Preview: Malaga - Barça
Friday, 31 October 08, 10:19 AM · Comments (14)
Pep Guardiola has named 18 players to travel today to Malaga for tomorrow evening's clash with Malaga in La Rosaleda (kick off 8pm). Eric Abidal is out injured, and despite being declared fit there is no place for either Eidur Gudjohnsen or Pedro. Sylvinho will most probably start in Abidal's place at left back and the rest of the team will probably be very similar to the team that beat Almeria 5-0 last Saturday.
Malaga were promoted after finishing 2nd in last season's second division but are proving to be worthy of their place in the top flight. Despite only picking up one point from their first four matches they have since won four on the trot and now sit in sixth place on 13 points and last week's 0-1 win at Sevilla shows they are capable of taking on the best. Malaga will be without the injured Salva Ballesta and defender Fabiano Rossato, but Duda should return on the left of midfield in place of Nacho Perez. Adrian will probably start as the lone striker in a 4-2-3-1 formation with the dangerous Nabil Baha playing just behind him. In goal we will see ex-blaugrana Francesc Arnau who I will always remember for his Champions League debut for Barça at Wembley in a 2-4 victory over Arsenal in October 1999.
We are looking for our eleventh straight win tomorrow but we all know these games aren't easy. In 27 visits to Malaga we have only won on ten occasions. Our last visit to La Rosaleda ended in a 0-0 draw in March 2006. I expect Guardiola to pick his strongest team, with the possibility to rest players for Tuesday's return game with Basle. League leaders Valencia play tomorrow at 10pm at home to Racing so it important to win to keep up the pressure on them, while third placed Real Madrid play away to Almeria on Sunday where they could lose points.
Barça's 18-man squad: Valdés, Pinto, Alves, Puyol, Marquez, Pique, Caceres, Sylvinho, Toure, Busquets, Victor Sanchez, Xavi, Hleb, Iniesta, Messi, Eto'o, Bojan, Henry.
Possible starting XI: Valdés; Alves, Marquez, Puyol, Sylvinho; Xavi, Toure, Busquets; Messi, Eto'o, Iniesta.
My Prediction: Malaga 1 Barça 2
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10 wins in 27 games! 
Dam that is a bad record. Tomorrow will be a hard game and lets hope we can keep Madrid at arms length and keep Valencia under pressure before we get the chance to play them. Away from home I think we will perhaps struggle defensively as always do (remember Basle is a very poor team and we just about nicked a 1-0 v Bilboa) so I think that another title-winning 0-1 victory is just what is needed.
2-0 for Barca.
nic, i hope you're right on your starting 11. especially with the pick of iniesta ahead of henry.
i think its time to see Caceres as a left back
net an easy game
1-1
2-o to FCB wana c hleb or iniesta on the left prong rather than titi and why did he drop pedro shit of all the barca atletic who wqent on tour him and jeffren impressed me most
Barca 3 Malaga 1
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malaga 1- barca 4
Even tho we are really in form, i m still expectin a tough game...if it was at home, I woulda expected a pretty one sided game, but since it's away, i will go with 2 to 1 win....I hope I m proven wrong like in the past few weeks..