Barca virtually the league champions of Spain, a mid season review

We look back to how Barca has overturned their situation from the Luis Enrique times to become the virtual winners, far ahead mathematically to clinch the title midway in Spain.
An Ernesto level turnaround in the final 45 minutes at the Capital ensured Barcelona cushion on the way to La liga crown. While at the start of the premier fixture of the Spanish league, the unfurling of a banner beaming "White Christmas" couldn't quite hold true for the next 90 minutes as the Blaugrana took charge of the game as it went through. At the start of the season, a team struggling to come out of the shadows of Neymar's surprise exit to PSG is now on top of the league with a 14 point lead over their arch rivals  Real Madrid. The non-favourites for Liga in August came as favorites for this game. Much resounding appreciation for Valverde is due here, with an early injury to Dembele his team from attacking front was back to zero. The consequent winning streak since then in the league and much-balanced performances in the European outings did not come to FC Barcelona fans as a surprise.

There were reasons behind, first that Valverde made it clear in his day one press conference itself "The focus would be on defense". 

It was clear when his team played the way they were structured was to defend first. This was somewhat closer to Pep(not that good!) though far from Luis Enrique's attacking Barca.
Barca's all-round display is much credited to some good display from his players who were not playing that well last season, Jordi Alba, the surprise signing Paulinho all to much credit have done immensely well. The display of football from Umtiti and German shot-stopper Ter Stegen as always been rock solid making Barca the best defensive team in Europe. The result is that Barcelona leads the chart of most clean sheets in La Liga(11) which shows their organized defensive display.
                                   While from here on, the title is only for FC Barcelona to lose as their 14 gap from the main rivals and having already visited Bernabeu,Wanda Metropolitano,Mestalla,Pizuan the path from here gets a tad easy for the Catalan Giants. As Zidane and Valverde claim "it's too early to call the league off" might not just be the case as Barca look in a comfortable position with Valencia not as threatening as they seemed and Madrid still missing their edge this season,
more to come...stay tuned to La Liga Cafe.

Atletico Madrid: Lost Not Broken

With nearly half of the season already over, Los Colchoneros have had somewhat of a mix bag of a season. Critics have left them dry, but fans still endear at the growth of the club in recent years.

Usually, being the only Madrid club as the closest challengers to Barcelona for this season's La Liga would bring accolades for the club. However, Diego Simeone and his boys had a disastrous European campaign which saw them finish third behind the Italians, AS Roma and the Londoners, Chelsea, whilst losing to the latter on both occasions. By comparison, in previous few seasons Atlético topped their Champions League groups while being paired with the likes of Juventus & Bayern Munich.

Atlético have looked miserable on their European outings, which has already ushered some critics into becoming naysayers as the verdict being the lack of creativity upfront. With the transfer ban being uplifted in January, the return of Diego Costa after three and a half seasons is almost wish come true situation for their fans, as his replacement and their top scorer for past three seasons, Antoine Griezmann have almost looked lonely upfront, prompting the Frenchman to go deeper in the midfield to receive the ball.

This was more than evident in the 1-0 loss against Espanyol, as Fernando Torres looks to be enjoying a giant favour by the club for his brilliant exploits early in his career and Kevin Gameiro, who looked awful and seems to labour around the pitch far too often. With not even half of the season done, top of the table have already seen Barcelona taking a nine point lead and stake their claim on the title well in advance. This brings us to the Europa League where Atlético can shine with two great arrivals in Costa, who had a very public dispute with Antonio Conte after the Italian coach sent him the infamous text and Vitolo, the Spanish winger which Atlético signed from Sevilla in the summer transfer window, but could not register him in the team because of the transfer ban, thus was sent out on loan to Las Palmas.

Antoine Griezmann have looked alone upfront all season.

With January's first fixture being the Copa del Rey clash against Lleida, everyone involved with the club will be hoping that these new signings will rejuvenate the rest of the team and ignite that passion which the world has seen from them in recent years and triumph the second half of the season.

All cannot be blamed on a single factor as even Diego Simeone have in certain times looked lost during urgent situations. Yannick Carrasco, who was a revelation last term, scoring 14 goals in all competitions has lost his place since September. Constant transfer talks about their star, Griezmann to bigger clubs certainly plays with the mental aspects of the game and this season have seen Simeone's mentality of team over individual take a toll.

These are the rough turns that every club goes through as even their much celebrated Madrid counterparts have seen them tumbling this season after back to back European glories. The question should be as to how will Atlético take the second half of the season. Will they push for the La Liga and put pressure on Barcelona to make a slip? Will they find solace in dreams of lifting the Europa League after failing to lift the Champions League twice in recent years? For all it's worth, Atlético should look at the second half of the season with renewed hope and optimism which could see them lifting some major trophies and few more fans on the way.

REAL MADRID 0-3 BARCELONA: Messi, Suarez shine as Barcelona look to reclaim title come may.

An Unforgettable afternoon for Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabeu as they scored three past their arch-rivals in a thrilling encounter to go 14 points clear above Real Madrid, who currently lie in fourth(4th) place with a game in hand.
Messi showcased his talents once more he scored his 25th Classico goal from the penalty spot after Cavajal was red carded for handling the ball in the box. He went on to assist an Aleix Vidal goal in the 90th minute to seal the victory.

The game started with Madrid on the front foot from the start of kickoff.  Ronaldo scored a goal in the 2nd minute of the game, which was rightfully ruled offside by the linesman. Madrid went on to dominate the first half with waves of attacks. They were superior in the midfield and Barcelona defence managed to contain them in the first half. A Benzema strike which hit the post and numerous Ronaldo strikes which just didn’t find the back of the net thanks to the heroics of the Barcelona goalie TerStegan.

Players like Busquets and Messi were silent in the first half and failed to really make a significant impact in that half as Madrid were on top. The 2 good chances that fell to Barcelona in the first half all fell to Paulinho(Playing his first ever Classico) and both assisted by Messi but Keylor Navas made two brilliant saves.

The 2nd half came with so much promise as Barcelona found their form and were able to hold on to the ball well in the midfield. In the 54th minute, Busquets held the ball graciously to beat his marker then released the pass to Ivan Rakitic who ran through the heart of Madrid defence and delivered a fine through pass to S.Roberto who squared the ball first time to Luis Suarez to slot home the opening goal. It was the first time in the game where Barcelona opened up Madrid defense.

In the 63rd minute, Barcelona opened up Madrid defence once more with both Suarez and Messi back to back shot being saved by Keylor Navas before Daniel Carvajal handles the ball in the box as a Paulinho header was just creeping into the back of the net. He was shown a straight red and Messi was awarded the penalty. Messi converted from the penalty spot in the 64th minute as he fired a high shot to the right hand side of the goal to beat the Navas. Keylor Navas made some impressive saves to the game at 0-2 with hope still alive for Real Madrid.

Zidane brought on Bale and Asensio to try and get a point from the game. Barcelona where able to control the tempo of the game and nulled all Real Madrid’s attack. In the 93rd minute Messi dribbled passed Marcelo to set up a goal by Aleix Vidal to seal an emphatic victory. A game of two half’s which saw the Catalan giants come out on top. Messi will be going into the New Year as the Laliga leading goal scorer.

Barcelona has now won seven (7) of the last Classico’s played at the Santiago Bernabeu scoring 28 goals. In a post-match interview Marcelo praised Barcelona saying “Playing against Barca wears you down a lot. The second half was different. We did a good job in the first half but not the second. We were killed, that’s football, playing against Barca isn’t easy”.

 As the Bernabeu emptied, Cules went to the top of the stadium chanting “Visca Barca, Visca Catalunya” to add an extra political punch to Madrid. Real Madrid will look to play catch up to Barcelona as the title race is now in Barcelona hands. Or is it early to call?

La Liga match preview : FC Barcelona vs Athletic Club

La liga is back in action this weekend and FC Barcelona(#2) face their round of 16 cup rival Athletic Club (#7). Both team are considered as top clubs in Spanish league and it is always pleasure to watch them play.

FC Barcelona have advantage of home support in this fixture and they will come in full force to win so they can close the gap of 4 points between them and arch rival Real Madrid. After good performance against Atletico in cup Luis Enrique might rotate the squad in this liga match and give chances to Denis Suarez and Rakitic in midfield as their star midfielders Iniesta and Busquets are not given green light from medical staff yet. In defence, Aleix Vidal might sneak in after his good performances in previous games. At other flank, Lucas Digne is still recovering from injury, which will leave Lucho with two options, Jordi Alba and Mathieu.

On other side, Athletic Club are aslo pushing ahead to claim better position in table. They are just two points behind sixth-placed Villarreal and only four adrift of Atletico in fourth. But their past meetings against Catalan club at Camp Nou did not go well as Athletic are yet to win at Camp Nou since 2001. Manager Valverde is facing major injury problems in defence with plyers like Laporte and Eneko Boveda are out with minor injuries. However, in other area players are all fit to play so they might line up as follows.


Line ups :

FC Barcelona
Ter stegen,
Aleix Vidal, Pique, Umtiti, Alba;
Rakitic, Mascherano, Denis Suarez;
Messi, Suarez, Neymar.

Athletic Club:
Iraizoz;
de Marcos, San Jose, Etxeita, Balenziaga;
Munian, Benat;
Williams, Garcia, Susaeta;
Aduriz


Form:

FCB         WWWDW
Ath Club DLDDW

Last meeting: 

FC Barcelona 3-1 Athletic Bilbao – 11th January 2017 – Copa del Rey

La Liga Match Preview: Sevilla vs Villarreal

Sevilla host none other than Villarreal, the team with the least no. of goals conceded (14) in Liga this season, and is second behind Bayern Munich in Top-5 Leagues.
Villarreal has conceded (6) the least no. of goals away from home as well.


After Alexandre Pato completed an €18M move from Villarreal to Tianjin Quanjian, Nicola Sansone is left leading the attack for the yellow submarines as he has scored seven times in Liga this season.

Jorge Sampaoli looks to dominate the game with the ball as they are the second most possession passing team only after Barcelona.
Stevan Jovetic has been a real finding for the Andalusian side with him playing 3 league games & scoring twice.

This has been quite a busy transfer window for both the sides with some additions and cutting off some big names either on loan or on a permanent transfer.

Sevilla
⬅️Hiroshi Kiyotake
➡️Walter Montoya
➡️Jovetic (Loan)
➡️Thimothee Kolodziejczak

Villarreal
⬅️ Alexandre Pato (Tianjin Quanjian)
⬅️ Aleksandar Pantic (Dynamo Kyiv)

Jorge Sampaoli has brought the charm back to Sevilla, he is a manager who led the Chile national side win two consecutive Copa America glories & is all motivated to compete for everything with this side.

Sevilla stands third behind Real Madrid and Barcelona but is tied on points with the Catalan side only losing on the goal scoring tally. Whereas Villarreal is placed at sixth with 34 points, 8 points behind their opponents.


The Sevilla manager wants his side to fight for the League title and have already outshined the performances of another top contender Atletico Madrid as they look devastated this season with 36 points in 20 games so far.

Jorge Sampaoli: "We're determined to win and to stay up there at the top"

Sevilla will be without Nicolas Pareja after he was shown a straight red card, and a sight of relief for Fran Escriba's side with Cedric Bakambu coming back from injury.



Possible Line-ups;

Sevilla: Sergio Rico; Mariano, Adil Rami, Escudero; Iborra, Nzonzi; F.Vazquez, Nasri, Vitolo; W. Yedder, Jovetic

Villarreal: S.Asenjo; Gonzalez, V.Ruiz, J.Costa; Jonathan Santos, B.Soriano, Trigueros, R.Soriano; Nicola Sansone, Samu Castillejo



Villarreal would jump to the fourth place by defeating Sevilla but only if both Atletico Madrid and Real Sociedad lose their respective games.

Real Madrid's 40 Games Undefeated streak, surceased by Sevilla

Real Madrid's 40 matches undefeated run is finally ended by Sevilla, Real Madrid broke the previous record of 39 unbeaten matches that was held by Barcelona in 2015/2016.

Madrid tasted defeat for the first time since the 2-0 loss to Wolfsburg on April 6.

Sampaoli's side was more motivated to win the tie when they met in the Round of 16 after coming from 3-0 deficit to 3-3 on the second leg.

The La Liga game was the third game in ten days between the two sides, the game saw Cristiano Ronaldo scoring the 67th-minute penalty goal for the visitors with which he tied a La Liga record for the most no. of penalties scored in the competition's history with 56 which was previously held by Hugo Sanchez.

An 85th-minute own goal from Sergio Ramos opened the scoring for Los Rojiblancos just to later see a long-range stunner from Stevan Jovetic completing the turnaround deep into injury time.

The latest signing Stevan Jovetic joined Sevilla from Inter on loan until the end of the season with an option to buy, he has been impressive in both the games he played against Madrid. After losing Gameiro to Athletico Madrid it seems finally they have found the perfect striker in Jovetic.


Real Madrid Manager Zinedine Zidane expressed his disappointment saying "The defeat is a bit harsh on us, but that's the way things go in football and we must continue to perform as we have been up until now. We knew that the run would have to come to an end at some point."

"We've now got to look forwards. We knew that the run would come to an end and all of the games from now on will be tough. It's a pity that we conceded two goals with just five minutes to go. We're hurt after the defeat, but we've got to now turn our attentions to Wednesday's game."

 “It’s very difficult now to lift the players after a defeat like that but it wasn’t due to lack of concentration. There are moments within the game and these things can happen over the 90 minutes. It’s what it is and we’ll look at the things we can improve on. I’m a bit disappointed with the two goals."

The run had Real Madrid defeating the likes of Manchester City, Atletico Madrid in the Champions League Semi final and Final respectively, and being undefeated against Borussia Dortmund, Barcelona and many others. The defeat led Los Blancos to a three points decrease in gap from five to two points clear of Barcelona with one game in hand.

Ivan Rakitic situation: Lost in the dreamland

FC Barcelona is one of the biggest club in the world and its every football player’s dream to play for the club with such a huge history, amazing style of play and football discipline. Ivan Rakitic is one of them, whose dream became a reality  after years of hard work and many excellent performances in his previous club sides.

Early days

He arrived at the Camp Nou  from Sevilla as new signing when Luis Enrique took over as manager, in the 2014/15 season. After adapting to the club in his first few months, he became a regular in the side along with Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta in the midfield. With the  addition of Rakitic, Luis Enrique added more direct and physical approach to the  conventional short passing mentality and achieved a great feat by winning the  Treble in his first season. Rakitic gave so many amazing performances during his first season, including his first UCL  in which he scored the opener, and continued in following season.
He was regular in team in 2015/16 also as he was a key player in winning the domestic double in his second season.

Season  2016/17
However, after a good start of 2016/17 campaign he couldn't play against Borussia Monchengladbach because of ban, but neither was he involved against Osasuna nor Espanyol , as he was left on the bench. It seems evident that his importance has depreciated in the side if we compare his participation in 2015/16 and 2016/17 till December.

He played 26 games starting 23 of them out of 29 games Barcelona played last season. While in the current campaign he's played 19 (starting 16) out of 25 games Barcelona played so far.


Competition for starting XI

There are two factors to consider while talking about his situation. First, players like Andres Gomes and Denis Suarez are direct competition for him as Iniesta and Busquets are the untouchables once they are fit. Another, his physical condition. He had an Achilles problem while playing against Celta de Vigo and was substituted. Then he didn't go for international break because of the injury. Then he played for an hour in El Clasico and replaced by Captain Iniesta who was just coming back from an injury. It is seen that return of captain has put break on Ivan's involvement since then.

Playing time

But he played the last match of the year and scored from the spot on his return to starting XI. Then he was given chance in the first match of the new year, in first leg of Copa Del Rey match against Bilbao and saw lot of ball, even he contributed passes well and also tracked back well supporting defence. He was looking good and then subbed off for Andre Gomes after 70 minutes of play time in which barca lost to Bilbao(2-1). In La Liga, surprisingly he was not even included in the squad going to play Villarreal CF which eventually fuelled the rumors of Rakitic leaving the club for Manchester City this transfer window by English media which was later amided by Luis Enrique saying "Rakitic absence has no relation with that story" and laughed saying “Anyway, it doesn't matter if the media is English or Croatian. You cant trust the media”. It was later said that it was all part of rotation of squad for to find perfect midfield options for upcoming important fixtures. And rakitic was in squad for second leg match against Athletic Bilbao but was not in starting XI which included 7 La Masia players. He was on bench for 80 mins and subbed in for Rafinha to provide fresh legs and much needed support to defence to defend lead for last 10 minutes, in which he succeeded and played small but important part in the match.


Transfer Rumours and Speculations

With transfer window now open, there many rumors surrounding Rakitic about his departure from the club. Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea and Juventus are the clubs keeping an eye on the Croatian international and it might just happen sooner or later(Summer) as he hasn't been involved quite as often as expected. But it is highly unlikely to happen, as club President, Josep Bartomeu, recently said that ’ FC Barcelona will try to open renewal talks with player which ends in June 2019 once Messi signs new contract'.  Also according to Mundo deportivo, the player has instructed his agent to reject all offers from other clubs. So it is unlikely that he will leave club soon, but a tempting offer could lure him out of his dream club. Barcelona has started to look out for a long time replacement and has contacted the Brazilian and Liverpool sensation Coutinho.

Thus, player is unlikely to leave his dream club soon  also wants to compete with his colleagues to win back his spot and  help the club to win as many trophies as possible and possibly another treble. Let's see what this new year has brought to players, club and fans.

Copa Del Rey Match Preview: Barcelona vs Athletic Bilbao

The two strong La Liga teams FC Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao face once again for the second leg of Copa Del Rey game on Wednesday.

Barcelona trail 2-1 from the first leg at San Memes and Luis Enrique believes that meeting at Camp Nou will be more entertaining and a lot more different as he calls fans to back the team on the match day.


This is the real test for Luis Enrique's side to make a greater comeback after the loss in the first leg, the Barcelona team look more motivated and it seems they will come up with some bigger plan to qualify for the next round.

FIFA's 'The Best' awards event on Monday was snubbed by the Barcelona side in order to train for this game, for the absence the Barcelona captain sent a video message to FIFA apologizing for the same.
"We want to show our gratitude at having been chosen and apologize for not coming to the gala, We have a hugely important game against Athletic and so we couldn't be there"


The Barcelona boss Luis Enrique said that the decision not to attend the gala was taken by the players.

He also said "It's a different incentive to what we have in La Liga. We're coming off two negative results and we want to change. They were unfair results in those two games."

"We know we normally play with a lot of space in behind us in defense and that we shouldn't commit mistakes. These are risks that we know of."

"We need to go out and score a goal and move ahead of them on aggregate. This will make them take more risks. It makes return legs interesting"

"What we need is a victory, especially when we've played as we have in the last couple of games, where we feel like we deserved more."

Having scored a goal away from home gives much-needed motivation to the Barcelona side to turn the results in their favor.

Ernesto Valverde will be without his two important players on the second leg in Raul Garcia & Iturraspe as they were shown the second yellows for fouls on Neymar in a short span of five minutes from 75 to 80th minute.

It's a do or die situation for both the teams as this game is the only chance for qualifying to the Quarter Finals, Athletic will be looking to take chances on the counter attacks and Barcelona's victory will depend on finishing the chances they get and making things difficult for Bilbao.


Predicted Lineups:

Barcelona:  Ter Stegen; Roberto, Pique, Umtiti, Alba; Denis, Busquets, Iniesta; Messi, Suárez, Neymar.

Athletic Bilbao: Moreno; Etxieta, Elustondo, Laporte, Balenzia; Mikel Rico, Etxebarria; Susaeta, Muniain; I.Williams, Aduriz