Barcelona
View Comments
My deepest apologies for the delay, but we had technical problems with the blog and couldn’t post until today… sorry!
Last Liga match of the season, and there wasn’t much to recommend it apart from, you know, it being Pep’s last match with Barça in La Liga: Betis had no ambitions that would spur them to get a win at all costs, and neither did Barça. It could almost have been a friendly.
Promise me you'll teach them to take set-pieces...
Pep chose VV, Alves, Piqué, Mascherano, Adriano, Busquets, Xavi, Keita, Pedro, Messi and Afellay for his starting XI, leaving Oier, Montoya, Cuenca, Tello, Iniesta, Cesc and Bartra on the bench and Thiago on the stands. Though not exactly the strongest Barça starting XI in existence, it was strong enough to give us a good idea of what we can expect at the Copa del Rey final, while still leaving space for novelties like Afellay, given his first Liga start of the season. Read the rest of this entry »
View Comments
It's very green. Also, if you look closely, it looks like those cars to the left are parked on a beach.
Real Betis vs FC Barcelona, AKA Pep’s last Liga match (but not THE last match), AKA the annual “B team plays a Liga match”, AKA the match that’t not very important in terms of results.
On another note, does anyone know who’s injured and who isn’t? I’m having trouble remembering.
(Actually I’ve typed it all out here for you to try and make sense of, but it’s been a very injury-prone few days…) Read the rest of this entry »
View Comments
Barca wins 7 trophies from IFFHS including Best Team of the Decade. Zubi wonders if he should have brought a bag.
View Comments
And we love you too!
…and that was Pep’s last match at the Camp Nou.
What a way to go out, huh? Fans at every corner of the stadium, holding up signs with goodbye messages, 4 goals from Messi, a team hug to celebrate the 4th goal and a beautiful send off from the players and coaching team once the match ended. Read the rest of this entry »
View Comments
Final farewell to Pep Guardiola tonight at the Camp Nou.
Gracias Pep!
View Comments
It's not actually the swan who sings...
This is the game after the Liga title has been definitively lost. Sounds hum-drum, dreary, as soporific as the math class right after lunch, no? No, not this game. For this is Pep Guardiola’s swan song at the Camp Nou. And it is a derby, the intracity clash that always brings out both envy and bitter dislike: after Chelsea nudged Barca out of the Champions’ League last week, Espanyol fans rolled out a “THANKS CHELSEA” banner behind a goal at Cornellá, their stadium. So the hum and the drum will be supplanted by hate and love. Hatred between the clubs (or their fans, at least), and a wave of love at Camp Nou for Pep. “I have never liked goodbyes,” Pep said this week, but something like 80,000 people will be saying exactly that to him. This derby, meaningless on the surface, will be an affair to remember. Read the rest of this entry »
View Comments
It has been quite a ride the last couple of weeks. A sinusoidal curve that peaked at the brink of competing very realistically for the treble and reached its nadir barely a week later after being knocked out of Champions League, losing La Liga to Real Madrid and of course, Pep Guardiola’s heart-breaking yet totally understandable decision. “In three games, we could be out of two competitions” Pep said then, and for once the Pepssimism ended up ringing true. Once again, as journalists hurry to write premature eulogies mourning the “end of an era” in an age where teams can be “the greatest ever” or “maybe not the best in the world currently” based on the outcome of a crucial game or two, we are merely amused. Well, we are usually amused by almost everything, so you can’t really go by that, and no one can really guarantee anything about the future, but sometimes you just don’t understand the exaggerated reactions, and it’s a little funny when definitions are applied to a work-in-progress. Judging by the media reactions, one would think we got knocked out of the Champions League in the group stages and finished eighth in the league. Semifinal – win – semifinal – win – semifinal?! Good Lord, the team has totally lost the plot! Clearly!
Guests at Cesc's birthday party are capable of giving any football team a run for their money.
View Comments
First of all, congratulations to Real Madrid for winning the 2011/2012 Liga with their 0-3 win over Athletic de Bilbao last night.
Meanwhile, we'll just celebrate Messi's existence.
Barça continued with their pre-Copa-del-Rey-final tour by hosting Champions League hopefuls Málaga last night. Pep, in his last-but-one match at the Camp Nou as Barça coach, delighted the crowd by playing Pinto, Alves, Puyol, Mascherano, Adriano, Keita, Fàbregas, Iniesta, Cuenca, Pedro and Messi. Fine, maybe ‘delight’ is too strong a word, but the return of the 4-3-3 was like wrapping the fans in a soft, fluffy blanket and patting them on the head.
View Comments
Big game at home today against a strong Andalusian side.
Pep’s going with: Pinto, Alves, Puyol, Mascherano, Adriano, Keita, Fàbregas, Iniesta, Cuenca, Pedro and Messi. He has VV, Busquets, Thiago, Afellay, Tello, Montoya and Bartra available to sub in later.
On the other end, Malaga is starting: Kameni, Jesús Gámez, DeMichelis, S. Sánchez, Eliseu, Portillo, Camacho, Cazorla, Duda, Buonanotte and Rondón.
Read our preview quickly here before kick-off! Visca Barca!
View Comments
(sorry this is late!)
The season is slowly dragging itself to an end. Barça recovered from the CL/Clásico/Pep-induced depression by bullying The Avengers… I mean, Rayo Vallecano, and now it’s time to continue with the recovery (and with Pep’s sending off) by playing Málaga.
You better leave the drunken monkey and the darts you used to make your line-ups...
You don’t hear many people talking about Málaga. Not in Spain and certainly not outside of it. You’d think they were a modest mid-table team with no more ambitions than to survive yet another season in Primera. And yet… Read the rest of this entry »
Home 
