It was not to be for Ivory Coast and Toure Yaya who were soundly beaten by Egypt in tonight's second semi final in Kumasi. Egypt will now face Samuel Eto'o and Cameroon who they already beat 4-2 in the first game of the group stage. Egypt took an early lead from Ahmed Fathy's deflected shot, but it was in the second half that the game really came to life.

In a crazy five minute spell just after the hour, Amr Zaki put Egypt two up and almost immediately Ivory Coast hit back with a screamer from Kader Keita. Four minutes later terrible defending from Kolo Toure allowed Zaki to get his second to restore Egypt's two goal lead. As Ivory Coast tired near the end Aboutreka's goal made the final score 4-1.

Toure Yaya didn't have a bad game and Ivory Coast might have scored more but for ...

Barça will have to make do for one more game without Toure Yaya and Samuel Eto'o. Toure's Ivory Coast qualified for Thursday's semi-finals thrashing Guinea 5-0 in Sekondi on Sunday. They now play Egypt on Thursday in Kumasi for a place in the final, kick off is at 9.30 (Spanish time). Cameroon and Eto'o beat Tunisia 3-2 last night in a close game that went to extra time. They now face hosts Ghana in the other semi final in Accra which also takes place on Thursday, kick off at 6pm.

I am happy for both players but a little concerned for Barça who will now travel to Sevilla for Saturday's league game without them. Sevilla will have both Seydou Keita and Freddie Kanoute back after Mali's elimination, but they may well be without Dani Alves who picked up his fifth yellow card in Sevilla's win a...

Defeat in the quarter finals of the African Cup Of Nations is the last possible chance of Samuel Eto'o or Toure Yaya coming home early. If Toure's Ivory Coast lose to Guinea on Sunday or Eto'o's Cameroon lose to Tunisia on Monday, they will be back to play at Sevilla next Saturday. If their teams get through we will have to wait until the following weekend's game at Zaragoza to see them again as Blaugranas.

Ivory Coast are clear favourites to beat Guinea in Sekondi. Guinea finished second with four points in Group A behind host nation Ghana, while Ivory Coast won all three games in Group B to finish top. The game is on Sunday at 9.30pm (Spanish time). The winners will play the winners of the Egypt-Angola game in Thursday's semi final.

Cameroon have a tougher test on Monday. Tunisia ...

Toure Yaya and Ivory Coast have qualified for the quarter finals of the African Cup Of Nations beating Benin 4-1 in Sekandi while Nigeria and Mali drew 0-0. Toure had another good game, setting up the first goal for Didier Drogba and then scoring the second after good work from his brother Kolo. Toure will now definitely miss Barça's game next week against Osasuna. However, Samuel Eto'o will be coming home early if Cameroon lose tomorrow's crucial game with Zambia in Kumasi.

See Toure's goal here

Toure Yaya will play his first game of the African Cup of Nations this afternoon when Ivory Coast take on Nigeria in Sekondi, kick off is at 6pm Spanish time. Tomorrow will see Samuel Eto'o perform as Cameroon play Egypt in Kumasi. Here are the fixtures for Cameroon and Ivory Coast:

Monday 21st January: Ivory Coast-Nigeria (Sekondi, 6pm)

Tuesday 22nd January: Cameroon-Egypt (Kumasi, 6pm)

Friday 25th January: Ivory Coast-Benin (Sekondi, 6pm)

Saturday 26th January: Cameroon-Zambia (Kumasi, 6pm)

Tuesday 29th January: Ivory Coast-Mali (Accra, 6pm)

Wednesday 30th January: Cameroon-Sudan (Tamale, 6pm)

All times given are Spanish.

Good luck to both Eto'o and Toure, I have to admit I hope they come back to Barcelona early and not injured.

Frank Rijkaard has a choice of three possible substitutes for Toure Yaya while the big man is away with the Ivory Coast national team for the African Cup Of Nations. Toure could miss as many as nine games if the Ivory Coast progress to the semi-finals. He will definitely miss both cup games with Sevilla (9th and 16th Jan) and the league games with Murcia (Jan 12th), Racing (Jan 20th) and Athletic Bilbao (Jan 27th).

If Barça reach the quarter finals of the Copa del Rey then Toure will also definitely miss the first leg of the quarter final against either Villarreal or Recreativo (Jan 23rd). Ivory Coast are drawn in the same African Cup group as Benin, Mali and Nigeria, if they progress to the quarter-finals then Toure will also miss the hypothetical second leg of the Copa del Rey qua...

2007 was not a great year for Barça and we are all feeling pretty lousy since losing to Real Mierda last week. Nevertheless, life goes on and as we are reaching the end of the year I thought it would be appropriate to have an awards thing in order to look back at the best, and in some cases worst, of the year. 

Best Player Of 2007: There were only two candidates for this award, Andres Iniesta and Leo Messi. Iniesta has been fantastic all year, playing in various different positions and performing consistently well in all of them. He seems to get better every year and hopefully he will be around for a long long time. However, the genius that is Leo Messi has to win this award. There have been a number of great players at Barça in recent years and Messi ...

Having rushed my report I need to share a few more thoughts on yesterday's victory. Firstly, Messi's injury has been confirmed and he looks like being out for five weeks. This means that as well as the Madrid match he will probably miss three more league games: the visit to Mallorca and the home games with Murcia and Racing. Although he is obviously a big loss, I see no reason why Barça can't win all these games.

Barça's problems this season have all been away from home, the return of Samuel Eto'o is a great bonus in this respect. I've already written about the importance of Eto'o in putting the opposition defence under pressure /blogs/FCBnews/posts/why-barca-suffer-away-from-home/ and yesterday demonstrasted this perfectly i...

Good news today as Deco trained normally without any problems. Deco didn't feel right during the warm-up to last night's match with Stuttgart, and decided it was better not to take any risks. Toure Yaya also trained with the other players and should be available for Saturday's game at Valencia.

Ronald Koeman's Valencia will be without striker David Villa who was injured in Tuesday's Champions League game at Chelsea. Valencia will also be without defender Raul Albiol, while Joaquin is doubtful. It's not all bad news for Koeman; Edu, Baraja, Angulo and Albelda are all recovering well from their injuries and could be in line to play against Barça. Valencia have won only one game in seven since Koeman took over as coach.

Toure Yaya who missed yesterday's match due to sinusitis could be available to play against Stuttgart in Wednesday night's Champions League match. Toure didn't train today but is expected to take part in tomorrow's training session and should be ready to play at least a part of the Stuttgart game. Eric Abidal also missed training today after dropping out of yesterday's game because of an attack of gastroenteritis, but he did manage a workout in the gym this morning and should be OK for Wednesday.

Toure's importance to the team becomes more noticeable every week. Rafa Marquez and Andres Iniesta, who both played in Toure's position yesterday, are both more useful in other positions. Marquez is needed at centre back in order to allow Carles Puyol to play at right back. With Gianluca Zambrotta'...