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Preview: Sporting Gijon - Barça

Saturday, 20 September 08, 11:01 AM · Comments (31)

Three greats who played for both clubs: Luis Enrique, Quini and Abelardo

Thierry Henry has not recovered in time from his sore throat and has been left out of tomorrow night's game at Sporting Gijon (kick off 9pm local time). Sylvinho has also been left out for tactical reasons while Eric Abidal and Sergio Busquets return to the squad. Pep Guardiola has been reasonably happy with Barça's performances but said that Barça have to start winning now after picking up only one point in the first two league games of the season.

Sporting are back in the top flight after ten seasons in the second division, and one would hope that such a historic club does not go straight back down. However, the Austurians have begun the season with two defeats, at home to Getafe and then last week's 4-3 defeat at Sevilla. Defensive weaknesses saw Sporting lose a 0-2 lead in that game, but Barça will have to watch out for Croatian striker Mate Bilic who scored all three Sporting goals. At the back 20-year-old Gerard Autet could return in place of Colin to partner Jorge in the middle.

Barça have only won 10 of 37 away league games in Gijon while Sporting have been victorious 16 times with 11 games being drawn. On Barça's last visit to El Molinon in 1997 Luis Enrique and Rivaldo both scored twice in a 1-4 win.

Pep Guardiola may have some more surprises up his sleeve for the team selection but it seems likely that Abidal will return to left back allowing captain Carles Puyol to move back to a more natural position at centre back. The question is whether Rafa Marquez of Gerard Piqué partner Puyol in the centre. The other big question is who will replace Henry: many would love to see Bojan get his first start of the season while Pedro is probably the most natural wide player for the postion; however, I think there is a good chance that Andres Iniesta will be used again in this position which would allow a midfield of Xavi, Toure and Keita.

Barça's 18-man squad: Valdés, Pinto, Alves, Puyol, Piqué, Marquez, Caceres, Abidal, Toure, Busquets, Keita, Xavi, Gudjohnsen, Iniesta, Messi, Eto'o, Bojan, Pedro.

Possible starting XI: Valdés; Alves, Piqué, Puyol, Abidal; Xavi, Toure, Keita; Messi, Eto'o, Iniesta.

My Prediction: Sporting 2 Barça 3

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Posted by fcbnews_nic | Comments (31)

31 Comments · Add yours

1. FCB88 Wrote: | 18.45CEST | Sep 20, 2008

i feel bad for caceres!! he should let him play 10 seconds.....barca 2-1

2. layibiyi Wrote: | 19.10CEST | Sep 20, 2008

sporting 1 - 3 barca

3. Aztecca Wrote: | 19.31CEST | Sep 20, 2008

I'd like to see Caceres at LB however Pep is probably thinking otherwise.

Sporting 2 - 2 Barcelona

4. blaugrana_namibia Wrote: | 20.01CEST | Sep 20, 2008

I just hope pep gave these guys a hard lesson in set pieces defending cos the entire europe now knows thats our weak point. caceres at left back yup im up for that but hey maybe he can't play left back all that better than abidal can iv never seen him play there before,

im hoping we could play and win convincingly tomorow take our chances with that predatory instinct of killing off matches we still lack that,

my prediction 0-0

5. blaugrana_namibia Wrote: | 20.02CEST | Sep 20, 2008

hey who are those guys in the main picture????

6. FCB88 Wrote: | 20.30CEST | Sep 20, 2008

blaugrana_namibia -- anyone can play leftback better than abidal

7. fcbnews_nic Wrote: | 20.35CEST | Sep 20, 2008

Blaugrana - Namibia. If you move your mouse over the picture you will see who it is. Luis Enrique, Quini and Abelardo. Three great players who represented both clubs.

8. po0oker Wrote: | 23.51CEST | Sep 20, 2008

3-1 for barca , i agree with everyone above . we want to see caceras no way we spend so much money on a player just to set him on the bench at the same time i trust pep and i am sure he's doing the best for the team

9. Diatus Wrote: | 01.42CEST | Sep 21, 2008

Hey Blau_Namidia

Come on guy...DROP ETO'O? you've got to be kidding me!!!are you serious? do you even know what you're talking about...I mean, I don't even know where to start with this. Think about it...somebody help me... this is ridiculous...ok, tell me why do you want to drop Eto'o?

10. FCB88 Wrote: | 02.32CEST | Sep 21, 2008

yea etoo is amazing...he is the best goal scorer we have...bojan is great but etoo is more effective right now.

11. aussie_barca Wrote: | 09.39CEST | Sep 21, 2008

agreed. would love to see Caceres given a run. blaugrana_namibia, mate you got it spot on, set peices need to improved upon. The Henry loss is bittersweet for me as i still hold much hope for him however having a player like pedro or bojan who penetrates much better may be exactly what we need. pity Hleb is out.

i say 4-0 Barca

12. blaugrana_namibia Wrote: | 11.53CEST | Sep 21, 2008

@ Diatus

COS HE SUCKS THAT'S WHY

13. blaugrana_namibia Wrote: | 11.57CEST | Sep 21, 2008

@FCB88

hahahahah yeah true i heard mickey mouse is a much better left back than abidal acording to goal.com

14. blaugrana_namibia Wrote: | 12.02CEST | Sep 21, 2008

hoa!!!! i just watched the atletico match against huelva(delayed) man atletico are a force in la liga at our current state they will steam roll us, but they will be coming on the 5th of october to the camp i hope by that time we will be playing a football of 2005/2006 vintage

15. blaugrana_namibia Wrote: | 12.51CEST | Sep 21, 2008

LINK wow deco and ronaldinho are in the hall of barca legends thats some serious achievement

16. Jay Wrote: | 17.21CEST | Sep 21, 2008

Sporting 0-4 Barca

17. Juanka Wrote: | 19.00CEST | Sep 21, 2008

Time for Barca to turn the heat up, sporting 0 v barca 2, oither prediction, Henry won't be on the score sheet, nemind

18. SoccerFan Wrote: | 19.13CEST | Sep 21, 2008

Big win is long overdue so I will go with 5-1 team Barca.

19. Taras Wrote: | 19.23CEST | Sep 21, 2008

Barca 2 - 1 Sporting.

20. blaugrana_namibia Wrote: | 19.41CEST | Sep 21, 2008

BARCA BARCA BAAAAARRRRRCEH!!!!

21. MikeM Wrote: | 20.13CEST | Sep 21, 2008

Barca 2-0. hope we finally get to Caceras play...

22. blaugrana_namibia Wrote: | 20.32CEST | Sep 21, 2008

its valdes

alves marques puyol abidal (shit)

xavi busquets(????) keita

messi eto'o iniesta (thats what im talking bout)

23. blaugrana_namibia Wrote: | 20.34CEST | Sep 21, 2008

on gijon i see that bilic is playing and i see gerard im not sure if he's the one that played for us back in the day

24. Titi186 Wrote: | 22.13CEST | Sep 21, 2008

Yet again, so far its 3-1 to Barca but anotherpoor goal to concede!! I hope I am very wrong, but in my opinion I think Barca are not good enough defensively to win the league. As I speak another cross whipped in and more uncertainty from Valdes and the lack of height and organisation looks to be a vunerability that we need to address. Hopefully Barca will see out this game and build from there.

Come on Barca!!

25. Titi186 Wrote: | 22.41CEST | Sep 21, 2008

The reason why Kaka and C.Ronaldo are better players than Messi? They pass more.

Im sorry but for all Messi's great dribbles and other great attributes, and his great pass to make it 4-1 from Iniesta, more than once over the last couple years have I been screaming at the tele PASS lol. Dont get me wrong Messi is Barca's talisman, but sometimes he needs to release it earlier or we'll never make use of Henry and Eto's pace or we'd be better having Van Nistelrooy or Raul type striekrs tbh. This is the pass I would like Mesi to do more LINK

26. Titi186 Wrote: | 22.45CEST | Sep 21, 2008

Although I must add I reckon Messi plays much better in an attacking mifdeild role/second striker like he is playing tonight. I have long said 4-4-2 is better than 4-3-3 with the players Barca now have and it seems after two bore draws in the league Pep has decided to change it.

AS I type its 5-1 another great finish from Messi With regards to my comments above, I beleive Messi will get better at passing as he gets older as I forget he is still 21

Well done Barca tonight!!

27. FCB88 Wrote: | 22.59CEST | Sep 21, 2008

Titi --- ronaldo, kaka, and messi are different players so dont compare them...ronaldo sucks at passing and he never passes...kaka is a good passer...messi is the best dribbler in the world...and ronaldo is the best whiner.

28. layibiyi Wrote: | 23.13CEST | Sep 21, 2008

very good match upfront.....i feel the backline should still focus on working their game towards more solidity...

@titi
i dont tink we watch the same ronaldo, with all messi's dribbling he passes more than ronaldo....and who says either eto or henry are ever free, watch the matches closely if u tink so

29. blaugranaboy Wrote: | 23.16CEST | Sep 21, 2008

namibia, that is not the same gerard. that gerard is without a club actually.

30. Hilal Wrote: | 00.29CEST | Sep 22, 2008

Great game and great result. Iniesta was pure class from start to finish. Henry better step up his game or he is going to find himself sitting on the bench if Iniesta continues this way.

People need to stop complaining about Messi, when he dribbles and scores everybody says he is the best in the world, when he dribbles and it doesnt work then he is selfish.....come on thats BS. If he stops dribbling so much and holds himself back then we will not see the best of him. You can quite easily say he should have passed to Eto'o in that goal he scored against Getafe and had he not scored in the end people probably would have called him selfish. I remember thinking "pass to eto'o, pass to eto'o". Had he not been "selfish" on that occasion we probably would have missed out on one of the best goals in recent history. Let the boy do what he does best. Titti i think its unfair to say that he doesnt pass enough, he gets a lot of assists (got one tonight) and he always drops deep and builds play. For Argentina in the Olympics he set up half the goals they scored. He certainly passes more frequently and with more accuracy than Cronaldo! Sure, sometimes he misjudges how many defenders he can get past but that will improve with age.

31. Hilal Wrote: | 00.33CEST | Sep 22, 2008

Oh yeah one thing that did worry me about this game.....where the hell was Yaya?? He didnt even come on as a sub! Was he injured or something? He needs more play time than this otherwise he might leave. He is one of the best DM's in the world and deserves more than to be used as a bench warmer. I can understand Keita getting the nod sometimes when we are playing very defensive teams but to play Busquets ahead of Yaya??? I hope Pep did this with our midweek game in mind since it will probably be a much tougher game. Lets see....