Guardiola Rests Eight Players For Shakhtar

pretty much as expected. i would have loved to see Gai Assulin in action for our team one day, but i guess we'll have to wait a bit..

it seems that Pep can't do anything wrong these days, so i guess i shoud just shut my mouth

Nic, you funny tryin to guess the madrid line up already, guess you can't wait for the match
By the way, who's watching their match right now, they are quite pathetic lpsin 3-1 to sevilla at home, they are pressing right now so everything could still change, robben has been the only useful player for them. I hope we givethen what they deserve

All of a sudden, it's 3-3,
That's what I love about la liga, even a 3-0 lead is not safe
Well no matter wat Madrid plays, we'll be waitin

wow robben is no doubt their most threatening player...........but he got two yellow cards, which leads to a red card sending off, which ultimately leads to me laughing like a maniac because robben wont be playing in el classico

so much for coming back from injury in time

Hey all barca fans.... 2 clear penalties not given for Madrid against sevilla and an undeserved red card for Robben.
Isn't it funny, I just said 2 days ago that the refs were fair, and by the looks of it, they do a lot more favors than they do for us.But yeah, anyone, (except Barca Rotterdam) would see that the ref played a very very unfair game.

haha sevilla wins great match

It's always nice to see Madrid lose and they will be without Robben and Marcelo for el clasico. However, this worries me as everyone now expects a huge win for us next week, this expectation adds pressure on the players to deliver. I just hope we win next week and take the title in May.

i must admit the ref was poor, morrzan
but robben should not have behaved like that to the ref when he was already on a yellow, higuain shoulda got a penalty but plaop shoulda hav gotten a freekick before that too
overall, its even better they beat you guys so it wont cover what was a poor performance (especially defensively ) from you guys for parts of the game, this result would add to the need to necessitate action in the club

i cant wish good for you guys. . . . can only wwish bad but i hate poor referees
u just happen to be one of the best behaved madrid fans around though

Nic?? Nic?? Im devastated!!
If you saw the game, you would say we deserved to win the match. We played really well and if, we play like we did today (except the defense), I am sure, Barca will have to fight to win.

morzzan, madrid know more than barca the importance of defence so how will we prob fight to win when ur defence is terrible besides next week is just 3 pts at stake, ur problems far exceed one match

excellent and genius motivational speech by schuster ahead of clasicco:

"The game against Barcelona worries me less than any other game, It is not possible to win because Barcelona are in devastating form and I believe that this is going to be their year," Schuster said.

"The team that (Barça) have can do well there, but I cannot talk any more about that."

big ups schuster get that CV nice and polished

everybody is confused whether its mind games or he's lost hope
i tink he's lost it but its not his fault when we are playin as if we are from another planet now, he'll be wondering what good could come for him now

on our part, i trust guardiola to tackle all issues of complacency like a disease, lol

Come on guys, don't get so cocky, remember we played just like this last season! But, please, don't for once think that it will be a walk in the park. Till last week, I thought we were going to get mowed by Barca 5-0 or something, but today, it was different. We played some fantastic football and we deserved to win it. If it wasn't for all those damn referees who get bribes from Madrid (like ALL cules feel), we would have won this game 5-4.
And Layibiyi, didn't Barcelona go through a similar phase last season? Am I not right? Didn't they come out of it, so, I mean, its just a phase, a lot of clubs go through this. A transition period, as I wish to call it, which is absolutely necessary for any club to make certain changes, (example: giving press lessons to Calderon and Schuster..lol) but yeah, Schuster's latest outburst just makes me believe more, that the classico next sunday/saturday will be his last game in charge.

Morz...couldn't agree more. While I love seeing Madrid capitulate, your comments are spot on, and a few of us Barca fans sometimes need to learn some humility.

I believe Xavi said it correct a few weeks ago when asked about la liga. "Never are Barca & Madrid doing well at the same time"

Last year it was our turn to suffer through injuries, ego's and general disharmony. This season, it looks like Madrid are going to have a long one. That's football. All the best in the Classico, I dont think it'll be a walk in the park but I think Barca will win by a 2 goal margin.

@morzzan
did i any of my post argue witchu u on anything like a phase, all my posts has been about ur match against sevilla and ur next match against us, everybody goes through phases but i neva mentioned anything relating to that, read all my posts again pls

If anything, the defending must be really sharp on set pieces. Madrid score easily from free-kicks when guti steps up to assist them. They always get away with a goal from a set-piece against us. Ramos scoring in the camp nou two years ago and robben scoring one last year.

To quote Lyibiyi, "ur problems far exceed one match", thats what I meant by more than one match.
No hard feelings, hope we're cool.

For a while during that match I thought RM were gonna win it. But good news for us Barca fans Sevilla won and now were 9 pts ahead of RM...

It seems to me that in the 2nd halves of games, madrid pressure there opponents and manage to come back in the game.

The defence needs to watch Higuan carefully, I hope Tarzan Puyol can put him in his back pocket. Casillas has lost his confidence - the reson he is conceding so many.

But anyway im still looking forward to Saturday. Its gonna be good.

Shed no tears for Madrid or their fans . Barça need to win next week to go clear ahead . Either Valencia or Villarreal or both will drop some points in their encounter . What is this crying and nonsense by some Madrid fans over referees ? How ironic !! If it was NOT for their FRIENDLY referees and OTHER factors ( please don't let me go into this any further) Madrid would NOT have had all these domestic titles and especially their TAINTED European glory. Know your own history, Madrid fans !! Next week: Barça 5-1 !!

UTalkin2me..... UMakemeLaf!

morzzan:
He who laughs last laughs the loudest !!

I am sure

(no offense meant Utalking2me, twas plainly a joke...)

The dictionary defines DENIAL as, " an unconscious defence mechanism used to reduce anxiety by denying thoughts,feelings,or facts that are consciously intolerable " !! This massive state of denial will only get worse . Madrid will be out of the CL, La Liga and probably will NOT even qualify for the Uefa Cup next year !!

No offense meant morzzan . Barça went through a similar crisis last year but you have to be realistic about Madrid's chances this year .

How can Morzzan say that Real madrid played fantastic football
They were terrible and so were Sevilla. They only scored 3 and 4 goals because both of their defenses didn't work at all. Sevillas win wasn't achievement, they just got lucky to win that game which could have gone either way as RM showed by doing a comeback, which was a result of Sevillas complacency and falling a sleep at the defense.

Even if Real should have had a penalty, Ramos went hands up against Palop and didn't get a yellow card. Which would have been a right decision, ref was bad, i admit. In the end Real lost but managed to keep Ramos in el Clasico. Guti should have had red card in the end by tackling Capel(I think it was Capel) from behind and wasn't even close to ball. Gago almost kicked Sevilla defender in the head, luckily didn't hit, should have got a red card.

In the end Real lost a penalty. Should have lost Gago, Guti and Ramos from el Clasico. So Madrid fans shouldn't critise referee...

el Clasico might not be the greatest entertainment 'cause Madrids bad luck with injuries but Barca should be able to win and put Real behind 12 points and that is the most important to me, and i guess to all Barca fans!

i cannot believe this useless banter about madrid here. morzzan, get a grip buddy: "we played some fantastic football and deserved to win". key word, SOME. you played well for about 15-20 minutes in the second half. i far from see that means u "deserve to win". 1st half u were dead awful, they totally dominated u, passed the shit out of ur team. and you only got back into that game thanks to a solo brilliance from higuain, which has happened so often. the resultant fightback was spirited no doubt ( in particular from raul who was immense and so inspiring with his effort in all 90 minutes) and it was the most exciting game of the year probably, but u did not "deserve" to win.

and the ref was a moron in general, not just to u. and robben deserved it. i know he was all caught up in the atmosphere but football has made an official serious effort this year to have players respect referees more this year, so what can u do. u have no idea what he said to him.

and sorry, look man ur defense is AWFUL!!!!!!! the 4th goal was disgraceful. marcelo was no where to be seen and kanoute had all the time in the world to send it in and then ramos totally left renato alone! it was bizarre. if i was u id be happy marcelo is suspended next weekend, that dude's defensive abilities and understanding are beyond terrible. so, dont exaggerate and say u deserve to win a game because for 20 or 25 minutes the team was high on adrenalin and being pushed on by the home crowd. come on.

but i agree barca should not be over cocky and think a murdering is guaranteed. those games are always unpredictable and in general i think predicting football matches is a stupid thing to do anyhow. BUT, we are playing FAR superior, nobody on earth can deny that. all im really saying is that i expect barca to win at home (as i would usually do), and i would not be surprised if we won by a pretty big margin.

on another note, its totally expected what pep did for tue and its very good. i expect etoo to get a 45 minute run out, abidal too. we should still win with hleb, keita, bojan, and some others there.

predicting matches is fun even though one can never be sure