Very briefly, we have just set up the new site at http://barcacentral.wordpress.com/

Everything is new to us so we may take a little time to get things running smoothly but everything should be fine in a couple of days or so.

A NEW BLOG FOLLOWING ON FROM FCBNEWS CAN NOW BE FOUND BY CLICKING HERE

It has been on my mind for a while, but I have finally come to the decision to stop doing the blog. I am sure the readers that have been following me for a time will have noticed a decrease in the number of posts I make. There are many reasons for this but let's just say I don't really have the time. I have not been able to keep up with various things and the fact that the current poll on show is still for last season's player of the year demonstrates this.

It really is very sad for me to stop, I recognise that a community has been born here...

What to say about this one? Real Madrid arrived at Camp Nou as leaders of La Liga, unbeaten all season, with the supposed tactical genius of Jose Mourinho to organise the players who have cost millions of euros. Yet at the end of 90 minutes Madrid were so thoroughly beaten that it will be quite a while before any Madridista tries to claim his team is better than Barça. Tonight Barça outclassed their old rival so comprehensively that it does not seem unfair to sat that we could have won by more than the five goals difference.

Pep Guardiola decided on his best eleven while Mourinho was denied the chance to do the same by a late injury to Higuain who was replaced by Benzema. I was pleased to see that...

It makes me laugh how the press in Spain build up every single encounter between Football Club Barcelona and Real Madrid as "The Match of the Century". However, given the extraordinary form being shown by both teams in the run up to the first clasico this season, there are plenty of ingredients to lead us to expect that we could be in for something very special at Camp Nou tomorrow night. On view we can expect to see ten of the eleven players who started in Spain's World Cup Final victory against Holland, the two last winners of the Ballon' d'Or, plus a tactical battle between the winning coaches of the last two Champions Leagues.

Both teams have won their last five matches, Barça with a fantastic 22 goals in favour with just 3 conceded while Madrid's record of 17-2...

Two goals from Pedro Rodriguez and another from Leo Messi who continues his amazing run of goals in nine consecutive games, gave Barça a comfortable 0-3 win over Panathinaikos in Athens tonight to make sure of top spot in Champions League Group D with a game to spare. We can now turn our attention totally to our battle for La Liga starting with a massive clasico match with Real Madrid on Monday night. 

The pattern early on in tonight's game had us immediately in control of the ball but we were lacking the urgency to break through Panathinaikos's 4-5-1 formation, our opponents looked to attack us quickly when they did get the ball which usually led...

It was a night of records for a stunning Barça performance tonight. The 0-8 scoreline equalled a fifty year old record set by Barça at Las Palmas as the highest away win by any team in the history of La Liga. It was also our sixth straight away win at the start of the season, a feat which has only previously been done by Real Madrid in 1992. Leading the way for us tonight was again Leo Messi who added another hat-trick to his growing collection and in doing so he reached 101 league goals in just 154 games. It is also noteworthy that 70 of these goals have been scored in just over two seasons (in 76 games) since Pep Guardiola took over as first team coach. 

Guardiola decided not to risk a...

The clasico with Real Madrid is just ten days away and some fans can think of nothing else but first we have the small matter of two complicated away games. On Wednesday we travel to Greece to resume our Champions League challenge at Panathinaikos, while tomorrow we take on Almeria at the curiously named Juegos Mediterráneos stadium. We are without Jeffren, Milito and Abidal for the game which means Thiago, Andreu Fontas and Sergi Gomez have all been included in the 19-man list for the game. There is also a doubt over Juan Manuel Pinto and if he doesn't make the trip then Oier Olazabal will take his place. Besides the obvious importance of the three points at stake it is also very important that Gerard Piqué does not receive a...

Barça earned three vital points with a fantastic 3-1 win over Villarreal tonight at Camp Nou. The whole team performed with a magnificent effort to overcome a very good Villarreal team that pushed us to the limits, but the player of the night once more was Leo Messi who scored another two goals which if I'm not mistaken makes it 66 goals in 65 games in 2010, or maybe that's 69 games I'm not totally sure. Whatever the case, with the speed that the game is played at these days and with the general quality and organisation of opposition defences, Messi's feat this year is truly phenomenal. 

The game began at a tremendous pace with both sets of players keen to...

It is true that many of us are looking forward to El Clasico at the end of the month, however, tomorrow we have a home fixture with Villarreal which could well turn out to give us more problems than the game with Madrid. Villarreal have always been a tough opponent and we have only won four out of eleven league games with them at Camp Nou and we haven't beaten them here in the league since November 2006 when goals from Iniesta, Gudjohnsen and Ronaldinho gave us a 4-0 win. Since then we have lost one and drawn twice though we did manage a 1-0 win in a Copa del Rey tie in 2008. On top of that our opponents are in excellent form and haven't lost in La Liga since the opening day back in August, they...