Champions League Preview: Barça - Sporting Lisbon
Monday, 15 September 08, 01:20 PM · Comments (17)
Pep Guardiola has made four changes to the list of players named for tomorrow night's Champions League clash with Sporting Lisbon at Camp Nou. Thierry Henry returns to the squad along with Rafa Marquez, Martin Caceres and Sylvinho. The players left out are Hleb, who will miss three to four weeks with a ligament injury to his left ankle, youngsters Sergio Busquets and Victor Sanchez, and Eric Abidal. Could Guardiola have realized already that Abidal is a weak link, or could it just be part of a general plan to rotate players regularly?
Sporting have won two out of two so far in the Portuguese League this season. Last weekend they had no game and so have had plenty of time to prepare for this game. The most familiar players to Barça fans will be Fabio Rochemback who played 45 Liga and 19 Champions League games for Barça between 2001 and 2003, and Joao Moutinho who was touted as a possible signing during the summer. Sporting's most dangerous weapon is likely to be the speed of their counter-attacks.
Carles Puyol will make his 400th competitive game for Barça. Since making his debut in the 0-2 win at Valladolid on 2nd October 1999, Puyol has played 273 Liga games, 80 Champions League, 9 Uefa Cup, 30 Copa del Rey, 4 Spanish Supercopa, 2 World Club Championship and 1 European Supercup.
After two disappointing results in the league Barça will be hoping for a change of luck in Europe. With Messi and Iniesta back in the team we should expect more creativity, and we can also expect an improvement from Samuel Eto'o who has been below form against Numancia and Racing after looking so sharp in preseason. It will be interesting to see who plays left back: Sylvinho is the obvious choice but Guardiola might be tempted to play Caceres there, especially as he is the only signing yet to make his official debut.
Barça's squad for the game: Valdés, Pinto, Alves, Márquez, Puyol, Piqué, Caceres, Sylvinho, Toure, Keita, Xavi, Gudjohnsen, Iniesta, Messi, Eto'o, Bojan, Henry, Pedro.
Possible starting XI: Valdés; Alves, Marquez, Puyol, Sylvinho; Xavi, Toure, Iniesta; Messi, Eto'o, Henry.
My Prediction: Barça 3 Sporting Lisbon 1
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Thankfully it seems Abidal is dropped. He is so bad I cannot understand how a player has dropped so much from his Lyon days, they must be laughing all the way to the bank! 
Hopefully in the CL teams will be more attacking and Barca can exploit that. Lets get behind the team and give Pep 100% He needs it, the team needs it, and us fans have a duty to push Barca forward!
OH MY GOD, I almost started crying with happiness when i saw abidal has been dropped. this is yet again another great, brave move from guardiola. he is taking action for repetative terrible terrible games. i always thought he was overrated at lyon, i mean i only saw him in the CL, but he never caught my eye. not like evra did when i saw him at monaco at 18yrs old. anyhow, i would like to see caceres play seeing that i really know nothing about how he plays and honestly if we paid 17 million for him id like to see participate. if he can play left back at least semi well then i rate he should get a run in the position. i would be suprised if he was worse than that useless frenchman.
like titi says, get behind the team. be patient, let things unfold as they willl without more pressure on the team and coach that already exist. im excited for tomorrow!
i hope he dropped abidal cos of his form and not becos of rotation....it should knock some sense into his thick skull...
prediction
barca 2 -o sporting
VERY GOOD NEWS , now i feel much more better . I think Pep awareness make everyone optimistic .. i really like the way he manage the team so far , seems he is much more strict and focus . my prediction 2-0 for barca . and i hope henry come as a sub in the second half cuz he is always effective when he comes as a sub 
GOOD LUCK
I think that we will score at least 5 goals. It's time to team starts to play as they did in preseason.
The thing is that i honestly believe that Abidal did good in the Racing game. Showed more of a player that you could trust. He has not been in the form i have seen him in Lyon, of which i followed quite well, when i first heard he was coming to Barcelona i was Thrilled!
It just seems he had not caught on to his previous form and i do believe he will catch up.
Henry will also do well, once he finds his rhythm.
But it would be really interesting like Blaugranaboy stated regarding Caceres participating and specially in the left flank as many stated that he can (i didn't know that, i thought he was only a Central Defender)
Pique is doing well. I like the fact that he was within the ManUTD group for some time. Their defenders are good.
I predict quite a good game. and i believe in what Cruyff said: " The team is very promising and they will get to their winning ways".
I am loving the coach, i don't know whats about this guy, but he is brave with his selections and bold with his decisions, makes you feel Optimistic.
Is it not Weird that Madrid are playing EVERY team that we played with next? next week Mardid and Racing. if we have Valencia next, Valencia will have Madrid after us.
Did this ever happen before?
17 Comments · Add yours
At the time we signed Abidal I thought he was a fantastic player. Sad he hasn't established himself in Barcelona. I'd like to see Caceres playing LB.
Barcelona 2 - 0 Sporting
I think Henry will start the game on top instead of Eto'o and with Don Andres on the left flank.
Prediction: 2-1 for Barca