FC Barcelona Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

I thought the €500,000 bonus thats triggered after playing 60% of the games was ridiculous. These guys recieve obscene amounts of money and do not deserve it in the first place and also get this on top of it ! Insane. Rijkaard came acorss as a bit dull.

Check out the key facts and stats ahead of the game at the Stade Gerland.

Lyon conceded six headed goals - more than any other side in the Group Stage.

Nine of the 10 goals Lyon conceded were netted in the first half.

Barcelona fired in more shots than any other side in the Group Stages - 97.

Lyon and Barcelona have played four times in the Champions League and the Catalan side have won three and drawn one, scoring at least two goals in each game.

Lyon have the worst defensive record of the qualifiers, conceding 10 goals, while Barca have the best attack having scored 18 times.

12 of the 18 goals top scorers Barcelona scored in the Group Stage were netted away from home.

Lyon have kept just one clean sheet in their last nine Champions League games at Stade Gerland and conceded 16 goals in that run.

Barcelona have conceded exactly two goals in each of their last three Champions League away trips to France.

Karim Benzema (pictured) has scored eight goals in Lyon's last nine Champions League matches.

Lionel Messi has scored five goals in his last four Champions League matches.



Also in other news the Spanish FA have rejected Barca's appeal to overturn Pique's yellow and Keita's red from last weekend so both will no miss next weekends game against Atletico Madrid.

Last three games have been Draw, Loss, Draw so hopefully Guardiola gives them a kick up the arse for sunday but with so many missing (Abidal, Pique, Keita, Iniesta, Milito, )for the Atletico game it will be tough no doubt. Seems to be that time of the season for Barca which all teams go through were suspensions and injuries coincide.

The Blaugrana trainer spoke with Goal.com’s French correspondent at the Stade Gerland following his side’s 1-1 draw with Lyon in the Champions League…
25 Feb 2009 03:00:20

Barcelona’s sudden wobbly form continued when they could only pinch a 1-1 draw at Lyon in Tuesday night’s first leg, last-16 Champions League clash following a poor first half performance.

The Catalan giants’ coach, Pep Guardiola spoke to Goal.com France at the end of the contest and he admitted his side were outplayed in the opening 45 minutes, although he praised his men for bouncing back in the second period.

“We really did not play well in the first half. Lyon were all over us but in the second half, we found our game,” he explained.

“Even though they dominated us in the first 45 minutes, I was not anxious. I analysed the match and I knew that they could not maintain this rhythm until the end of the game.

“I simply asked my players not to panic, to keep calm and composed and eventually we found the goal,” he elaborated.

The Santpedor-born coach continued to look for the positives to build on ahead of the second leg clash in two weeks’ time.

“Inevitably, you learn much more from difficult games like these compared to the ones where you win easily.

“I really appreciate how my players responded in the second half, especially after coming off the [2-1] defeat to Espanyol last Saturday. We will now depend on ourselves in the second leg at home. We will examine the game further in the next few days and start preparing for the return clash.

“The away goal makes it possible for us to advance to the next round, but the game itself still has to be played. And in 90 minutes, anything can happen,” he stressed.

Finally, Guardiola was asked about Juninho’s wonder strike from a freekick which gave Lyon the lead.

“It was a beautiful goal. No one could have stopped it and Victor Valdes really can’t be blamed for it,” he concluded.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1716/champions-league/2009/02/25/1126025/guardiola-believes-away-goal-gives-barcelona-the-advantage

Lyon Plan To Replace Benzema With Bojan - Reports
The French side have the Barcelona youngster in their sights...
25 Feb 2009 19:09:53

Lyon are reportedly interested in bringing Bojan Krkic to France as they look set to lose Karim Benzema in the summer.

El Mundo Deportivo reports that the French club want to sign the Spaniard to bolster their striking department for next season.

Their performance in the Champions League against Barcelona was a reminder of their class, and with Bojan not exactly thriving in Catalonia, a move does seem on the cards.

The youngster has found himself benched for much of the season, bar the Copa Del Rey, and with the summer comes a chance that Barcelona will sign more strikers.

Indeed, Benzema is one of those who has been linked to the Catalan giants, and Bojan could well be involved in a deal between the two clubs.

The highly-rated Frenchman is aware that he has reached his peak with Lyon and looks set to move to Spain next summer, with Real Madrid and Barcelona the two main possibilities.

Lyon themselves are renowned for bringing up young talent and improving it, and Bojan could well be a crucial part of the team.

With Fred also leaving in the summer, it is clear that Lyon will need a forward, and Bojan could be the man to fill the void.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/722/la-liga/2009/02/25/1127219/lyon-plan-to-replace-benzema-with-bojan-reports

Own goal or a winner? Thierry Henry takes aim at Spain's claim on Catalonia

Thierry Henry has followed a well-trodden path of footballers entering into politics
Graham Keeley, Barcelona
Away games could be about to become a lot more difficult for one of the world's greatest footballers.

Thierry Henry, the former Arsenal striker who transferred to Barcelona two years ago, has provoked the wrath of millions after telling a newspaper that Catalonia 'is not Spain'.

The French World Cup winner referred to the northeast region of the country as different, a sentiment which will please many of the fiercely proud Catalans who cheer him on in the Nou Camp every week and regard themselves as distinct from the rest of the country. But it has already caused anger among some opponents of Catalan nationalism.

In an interview with the Spanish daily La Vanguardia today, Henry said: “What I think is this: Catalonia is not Spain, it is another thing and you have to feel it. Barça is another story.

“When you arrive here from Arsenal it surprises you to see how the people are, it is a shock. You have to live it to understand it. England is another mentality.”

Henry, 32, who spent eight years with Arsenal, is the latest player to become involved in the controversial subject of regional nationalism in Spain.

The player’s comments received a hostile reaction from some fans in Internet forums.

One said: “Poor footballers who fall for the Mein Kampf Farca…they force them to praise the very old fashioned fascist, racist nationalism of Europe.”

Another said Henry should be aware his own country occupied Rossellon, which is regarded by Catalan nationalists as part of Catalonia. Jordi B said: “Rossellon is part of the Catalan nation”

Henry is not the first Barca player to become embroiled in the often stormy world of regional politics. Oleguer Presas, a former defender who is now with Ajax of Holland, was an outspoken Catalan nationalist who supported moves to allow the region to break away from Spain.

He wrote a well-received treatise in favour of Catalan independence but found himself in trouble with his former club when he reportedly voiced some support for Eta, the Basque separatist organisation.

At one stage, it was rumoured Oleguer was unhappy about playing with the Spain national squad, but later he joined them for training.

In the Basque Country, Athletico Bilbao only has only ever employed Basque players, in a move which has proved highly contentious. In contrast, Real Madrid has for many years been seen as a symbol of Castilian Spain and was the favoured club of the late dictator General Franco.

Nationalists in Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia demand greater autonomy from Madrid, despite a series of concessions to the regions which gives them a high degree of self-governance

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article5815172.ece


Espanyol offer reminder of why we still watch – for an upset
Unlikely hero: De la Pena, the Espanyol midfield player, had not scored for more than four years before his goals in the 2-1 win over Barcelona

Gabriele Marcotti

This is why we watch. James “Buster” Douglas sending Mike Tyson to the canvas. Greece becoming champions of Europe. Joe Gaetjens and the United States getting the better of England at the 1950 World Cup finals. Pak Doo Ik and North Korea doing the same to Italy in 1966. Wrexham, bottom of the Football League, stunning Arsenal, the English champions, in the 1992 FA Cup. A horse, appropriately named Upset, at 100-1 beating Man O’War to the finish line in 1919.

Without upsets - or, more appropriately, the threat of upsets - sport would be like most Hollywood films: you may be entertained, but you know who’s going to get the girl and that James Bond is going to get away.

Those thoughts came to mind when watching the Barcelona derby on Saturday night. The game was at the Nou Camp, in front of the biggest crowd in club football, 98 per cent of them cheering for the home side. Barcelona had lost once in La Liga this season, and that was in August, when Lehman Brothers was still around. Espanyol had not won in the league since November 2, when George W. Bush was still leader of the free world. When they last won at the Nou Camp, Saddam Hussein was a dear friend of the West, ET was in the cinemas and Michael Jackson’s Thriller had yet to be released.

Barcelona had scored 3½ times as many league goals as Espanyol. Samuel Eto’o had struck 23, three more than Espanyol. Josep Guardiola, the Barcelona coach, was hailed as the next big thing. Until a few months ago Mauricio Pochettino, the Espanyol coach, was working in women’s football. Barcelona were top of the league and Espanyol bottom, with a mere 42 points separating them.

But there’s more. Yes, as the cliché goes, anything can happen in a derby. But the Barcelona derby is different. For a start, you have to wonder how a full-blooded Barcelonan can be anything but a Barcelona fan. It’s not just that they’re far better than Espanyol and always have been. It’s that marketing, culture, history and politics have stacked the deck in favour of Barcelona. In a city where Catalan identity is hammered home on every street sign and in every classroom and where kids grow up on stories of how the hallowed Nou Camp was the only place free of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship, you have to wonder just why any Catalan would support a club whose name means “Spanish”.

Many do support Espanyol, but it’s fair to say few would have dared to dream what transpired at the Nou Camp on Saturday. The match was decidedly one-sided - Barcelona outshot Espanyol 20 to two - even after Seydou Keita, the Barcelona midfield player, was controversially sent off late in the first half.

However, Espanyol found themselves two goals up in the wake of an amazing four minutes shortly after half-time. The fact that the scorer of both goals was one Iván de la Peña only added to the surreal nature of events.

De la Peña is a footballing oxymoron, a player who looks as if he has come from the 1930s. He has technique and vision, but is about as quick and dynamic as a sofa. Which is why, despite the hype surrounding him as a youngster - at Barcelona, no less - he never lived up to his potential.

He turns 33 in May, had started 14 games in the past two seasons, and before Saturday, had not scored a league goal in more than four years. And yet it was De la Peña, the second smallest player on the pitch, at 5ft 7in, who headed in Nené’s cross five minutes into the second half and then seized upon a botched clearance by VÍctor Valdés, the goalkeeper, to deliver a sweet chip that flew in under the crossbar. Barcelona pulled a goal back, but the damage was done.

The amazing thing about upsets is that they don’t need to make a difference to have a lasting effect. Barcelona will probably win the league. And Espanyol will likely be relegated.

But the magic of what transpired lives on. It fuels the fire of possibility every time teams step on to the pitch. It serves to remind us that beneath the pay cheques, the hype, the talent and the reputations, it’s still 22 men chasing a ball. Which means anything can happen, even if it probably won’t. And that’s why we continue to watch.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/gabriele_marcotti/article5786272.ece