Barça stay top of La Liga for another week after a 4-2 win over Mallorca which was more down to taking our chances than to good play. Pedro Rodriguez, playing on the right in place of Leo Messi, responded well to Pep Guardiola's trust by scoring twice in the first half and goals from Thierry Henry and a late Messi penalty were enough to ensure the three points.

Guardiola surprised everyone by leaving Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and Dani Alves on the bench. If it was a wake up call to the players, it didn't do a lot to improve our play. However, we took the lead with our first chance after 11 minutes; Piqué played a ball forward and a defender missed his kick and they...

Barça's Champions League qualification hangs in the balance after a 0-0 draw tonight in the cold of Kazan. It might have been a different story had Zlatan Ibrahimovic had taken a golden chance in the 3rd minute but his shot hit the base of the post. Barça dominated possession and created more chances but Rubin also had their opportunities the best of which fell to Ryanzantev in the 41st minute but he was denied by a magnifent save from Victor Valdés. We will now have to wait and see what happens between Dynamo Kiev and Inter Milan, but as things stand at the moment Barça will definitely qualify if we beat Inter Milan at Camp Nou and get a draw in the final match in Kiev.

We...

A Gerard Piqué own goal with the last kick of the game cost Barça two points tonight in Pamplona in a complicated game with Osasuna. A draw had looked on the cards until the 72nd minute when Seydou Keita put us ahead, we then had plenty of late chances to seal the victory but we lacked the killer punch and we paid the penalty with a defensive lapse right at the end.

It might have all been very different had Messi scored after just 50 seconds but Osasuna keeper Ricardo made an excellent save to tip the ball over. However, after this first chance it was Osasuna who had the better of the first 20 minutes with Aranda causing our defence problems, he had one shot wide after a...

There was no surprise tonight for Barça who comfortably beat Cultural Leonesa 0-2 in the first leg of the last 32 round of the Copa del Rey. We proved tonight, that unlike Real Madrid who were humiliated last night, we continue to have the right mentality whoever we play against. while our main stars were rested it was left to Pedro Rodriguez to score a goal in each half to give us victory. Pedro now has the curious record of having scored in all five competitions that we have played in so far this season. 

It is normal that in the first round of the Copa del Rey we see a few experiments, the most notable today was the use of Jeffren who was asked, not too...

How things can change in a few days. On Tuesday night following the defeat to Rubin Kazan there were some doubts being raised about this team, tonight after a splendid 6-1 victory over Zaragoza we are three points clear at the top of La Liga and everything is hunky dory. Seydou Keita returned to the team and capped his best game for Barça with the first hat-trick in his career while Zlatan Ibrahimovic also had a very good game and chipped in with two goals. Leo Messi looked to be somewhere nearer his true self but let himself down with his finishing, however, his insistence finally paid off with a goal near the end.

It has been said that we have problems on the left...

Barça's classification for the last 16 of the Champions League has suddenly become much more complicated after a surprise 1-2 defeat at home to Russian champions Rubin Kazan. We were stunned as early as the second minute by a fantastic strike from Ryazantsev, and despite an equalizer from Zlatan Ibrahimovic at the start of the second half we were unable to recover after Rubin hit us with a second in the 73rd minute. Ibrahimovic and Toure Yaya both rattled the woodwork near the end but it wasn't to be our night. And to make things worse Dani Alves was injured near the end of the game and the first reports say he will be out of action for three weeks.

Pep Guardiola made just two changes to the...

As in 1929/30, 1990/91 and 1997/98 Barça were unable to continue a six-game winning start to the season and we had to settle for a draw in the seventh game. A hard fought 0-0 draw with Valencia keeps us on top of La Liga and having suffered in the first half we can not complain about taking a point from this game though our performance was well below par. 

Right from the start Valencia played with a great intensity and they had an excellent chance after just one minute when Pablo Hernandez beat the offside trap and got a clear run on goal but his finish was poor shooting straight at Victor Valdés. The pressure from Valencia caused us to play nervously, we gave the ball away too easily and...

A terrific first half strike from Pedro Rodriguez was enough to earn Barça their sixth straight league victory. A lack of ambition from opponents Almeria exemplified by Chico's man-to-man marking on Xavi Hernandez meant one of the least eventful games at Camp Nou for some time. Barça struggled to find rhythm while Almeria, despite being a goal behind, only seemed to be concerned with keeping the score down with the vague hope that they could sneak a late equalizer.

Right from the beginning Almeria concentated on annulling Barça's midfield which meant nearly all our attacks began with Rafa Marquez who was back in the starting lineup to allow Gerard Piqué a rest. Marquez would bring the ball out...

Barça moved to the top of Group F in the Champions League with a 2-0 win over Dynamo Kiev at Camp Nou. A first half goal from Leo Messi put Barça on the road to victory and Pedro added a second fifteen minutes from the end. Andres Iniesta returned to the starting XI and gave a good performance, laying in Messi for the first goal, but was substituted at half time as a precaution

The game began very evenly with both teams having chances, Dynamo were causing our defence problems with some neat passing going forward. In the third minute Malgrao shot into the side netting, Shevchenko had a shot fly over and in the 9th minute Milevskiy came close with a flicked header from a free kick. At the other end we also...

Funny game football. Pep Guardiola rested Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Gerard Piqué for today's game at Malaga, but both players had to come on due to what appeared to be minor injuries to Thierry Henry and Dmytro Chygrynskiy and both substitutes scored soon after coming on to give Barça a 0-2 win in a bad tempered game mainly due to an awful performance from referee, Delgado Ferreiro, who allowed Malaga to get away with some highly unsporting behaviour particularly from defender Weligton.

Malaga started the game well, pushing up on Barça's defenders and we struggled to get any passing movement going. In the 8th minute Malaga had the first chance when Obinna got goal side of...