Preview: Almeria v Barça
Friday, 19 November 10, 09:52 AM · Comments (7)
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 yellow card as he would be suspended for the Madrid game which would leave us with limited options at the back given Milito's injury.
Almeria have not had the best start to the season and have won only one game (0-2 at Deportivo) in the league which leaves them in 18th place on nine points. We have never lost to Almeria which may make tomorrow's game seem relatively easy but we have not had it easy in our recent visits to Almeria and last season we could only manage a 2-2 draw, thanks to a brace from Leo Messi, in a game that saw both Pep Guardiola and Zlatan Ibrahimovic were sent off. Almeria have an excellent young goalkeeper in Diego Alves while outfield they have talent in players such as Albert Crusat and Pablo Piatti.
It will be interesting to see if Guardiola goes for his full strength team, the game is obviously important and no pushover but he may want to dosify some players given the big games that follow. It won't be so strange to see a few surprises in the team, and it could be a good day for Bojan to get some minutes, he didn't play in last season's fixture but he scored three goals in the previous two visits to Almeria. Besides that I would also like to see Mascherano get some more minutes and it might be a good day to give a rest to Xavi.
Barça's 19-man squad: Valdés, Pinto (or Oier), Alves, Adriano, Piqué, Sergi Gomez, Fontas, Puyol, Maxwell, Busquets, Mascherano, Xavi, Keita, Iniesta, Thiago, Pedro, Messi, Bojan, Villa.
Possible starting XI: Valdés; Alves, Piqué, Puyol, Maxwell; Mascherano, Busquets, Iniesta; Messi, Villa, Bojan.
My prediction: Almeria 1 Barça 3
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I think Piqué should NOT be included in the squad for this game . He is ONE yellow card away from missing the clásico . He is prone to making dumb-ass mistakes and picking up needless yellow cards . We can win this game without him . He is more needed in the clásico to help contain and harass Cristiano Ronaldo !!
Pique has been left out, Fontas is in. Mascherano in for Busquets. The team is as follows:
Valdés; Alves, Puyol, Fontas, Maxwell; Xavi, Mascherano, Iniesta; Pedro, Messi, Villa.
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well that was surprising, but delightful 8! never seen that yet in all my years. very happy for bojan, should do his confidence a world of good. really loved his 1st goal. pity villa couldnt get in on it, but he still did very well.
but maybe my happiest point is seeing fontas, which makes little sense considering it was an 8 zip game. but i really rate this kid and havent understood how he hasnt seen more action. he wasnt tested at all today, so cant really judge, but i think he looks the business. u can see genuine quality.
Well that was one of the easiest games I have seen us play in a while. Almeria really didnt look like they wanted to play and we won this game 8-0 without even really trying that hard. Great that we rested Xavi and Iniesta, Messi got his hatrick, which I believe puts him ahead of Crynaldo now. Nice to see Thiago and Fontas out there and Bojan looked good for once.
Now lets hope Athletic can go get something from Madrid. Would love to go into the classico top of the table.
Watching that kind of made me feel sorry for Almeria although on the other hand I was urging Barca to go and hit another 2 to make 10
. Madrid just after scoring as I write, hopefully Bilbao can take some points off them.
What a great ball from Fontas for the assist to Pedros goal. I don't think Thiago had a great game when he came on, he was trying too many intricate passes but when you are beating a team so easily I can't really blame him for trying.
Whats with this site, I came on to it and Blaugranaboys profile was signed in and I had to click the log out button before I could post( I did'nt go into your profile Blaugranaboy, I just signed out). I've noticed this happening a few other times when I came onto the site aswell.
Could Barca not have worn their home kit tonight? It would not of clashed with Almerias jersey as much as the away jersey they were wearing tonight.
good result. 22 in 17 for leo- what a record