It wasn't to be for Barça tonight. Despite having more possession and more shots in both legs we were unable to score a goal in 180 minutes. Manchester United go on to the final in Moscow thanks to a cracking early goal from Paul Scholes. Barça are left to lick their wounds and to contemplate on where it all went wrong in what will almost definitely be the end of the Frank Rijkaard era.

For the first fourteen minutes Barça dictated the pace of the game. Messi had one good run in the first minute which was only stopped by a Scholes foul on the edge of the penalty area, Edwin Van Der Sar's kicking again looked questionable and in the seventh minute Eto'o took advantage of a poor kick but could not find anyone with his cross. Cristiano Ronaldo had hardly been seen the ball an...

Barça go into tomorrow night's semi final second leg with Man Utd knowing that a defeat will mean the end of another trophyless season. However, a win or a score draw will see us through to the final in Moscow on May 21 with a golden opportunity to win the third European Cup in our history and the second of Frank Rijkaard's time as coach.

I have heard some Barça fans say that it would be better to lose as that would mean we would definitely have to make changes in summer. I have to say that whether we win the Champions League or not there are already big changes being planned. Rijkaard could just as easily leave even if he does make history by becoming the first Barça coach to win the trophy twice, and as for the players I don't think any of them that are likely to leave this summer can change ...

 

Despite dominating for long periods, Barcelona were unable to break through Manchester United's defensive wall and now go into next Tuesday's 2nd leg at Old Trafford needing a score draw or better to reach the final in Moscow on May 21. If the result was a bit disappointing, the performance was cause for optimism as Barça raised their game for the occasion and kept the best team in Europe on the back foot for most of the game.

When the teams were announced it looked as though Frank Rijkaard had been the more conservative of the managers as he chose to play Iniesta in a forward role and brought in Deco to bolster the midfield, while Sir Alex Ferguson suggested United wanted to attack by picking Tevez, Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo in the starting lineup. However...

Thierry Henry has recovered from his fever and has been named in the squad for tomorrow evening's Champions League semi-final first leg with Manchester United at Camp Nou (kick off 8.45pm). Lilian Thuram comes in for the suspended Carles Puyol but will most likely start on the bench. This is make or break time now for Barça and the consequencies of a defeat will almost certainly lead to some big changes at the club. With La Liga out of reach the Champions League is Barça's only chance not to have a second consecutive trophyless season.   

On current form United deserve to be considered the best team in Europe and Cristiano Ronaldo, at the moment, can be classed as the best in the world. Sir Alex Ferguson has managed to build yet another team that has left rivals Arsenal and Chelsea in t...

Johan Cruyff in his weekly column today took an optimistic view towards the coming Champions League semi final, pointing out that Manchester United will fear Barça just as much as Barça fear them. I'm not quite sure if that is 100% true but they certainly won't think it is going to be easy.

Last season United were favourites to beat AC Milan in the semi finals as Milan were not performing well in the Italian league. United took an early lead in the first game at Old Trafford through a Ronaldo goal but Kaka shocked the crowd with two sensational goals before half time. United rallied in the second half and Rooney scored twice to give the English team a narrow 3-2 advantage to take to San Siro. In the second game Milan destroyed United with goals from Kaka, Seedorf and Gilardino to win 5-3 on a...

Barça have reached the semi-finals of the Champions League after beating Schalke 04 1-0 (2-0 on aggregate) and will now face Manchester United for a place in the final in Moscow on May 21st. However, the performance, especially in the first half left a lot to be desired. Whether the recent declarations from directors had a negative effect I cannot say, but for the first half an hour Barça played so badly it looked more likely that they would get knocked out.

In the first twenty minutes Schalke had 9 attempts on goal as Barça were completely outplayed. Schalke surprised with some neat one touch football and threatened with long shots and dangerous crosses. After 7 minutes Valdés dived to save a shot from Altintop and the ball spun up behind him and would have gone in if the keeper hadn't rea...

For the third game running Frank Rijkaard has named the same 18 players for tomorrow night's Champions League quarter final second leg with Schalke 04. This means that Gabi Milito and Toure Yaya will continue in the team despite their respective physical problems and Rafa Marquez will start again on the bench ready to replace the first one who drops.

Schalke have never played an official game at Camp Nou but they did compete twice in the Joan Gamper tournament in the 1970s. In 1970 Barça beat them 1-0 in the 3rd place match with a goal from Fusté, and in 1977 Barça beat them 4-1 in the final with goals from Neeskens(2), Clares and Asensi. Last Saturday Schalke moved up to second place in the Bundesliga when an Altintop goal gave them a 1-0 home win over Hansa Rostock. Jermaine Jones sho...

A goal from Bojan Krkic after twelve minutes was enough to give Barcelona a victory in the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen tonight which leaves Barça very close to a semi final place in this season's Champions League. The performance was not pretty but the players showed the pride that seemed to be lacking recently to earn a deserved victory. Frank Rijkaard made just one change to the team that lost to Betis, with Milito returning to the defence in place of Thuram. Samuel Eto'o was declared fit and battled for 81 minutes on the right wing despite not looking at 100%, while Toure Yaya gave another display of total commitment to the cause before making way for Rafa Marquez to return to the team for the last twenty minues.

Barça started in much the same way as they had agains...

After the recent disappointing results Barça will be glad to have Gabi Milito and Rafa Marquez back in the squad for tomorrow night's Champions League quarter final first leg with Schalke 04 in Gelsenkirchen. There is no place in the squad still for Ronaldinho who may still be injured or he may just be too busy enjoying the other things in life that he has no time for mundane things like Champions League football.

Schalke will be without midfielder Ivan Rakitic who is out with an ankle injury but apart from that they should be at full strength. Since beating Porto on penalties in the last round they won three matches and then drew 0-0 last Saturday at Karlsruher. Their star players are the excellent young goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and top scorer Kevin Kuranyi. Kuranyi has nine goals in this seas...

 Good news for Barça today as we have been drawn with Schalke 04 in the Champions League quarter finals. The first game will be in Germany on Tuesday 1st April with the second leg in Camp Nou on Wednesday 9th April. If Barça reach the semi finals they will play the winners of Roma and Manchester United with the first game being played at Camp Nou on Wednesday 23rd April and the second leg being played away on Tuesday 29th April. All games will kick off at 8.45pm Spanish time. In our readers poll 49% chose Schalke as the team they most wanted to face. Schalke qualified for the quarter finals after beating Porto on penalties thanks to a fine performance from their young goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. In the group stage they came second to Chelsea in Group B which saw Rosenborg and Valencia eliminated. They a...