkable in the first half of the season in such a way that they only recently suffered their first league defeat of the campaign. The club will be taking on archrivals Real Madrid in the semi-final of the Copa del Rey doing that they can fully concentrate on this competition with the league title almost in the bag. The team will be facing the archrivals in a two legged semi-final match knowing that they can take revenge for the defeat suffered earlier in the season. Due to the fact that Madrid will be giving a lot of attention to this competition, Barcelona need to be awake defensively according to Adriano.

“We have to pay more attention to counterattacks and set pieces, it’s very important to concede very few goals. The Clasicos are very tense matches and the team that’s better on the day usually wins. I really don’t care about how the teams are coming into Wednesday’s game. We shouldn’t pay attention to the controversy, we just need to focus on playing and scoring more goals that our opponents,” said Adriano. The first leg will be taking place at the Santiago Bernabeu.