It's enough to make you cry with frustration. Having reduced the gap to only two points two weeks ago Barça's defeat at home to Villarreal leaves the team eight points behind Madrid with only eleven games to go. Frank Rijkaard went for the remaining (not so) fantasticos in the forward line but they rarely managed to connect on a rainy night that Villarreal thoroughly deserved their victory.

With Ronaldinho starting on the right Barça started well enough with Abidal creating an early chance for Eto'o that was well saved by Diego Lopez. Villareal hit back forcing a diving save from Valdés in the 11th minute after Matias Fernandez ran at the defence and shot. Abidal and Zambrotta were both getting forward to support the attack, but with Ronaldinho drifting infield the connection between the f...

Having reduced the difference with Real Madrid to two points, Barça's defeat at Atletico Madrid has seen the gap open again to five. Despite taking the lead through a tremendous overhead kick from Ronaldinho, Barça were hit by two goals before half time that left them groggy and Atletico, led by a superb Kun Agüero, took full advantage. 

Frank Rijkaard surprised everyone by continuing with his policy of rotations, leaving Leo Messi on the substitutes' bench; however, after the game Johan Neeskens claimed that it was because Messi was not at 100%. Whatever the truth, Barça began with Eto'o out of position on the right, Ronaldinho out of position at centre forward, and Thierry Henry playing on the left.

For the first half an hour Barça dominated the game but without creating...

A last gasp effort from Xavi Hernandez gave Barça a deserved equalizer in tonight's Copa del Rey semi final first leg game with Valencia. David Villa had given Valencia the lead against the run of play in the 70th minute, but Barça's hard work was finally rewarded with a goal that gives them every chance for the second leg in three weeks' time. 

There were few surprises in the starting lineup, Iniesta was left on the bench to make room for the return of Deco, while Abidal and Henry returned in place of Sylvinho and Ronaldinho. Valencia played with what looked to be an exciting 4-3-3 formation, but in the end they played with everyone back awaiting the counter attack.

Barça started promisingly and had a tremendous triple chance to take the lead in the 7th minute, Messi ...

It may only have been Levante but Barça gave a fine display today, especially in the second half, and ended up winning comfortably by five goals to one. Samuel Eto'o returned to the starting lineup and showed why Barça have missed him so much by bagging a second half hat-trick, while Xavi Hernandez and Leo Messi both capped good performances with goals in the first half. 

Frank Rijkaard made four changes to the team that beat Celtic, with Zambrotta, Sylvinho, Xavi and Eto'o in place of Marquez, Abidal, Deco and Henry, which meant that Puyol moved back to central defence. Barça started well and looked to have taken the lead in the eighth minute after Iniesta set up Eto'o but the linesman had flagged for an offside on Iniesta. Then in the 12th minute a great crossfield pass from Ronaldi...

Football Club Barcelona all but booked their place in the last eight of the Champions League with a 2-3 win over Celtic. Very rarely will Celtic Park have witnessed such a superb display of football as that offered by Barça tonight. Two goals from Leo Messi and a Thierry Henry special gave Barça the victory which looked in doubt as Celtic took a 2-1 lead in at half time.

Frank Rijkaard surprised everyone by putting Ronaldinho back in the starting lineup for the first time in 2008, but the Brazilian responded with his best game for a long time. Samuel Eto'o was not considered ready to start the game and Xavi was also left on the bench.

Barça started well  and after 12 minutes Henry intercepted a poor defensive pass before pulling the ball back to Iniesta who forced the first save o...

A nail-biting 1-2 victory for Barça in La Romareda has reduced the gap with Real Madrid to only five points, after Madrid lost earlier to Betis. A late penalty from Ronaldinho gave Barça an undeserved but vital victory in a game dominated by the referee's controversial decisions. Thierry Henry's opening goal looked to be after the Frenchman had used his arm to control the ball. Zaragoza were awarded a doubtful penalty that Diego Milito missed, and then Barça's penalty near the end was also very questionable.  

Frank Rijkaard once again decided to rest players in the league with an eye on Wednesday's Champions league game with Celtic. There was no place for Andres Iniesta or Toure Yaya, and Giovani dos Santos was preferred to both Bojan and Ronaldinho in the starting lineup....

Barça have announced that they will play a friendly game in Kuwait at the end of May against club side Kazma SC. This will be Barça's first ever game in Kuwait and no doubt it will be greeted with excitement by Kuwaiti football fans, while for Barça fans the first thought will probably be: how much are we getting paid for this? Kazma play at the Kazma SC stadium which has a capacity for 20,000 spectators.

Last April Barça played a friendly game in Egypt beating Al Alhy 4-0. It was in this game that Bojan Krkic scored his first goal for the first team, Saviola, and Eto'o with two, got the other goals. Click here to see the goals from that game, you might recognise El Hadari the Egyptian national g...

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 ...

A goal from substitute Xavi three minutes from the end gave Barça three vital points which kept their title chances alive. After Madrid lost yesterday it was imperative that Barça beat Osasuna today, but their lack of ideas in front of goal threatened to end the weekend with disappointment until Xavi made the most of a rebound to beat Ricardo from 20 yards.

Frank Rijkaard played the same eleven that started the second half against Villarreal with Thuram once more filling in for the injured Puyol and Marquez continuing in the defensive midfield role. On a wet pitch after the rain in Barcelona today, Barça started the game well. In the seventh minute Messi touched the ball into Henry who backheeled it into the path of Messi, but the Argentinian's left foot shot went over. A minute later Osasu...

Once again a single goal from Thierry Henry was enough to get Barça through a round of the Copa del Rey. Having scored Barça's only goal in two games against Sevilla in the last 16, Henry's header before half time gave Barça a 1-0 aggregate win over Villarreal to secure a place in tomorrow's semi-final draw.

Henry got the goal, and Ronaldinho made his long awaited return when he came on for the last 15 minutes, but the star of the night was Leo Messi who caused the Villarreal headaches all night with his dribbling skills and provoked the sending-off of Pascal Cygan. Frank Rijkaard selected his strongest team with Milito and Abidal returning to the defence which was solid all night, giving Victor Valdés one of his easier nights in goal.

The first half was quite cagey with Villarreal a...