Preview: Barca - Racing Santander

Barcelona 3 - 1 Racing

1-1

maradona talks to much, he should learn how to shut his mouth. too jealous

3-1 for Barca.

3 goals from Henry, Barca win 5-0.

2-1 for barca , bojan to score

g'day guys...does anyone know how i can stream the game live or somehow watch it on my computer...anyway possible. thanks

barca 3-0 racing

maradona was kinda right...but i tink messi took it as a personal battle to beat those wicked guys but argentina coach didnt help by fielding jst 2 attackers at a time(riquelme was totally withdrawn)

My Prediction: Barça 4 Racing 1

FC Barcelona 2-0 Racing - Henry 1x and Xavi

layibiyi , use this site LINK

gd luck

Let's hope that Messi plays. Otherwise, it could be a long night for Barca !! There is no chance in Hell that Henry and Abidal on the left side can be of any help whatsoever !!

I think what mardona has stated is very positive in messi career , I have always noticed that and i remember C.ronaldo 2 seasons ago had the same problem and once he maintained it , he was almost announced the best in the world .

Latest news are that Henry and Syllvinho are out of squad. Strange decision by Guardiola, well at least for Sylvinho.

well look at that, henry dropped from the team for technical decision. very interesting. no complaints my side! i would def support smacking hleb in there tonight and giving him a proper chance to show his potential in our team.

LINK your right ae_fcbnews he just took a 18man squad, i hope he plays iniesta on the left and hleb on the right with eto'o in the middle xavi will be just behind him with yaya and keita on the suport

my prediction 5-0 this is only the result that is acceptable

shit four more hours to go

Looks like Pep is going for a real revolution. Starting line-up for Barça announced on EMD :

Valdés

Abidal - Puyol - Piqué - Alves

Busquets - Keita - Xavi;

Hleb - Eto'o - Pedro

Bench: Iniesta, Bojan, Touré, Messi, Víctor Sánchez, Guddy and Pinto

my prediction was correct! i dont believe in this team anymore...i really wish we got adebayor now and we need to try to get ronaldo for next yr

What is wrong with Laporta!!! is he crazy!!! how can football club big as Barca experiment with coaches FC Barcelona is not School for Coaches only best coaches like Mourinjo,Scolari,Benites,Lipi,Capelo are true solution every one can see that.

they should fire guardiola and find som1 else ASAP!

Who in his right mind fields a team with five substitutes to start the season at home ? Guardiola; a master strategist that he is not !! This could be a harbinger for things to come . I hope everybody is excited about the Uefa Cup !!

oh my god such typical fans, "fire the manager"!!!!! he has only had 2 la liga games, but thats enough. children. guardiola did NOTHING wrong, in fact he did great. the two youngsters he played did very well, better than Henry did all last year, and in the 2nd half he was incredibly positive and brave bringing on inesita, messi and bojan while taking off keita and puyol. blame the players, not him. the only thing he has done very wrong is continuing to play abidal who anyone can see is a total disaster.

and just suggesting lippi and capelo shows little understanding of the club AT ALL. wow. some people just make me crazy. but i really dont feel like educating.

ill write more on the review post, but id love someone to tell me exactly what guardiola did wrong and why he is to blame for players not putting the ball in the net. and not to make too many excuses, but give me a break, the ref was a joke and their goal should never have happened.

blaugrana boy---- what?? were u watching the game?? towards the end of the game...racing had almost 3 chances to score!! and they had a penalty but the ref didnt call it!! a deserved penalty! he put on bojan iniesta and messi...but where is the defense???????? we almost lost!! they had better chances towards the end!! WE DID NOT HAVE DEFENSE AT THE END!! abidal does not count as a defender because he sucks

Again..dissappointed! not because we got 1 point but failed to play well and no improvement..what the hell is going on..

That is right. Abidal played so horrible today that I just can't take it!! OMG, why he is still playing in FCB? ( Jeffren played much better than him!

Today only Alves's performance has cheered me a bit. Why he didn't start Bojan from the beginning?! He was not tired from seleccion!

is any1 impressed with my 1-1 prediction?? wasnt it hard to predict?? thats the only thing im happy about

yeah right at the end they had a few chances, but thats because we had like 9 players in their half trying to win. they did not have a penalty, are u kidding, that thing with abidal was no where close to a PK. and yeah, abidal is just such a total useless joke, that is just a fact. frankly, even though we had a 3 back, i dont see how those defendres cannot handle one or two racing strikers. abidal was to blame for a lot. look, everyone just needs to calm down, im not happy with the result, you cannot be. but it isnt the end of the world, guardiola needs to be given a bit of time, u cant ask for his head after 2 league games. be logical. and really if anything blame the players for playing at such a low level of intensity first half. like i said tonight is not his fault, if anything u can blame him for playing abidal and like ive said on prevoius posts i thought the summer signing were strange and risky and so far seems so. but plz, step back and think, 2 league games, 2 CL qualifiers, thats it.

I don't know what people expect from Guardiola to do? Anyone who we play against plays every player behind the ball when Barça is on attack, and I mean everyone, from Levante to ManU.

We had a our chances but the ball just did not want to go in. It is very hard to break a wall of 9 players in penalty area.

I am very pleased with Pedro and especially Busquet, to me he was best player on the field and as I can see nobody is talking about that.

You "fans" can only now say "Guardiola out!" and "Laporta out!" instead of showing some support to the team.

Ljupce:
The appointment of Guardiola was shrewdly calculated. La Porta and the board were more interested in a yes-man than a high profile coach with real coaching record and ability. They don't want to be overstaged. To succeed in La Liga and the CL, Barca needs to act asap and get rid of some dead beats and sign a left back, left wing and a competent goalkeeper. Oh, I'm sure there are very good coaches who would jump at the opprtunity to coach at Barca , who wouldn't ? Otherwise, kiss this season goodbye !! My apologies if I offended any supporters of Guardiola or the players in question .

blaugranaboy-i think laporta should hire you as his personl advisor..

I have to agree with BlugranaBoy 100%.
"fire the manager" typical Barca fans shit. Shameful.

Barca O Murte...

ae_fcbnews ---- we expect guardiola to keep defenders in the game....at the end we had only pique and he is still young (abidal doesnt count and alves attacks more than he defends) ....it is true that we had to score a goal so we needed attack but still we cant play with one defender

can u guys tell me what to do when ur pissed off when barca ties or loses? cuz i just feel like killing som1 now

If we can't put the ball in the back of the net, we won't win. Its that simple. We can have 97% of the possession and have a 23 to 4 shot advantage, but we are not ruthless in our finishing. Why we did not go out in the market for a big name striker is beyond me. Also, lack of service to Eto'o, it has to be said. Why we can only manage one goal (a damn PK, though a deserved one), while our opponents score on 1 our of 3-4 opportunities a game is BEYOND ME. We need a striker, no doubt in my mind. That will fix all of our problems. A true striker to pair up with Samuel. And please, lets be done with ABIDAL, he is sooooo damn useless. Do the management have eyes in their head?

lol. maybe he should, i wouldnt mind.

but honestly, i dont see how people can be so rash. rotterdam dude, how can u say guardiola is a "yes man"!!!!! are u on crack. he just DROPPED henry (a definite txiti player in my mind, never a rijkaard one) for NO reason except he didnt feel he was worth playing, no other reason given. and he started two youngsters ahead of big star players, id say that is someone with some balls. and yeah im sure u blame valdes too for tonight hey? left back, spot on, abidal is a useless clown and left wing maybe (though iniesta and hleb can do it in my opinion, or should be given a shot).

my main concern with guardiola has and still is his choice of summer signings. but tonight he showed initiative and bravery in dropping henry who has never merrited a place in this team and then with some very positive substitutions when they were needed. and like someone with some sense above said, busquest was one of the best players tonight, and pedro was trying his heart out and caused problems.

Ok, since we are talking about results:
Please forget those preseason games against Mickey Mouse opposition.
Two CL games: one win, one loss.
Two league games: one loss, one draw.
Is this good enough ?

thanks youssef, i feels good having someone with sense reads this blog.

and fcb88, maybe ur just exaggerating because u are very angry. but u dont have to go crazy and say guardiola is to blame for everything. no doubt there are problems in the team and im worried about the season. but it does no good to hit red alert after TWO TWO TWO league games. give guardiola some time to work with the team and hte players. think about it, he has barely had the full squad together since taking over, the summer had euro, then international tours, then this stupid international break. give him a few games to connect with the players and teach them his system. honestly, how can u fault him, 2nd half they tried to score, they threw everything they had at the team. unforuntately every team now plays us the same, just 10 men behind the ball, its hard. the other sad truth is that to counter this we need a BIG central forward to cause aerial threats, which proves bad news if ur samuel etoo.

manchester united had a horrible start to their last league, i think it was 4 pts from 12. they won a DOUBLE. with a manager they have had for 22!!!!!!! years who knows his players and his club inside out. guardiola has had less than 4 months. wow. how people cannot grasp that is beyond me. im not some die hard guardiola fan, if things are just as worrying in a month or 2 away, ill be just as upset. but wow, just be reasonable.

remember a one frank rijkaard, first season at barca, december, 5 pts from relegation!!!!!! everyone said, "FIRE FRANK, blah blah, he is so bad, he is so inexperienced. laporta sucks!!!!!" and look and behold, 2nd half of that year a 23 game unbeaten streak, 2nd place. next year league win. yr after league and CL. imagine everyone was as inpatient and impulsive as many of you, we may never have had those trophies to remember! think about that

this was a good match by barca.... i stil believe they are just jelling.....they just need to step up the intensity from the beginning of the match...i'm sure guardiola's takin note.....d only problem i had with the team was abidal

as for the comments, 'sack guardiola', 'guardiola is inexperienced', 'guardiola is this, is that'.........u guyscan carry slogans to the next match to express urselves....wat kinda fans are these?

blaugranaboy, i know u well enough so i'm not surprised we think the same....
just wanna see as nic, diatus, namibia n co feel

We were fast and we played with major HEART, something we lacked in the Rikkard era. So thats atleast a step forward. We all need to stand behind the team and support them till the end. Just because we drew, doesnt mean we played badly. We had very fast wingers (hleb and pedro). and dont foret the score should have been someting like 4-0. We just have to sit back and accept that luck was not going our way today.

Visca el Barca..

We were fast and we played with major HEART, something we lacked in the Rikkard era. So thats atleast a step forward. We all need to stand behind the team and support them till the end. Just because we drew, doesnt mean we played badly. We had very fast wingers (hleb and pedro). and dont foret the score should have been someting like 4-0. We just have to sit back and accept that luck was not going our way today.

Visca el Barca..

u mean luck wasnt going our way for the past 2 yrs?

NO, FCB88.
The past two years we lacked speed, heart, and power. Now the barrier between the ball and the net was the legs of the keeper, or the feet of defenders. We had soo many chances. We were just unlucky.

believe me, last yr we were pretty unlucky...its true we didnt have speed, heart, power also

blaugranaboy:
I really don't appreciate personal attacks. If you are interested in an intelligent and objective debate, that is fine. But if you keep resorting to personalize the debate, I can go that road too !!

oh my god, are u a preist or something. are u saying "are u on crack" is a personal attack. and i gave u a very intelligent response to ur ridiuclous statement about pep being a "yes man", it was a very clear and fact filled argument, it seems u just didnt have anyting to respond to it.

its just ur posts are so repetative, ABIDAL, MARQUEZ, VALDES, HENRY SUCK. people here get u dont like those players. but evergoal scored against us isnt VALDES's fault.

and by the way he started with seven subs, just like everyone else does:
1. Pinto
2. Yaya
3. Iniesta
4. Messi
5. Bojan
6. Gudi
7. V. Sanchez

(more facts)

im really not concerned if i offended u, because i really said nothing offensive.

blaugranboy:
You are obviously incapable of engaging in any kind of "intelligent" discussion. Do you actually believe that calling others's opinions "stupid" and describing them as being "on crack" is NOT offensive ? What planet are you from ? I couldn't care less about your posts or your comments on my posts. Frankly, I find most of your posts to be irrelevant and sometimes laughable and even rediculed by other posters. Posting for the sake of posting is a waste of your time and ours. The more you post , the less convincing your bizarre logic becomes !!