Barça - Real Madrid: Saturday 13th December Kick Off 10pm

bad referee??? no problem....Our 11 players can definitely handle 12 Madridistas...

We will hopefully recover most of our injured players before the match so it becomes competitive.

Thanks for the tip, Nic

Dont forget cantalejo is alos the 1 who awarded us the somewhat controversial penalty in the 06 clasico that ended 1-1, he also denied them a penalty in that game. I hope he doesnt make any decisions that affect barca too badly in the game.I would say he's a bad referee, but are there any good refs in la liga? lol.

can't wait

will be at that game in the flesh, CANNOT wait.

this ref SUCKS, oh my god. he honestly is such a moron and is guaranteed to make a bad/contraversial decision. i actually really like the younger ref ive been seeing loads of lately, Undiano Mallenco, i def rate him the best in Liga, which truthfully really must do something about the quality of its officiating.

onto some transfer news (which i must say is prob the only weakness of this excellent blog (being not mentioning enough about it):

i quite shocked to hear ligit stories we want belhadj from portsmouth. ive seen him play, and come on, not our level of quality.

and seems RM have also got huntelaar, even though only marca have said so. really is a believable transfer though. i cant say ive seen much of him, but the dutch league is of a very poor standard so it will be interesting. seems RM have caught the dutch bug we once were so infected with. lol

I don't know anything about this referee but , just in case , Barça have to be careful regarding situations involving "offsides" and "contact " inside the penalty area . You can spot a pro-Madrid referee when he disregard a clear offside in favor of Madrid or declares an offside when it is not. Barça defenders have to be careful with old Raul and other Madrid players inside the penalty area. These guys are known to go down easily , in other words: DIVERS !! Barça can put the game out of reach by scoring a few goals early in the game . Only then that even a Madrid friendly ref can do nothing to save their asses. Go Barça !!

Well if last weeks game against Getafe was any indication, even the refs cannot help Madrid at this point. The ref for the Getafe game might as well have been wearing a white shirt, what was it? 3 penalty claims, two of them solid and a sending off for Pepe near the end....NONE given. They still lost 3-1, should have been a lot more. Something should be done, it is very obvious that there is a bias among refs and it gives the league in general a bad rep.

hi,i think our will ve to be well fit 4 dat day,so no nothing

blaugranaboy, you are very lucky, I would do what to watch a Clasico live...

RM love copying Barca going dutch like we once did... They just can'y get enough of Barca.

On the game. I just hope it is fair and that the ref doesn't do anything stupid.

i guarantee the ref will do something stupid. i honestly cannot remember a match he hasnt. everytime i see him on the pitch i cringe. even the game vs espanyol, when he helped us with the pk. i was watching that game and thinking "wow he may actually have a good game" then towards the end he lost the plot and as soon as that guy put in the tackle (even though i saw he got the ball) i knew he would give a penalty. this guy makes bad calls like he enjoys the controversy around it

saying that, in the current forms of the teams even if the ref has a typical stupid game, i see us winning clear as daylight.

I'm gonna have 2 exams that day, I hope the game is not during one of my exams!

I have no doubt that Barca will win this, the team will be focused and motivated. and we all know what happened to Sevilla when they tried attacking against us, which madrid will try to do!

no ref can hold us back

He Can't be worse than last times ref , can he now ! Do you guys remmber the last Game agnist Madrid. Offcourse he wasn't the reasone we lost but he didn't help. I don't think that refs are with Madrid or Barca I belive a ref is good or bad. That is my point of view anyway.

Just a question. Why are all referees, "Madrid Friendly"??? I hear Barcelona fans say this again and again and again, really, I just can't understand.
Really, have some sense. The days of referee manipulation are over and honestly, the number of "favors" both Barcelona and Madrid are receiving are very much the same, though this season, I would have to tip the scales towards Barcelona.
Anyways, I am sure it will be a fun game. We Madridistas, in the horrible situation we are in right now, are actually hoping for some good football. Being the realist that I am, things are not to bright at Madrid and hopefully, we get lucky with at least a draw. But, being honest, I would not mind if we went down, after giving a good fight. Our defense is a mess, (we have 2 first team defenders), our Midfield is a mess (Sneijder is the only one who can do anything) and our strikers (Raul is ... well, old and Higuain is injured), it definitely is going to be an interesting game. How much things can change in just a few months!
Another point I want to mention is, I would salute the entire lot of us, (including myself ) who supported Laporta when the vote of no-confidence was carried out. Pep has turned out to be a sensational, sensational manager, with the charisma and intellect to be one with the Barcelona legends.
To a fantastic El Classico.... cheers!

morzzan:
What do you call referees who make a habit of favoring Madrid with PHANTOM penalties , denying the opposing teams CLEAR penalties, ignoring CLEAR offsides in favor of Madrid , punishing opposing teams with borderline offsides calls ? If that is NOT Madrid friendly , I don't know what is !! Anyway , bring on Madrid and their refs !!

Barca-Holland (are u the same as Barca rotterdam??, just curious..)
I would take back my comments if, rather than just banter crap, give me games and instances. What you have said, I can say the same about Barcelona. But, it won't be true until any thing backing up your statements will be posted. So, yeah, as I said, i'd be glad to take back what I have written if you could back your statements.

Morzzan i can give u quite a few very good examples; Just last week against Getafe there were 2 clear penalties not given, one penalty that could have gone either way not given and then near the end a CLEAR sending off for Pepe also NOT GIVEN. The week before when you managed the 1-0 win with a deflection there was also another CLEAR penalty..... not given. Do you see the trend? Last week it didnt really matter cos even the ref couldnt help you but the week before it got you two points. While I do agree that refs in general seem to favour the big teams, and i will admit that we also sometimes get decisions in our favour it is nowhere near the extent that Madrid get decisions. Refs save you time and time again and if it want for some quite ridiculous defending at times the ref might have actually saved you against Getafe. I dont think anybody can really argue the refs favour Madrid, even the commentators here in the UK were quite shocked at the refs behaviour and they said he might as well be wearing a white shirt.

Its ok though, its been like that for a long time and we are used to. It is just a shame because it has a negative effect on the league in general and something really should be done. I can understand that sometimes the ref can be influenced by the crowd, etc but in the Getafe game there were no excuses. At least one of the 4 bad decisions should have been given.

im not going to say referees purposefully and intentionally favor real madrid, but seriously, it has happened very often that a ref (often the same one) makes seriously dubious calls. there are two from the past that specifically stick in my mind, and one game recently.

1. real madrid v barcelona 99/00: rivaldo scored an obvious goal in the 87 min or so and it was ridiculously disallowed. one of the most angry ive ever been. this was a the worst i can remember, it was frankly disgraceful.

2. real madrid v valencia: raul got a RIDICULOUS penalty given to him in +90 minutes. dont remember the year but i remember watching and thinking "typical"

3. getafe v real madrid (this year): honestly in my whole life i had never seen a referee make so many bad calls. it honestly was like he wanted to keep madrid in the game. at least 2 obvious penalties, and at least 2 more sendings off for madrid. it was disgraceful. and if u can argue that morzzan, from that game, u have no credibility.

really im not saying all refs are out to help madrid. its just that for many many years watching spanish league whenever there are controversial big calls in games it very often seems to be in madrid's favor. u never hear people saying barca have that sort of favoring. even non-spanish league fans often comment on how madrid get special treatment in their eyes or from what they have heard.

whatever, a topic that will never be proven or not.

I think that Barca just needs to keep their composure and not worry about the ref. They are a currently playing much better than Madrid and in my opinion the ref will not have an impact in what will be another Barcelona victory. Having said this, I don't expect there not to be any bad calls but I don't think it will end up having a big enough impact on the game as a whole to sway the outcome.

Anyway, Pep has turned out to be one hell of a manager and I expect much out of the club this year.

Fellas,

As usual, this is a fantastic game to look forward to but I have to admit my eyes are somewhere else:Valencia. This week end's game will not be as easy as we might think for several reasons:
1-Coaching: Emeri is a fantastic coach! He kept Almeria in Primera last year and passed every test along the way. When it comes to coaching, I think that he and Pep are Spain's possible future National Team head coach.There again, is that a Job they will hand to a Catalan? Del Bosque is Basque, I believe or maybe he just spent a lot of time up there, so you never know...besides the point anyway! I respect great leaders and their ability to motivate their troops to get a mission accomplished. Emeri is a psychological coach and that alone could make an average player perform above his pay grade on any given day. He seems to also have succeeded where Koeman has failed. He is not too far from Pelligrini's school of thought when it comes to play building from midfield. Valencia has been flooding their midfield, interrupting their opponents' flow and capitilazing on quick, deadly counters. Sevilla, tried that tactic during the first half of our encounter last week and it worked to a certain extend. This strategy must be matched and that will be possible only if Yaya and Busquets start at once in the middle and Seydou Keita used as a sub.
2-Defense: Valencia's defense is solid when playing away. Indeed, they have only allowed 3 goals so far this season when playing away. That total is less than the 5 goals we allowed at home. So, look out for a possible stalemate which could go either way in the end. I know that many will cite our exceptional 22 goals scored at home as reason to be optimistic but a great defense is just that: great defense.

3-Villa: David Villa is one of the few non-barca players I will cheer anytime he is not playing against Barcelona because he is simply world class. We all saw him last summer rise to the occasion and lead Spain to its first Eurocopa in 40 years. And he did all this against world class defenders.Granted he had the likes of Andres Iniesta, Cesc and Xavi providing for him.Although the lad has scored a few goals this season I don't quite think that he has performed to the level he has in the Eurocopa YET. Does he save his greatest performances for the BIGGEST GAMES? To this question,I give an emphatic YES. He is been known throughout his career to be a difference maker and I believe that streak is still alive somewhere in him:He could hurt us come Saturday.
4-Joaquin: Here's someone who recently started running well with the ball again. He is very acute technically and deadly on free kicks (when allowed to take them).He seems to be happy now at Valencia and is still knocking at the door of the National Team.Will he try to used the Camp nou as his forum to make a big statement? To this question, I give another emphatic yes. Joaquin will try to distinguish himslef against Barcelona for several reasons:national team, Real Madrid (remember they wanted him last summer and doing well against Barcelona will definitely put him in theier good graces) and finally Valencia.
Of the remaining games before the break, this is the only game I am genuinely pessimistic about. I am sure some will posit the opposite of my argument and I agree that after last week drubbing of Sevilla at the Pizuan, you have every right to gloat and be optimistic ...but look out for Valencia!!!

Just like you Diatus i am also nervous about the Valencia game, but when speaking of great defences and breaking them down; Sevilla prior to last weekend had the best defence in the league. We put an end to that and now WE have the best defence. I am a lot more worried about their attack than their defence. They are quite lethal up front, that being said though, if they come at us we will destroy them. I cannot see us keeping a clean sheet in this one, but I am confident we will score more than they will. Out of all these big games the one that worries me the most is Villareal, I think they will pose the biggest threat as they seem to have the most balanced squad. If we can get max points up till this game then i will not be too worried as a draw or even a loss would not take us off top spot.

Hilal,

You make a very valid point. Unlike you, I was very confident against sevilla. I looked at the line ups and recalled the styles of play and I was fairly certain that it was a game we would win. As for Villareal, unlike you, I actually foresee a rout...at least 0-3. Real Madrid will also be a tough battle but a 2-0 should about be a just score.Valencia is the hard one for me to pin down...this team just seems to have an X-factor about them that leaves me very uneasy!

That picture looks very funny!!!Looks like Eto'o is begging for Cassillas' lunch money!!!

Yeah Valencia definitely have an x factor and it is always dangerous playing a team like that. Also we are missing Eto'o which is not going to help. I just think we will have too much for them in the end. They couldnt beat Sevilla because they couldnt penetrate the Sevilla defense and they struggled with the aggessiveness of Sevillas game. We are more aggressive and we work the ball harder than any other team in the league. Our boys will be up for this one and i just have this sneaky feeling Messi was pacing himself a bit last week so that the next 3 games are his. I think he is going to be devastating in the next 3 games. I feel sorry for any defender who has to play him.

Let us all pray he does not pick up an injury right before el classico like he did last season.

As for Villareal, I am happy to see you are so confident

Personally i am more confident about the Madrid game. After last season we owe them one and i think they are going to get it hard. Especially with their defense as it is right now.....i can only imagine what Messi is going to be able to do with their defenders....

Villareal is weak at the top...and although Nihat is back, it will take him a few games to regain his form...so I am not afraid of that offense. But Hilal, Madrid always plays better when they face us. So that one will be a bit more challenging than Villareal.
I am also worried about LM picking up a knock and we shall see. I am glad you saw the Eto'o factor. Barcelona minus 14 goals this season would not even be in the top 3. And we have to admit that most of those goals were just sheer genius on his part. Is this when the media gets to finally question our inability to score a lot of goals without Eto'o? I am afraid yes!!!That having been said we stand close to equal footing with Valencia on scoring, so this game really for me is the one to fear. Now some will argue that Eto'o didn't play against Sporting in the CL but we scored 5 goals...yes, but again be careful!!!This game definitely keeps me up at night!!!

Remember Getafe, he started on the bench and we only managed 1 goal!!!

@Blaugranaboy

Enjoy the game mate. I wanted to go but can't get out to Spain until Dec 16th. I will be there though for the rest of the holidays.
Hey bring back pictures and carry an FCBNEWS sign!!!

Well i must say that i have always expected that we would drop some points in these games (whether it be to Valencia, Villareal or dare i say it Madrid). It is unrealistic to expect us to win them all, the league is about consistency and while it would be nice to win every single game.....well thats just not football and we all know that. As long as we finish this run of games on top, even if its by a single point then i will be happy. We also have to remember that for us, we are playing ALL the top teams in this stretch, but it is not the same for all the other teams. Valencia, Real Madrid and Villareal all play each other at the beginning of Jan, which means if we can stay top till then we will have a very good chance of extending the lead by a few points come the start of Jan.

I would love nothing more than to keep this unbeaten run going, lets see what happens....the next few weeks are going to be very exciting!

I am right there with you brother...You are absolutely right...very lucid way to look at him and I think I am going adopt the same attitude.

Here's what Xavi said. "They feel comfortable as the away team and are very dangerous on the counter-attack. It will be difficult to beat them."

Apparently, I am not the only one uneasy!!!
cheers mate

Ofcourse there has to be caution taken when we face Valencia. They have not lost a single away game. Playing with 5 midfielders, its evident they like to control the midfield. Albelda seems confident with his reemergence in the team after his woeful exile during the Koeman era.

Another player Id look out for is Mata. That fellow puts up consistent performances and is promising to be a potential star for Valencia. They dont even feel the absence of David Silva that much.

Dani Alves bombing up the field alot can leave the right wing vulnerable to attacks from mata

All I'm going to say about Madrid and the refs is: it is either some Madrid fans are in DENIAL or they think that EVERYBODY else is stupid !!

yeah the two penalties against malaga are another examples. One was a hand ball outside the box and the other was a blatant dive.

valencia will be tough but they hav been shaky of recent, i hope we take advantage of that, i tink the villareal match will be d toughest anyways but till then
i cant wait to see what messi has in store, hope we wont miss eto much

wow i missed a lot of late. people went crazy with valencia comments. i have watched a large portion of valencia's games this year and really feel you guys are signing their praises far too much. if u are just judging this team on his stats, they are misleading. many of their games have been super boring, playing average football, and waiting for one good moment from either villa or mata. if we control villa, this game is over. also, this team has horrible depth. aside from the starting 11 they have NOTHING. frankly they will come to camp nou and defend like their lives depend on it.

im least worried about valencia, real madrid on any day u never know but i still see us winning, and im most worried about losing points away at villarreal.

frankly, the only reason i dont think we will crush valencia is because etoo is out and goal scoring is going to come down to my least favorite frenchman. he has had plenty chances this year as centerforward and done n-o-t-h-i-n-g. and i loved his comments recently:

"I understand that people would want to see me score like I did with Arsenal, but it's not the same here. At Arsenal I didn't run as much as I'm running now. Sometimes you have to work for the team and not only for yourself. Last year, we didn't play as a team, but now we do.

When I played with Arsenal I started in the centre, waiting for the ball, and then moved to the wing. Here it's the other way around. On the wing, you waste more energy while defending, so I have less strength in the box".

Much of those comments are fair, and shows his team commmitment. But come on! I have less strength in the box!!!!!! thats his excuse for his useless attempts on goal this season. if this is all henry can give us, then he is done. etoo runs nearly as much as he does and scores plenty, not to mention messi who runs as much as anyone. and YES, they are both much younger, but that is a reality and something i dont feel the team should have to deal with or something that should save his place in the team. my god i want to sell this guy, it just makes every sense in the world, financially and teamwise. funny how i went from valencia to an henry bash. lol. really i dont hate him like previous years, i really just feel he isnt good enough and contributes enough in our team of fantastic players. i just feel that position deserves better.

Etoó absence can be costly . Messi will have to take it upon himself to score . I hope he does NOT pass the ball to Henry inside the penalty area . He might as well shoot the ball into the stands . Nothing good will come out of that situation . I'm convinced that Barça should try to sign a proven , young center forward as cover for Etoó now and for future key rule as main CF . I don't mind at all if the club decided to sign Karim Benzema . Sorry to upset some say nayers but I hope our current back up CFs will prove me wrong . I'll settle for a draw against Valencia !!

im jus happy my boy eto'o will be playin so that he can kill them with goals

@mesh, eto's not playin tomorrow

@blaugrana, i also said valencia has bn shaky of recent, villareal looks d toughest but football's unpredictable, just hope we dont miss eto much
som times too, i imagine if we had one bloody left winger cum striker instead of henry, we will almost be unstoppable, it would be like the 2006 season when all our front 3(eto, r10 n guily) were bringin something different, we could count on any of them for inspiration. . . .but since we are with henry now, we hav to make it work and i'm sure pep has done it in the best possible way, at least, his effort has increased, hope he can improve more to give us more volatiity and unpredictability

BARCA for life

@blaugranaboy
hav u seen guardiola's reply to henry's statement
'With respect to the amount of running he does, I think he does less than he says because we attack so much and spend most of the time in the opponents' half," the coach explained.

"I will convince him and in a few days he will have changed his mind. I have read his point of view and I understand it.

"He was the best player at Arsenal, top goalscorer for France and is a world class player and he has the capability to do things now that he did not do before. He is here to do what the team needs, but at his age is is not easy to change."

i'm thinkin the main reason is age, not all players still play well in their 30s

I believe we would have survived the injury scourge before that game, Barca will have to really contest the game. We won at the Nou Camp last season December 23rd. It's sweet beating Barca at home, WE CAN DO IT AGAIN, WE HAVE WHAT IT TAKES Hala Madrid

Higuain will sink Barca-defense!

BARCELONA WILL WIN AND NO ONE CAN ARGUE WITH THAT.
WHY?
best goal difference.
1st place
Samuel Eto'o is the top goal scorer
Henry is FINALLY being his amazing self again- Valencia hat-trick
Lionel Messi is THE BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD
1st place in champions league
Best defense
best offense
Madrid is LOWER in the table than them
Barca has been in incredible form all season except for the Numancia game
Madrid has been in terrible form considering last seasons result.
Madrid has a worse goal difference
Barca averages around 3 goals A GAME

Now Madrid is an excellent team, (though i'm a Barca fan and really don't like them) but Barcelona is simply better this year.

Forza Barca