The dominance of the English clubs in this season's Champions League was confirmed last night by Liverpool's 0-1 win over Inter Milan. There are now four English clubs in the last eight of the competition and bookies are only offering odds of 2/5 on an English team lifting the trophy in May. With Roma, Schalke and Fenerbahce as clear outsiders, Barça look like being the only team with any chance of stopping the English.

After losing Leo Messi through injury and suffering two defeats to Atletico Madrid and Villarreal, the naturally pessimistic cule may feel that our situation is impossible. However, as I said the other day the other clubs are having their problems too.

Manchester United are probably the team that Barça fans fear most, and when you look at the talent of Cristiano R...

In typical fashion Barça have taken their fans from hell to heaven and back to hell again in the space of six weeks. Given that there is no midweek game this week, the Catalan sports press will no doubt run the crisis for all they can, and questions will once again be asked about Frank Rijkaard's suitability for the job. There will also be criticisms of certain players and no doubt we will have a healthy dose of transfer speculation as the press look for the big names that Barça might buy.

With the draw for the Champions League on Friday there will also be a feeling of inferiority when fans look towards the possible rivals. However, if we take a closer look we will see that things are not so perfect at any of the big clubs in Europe. The English clubs are supposed to be the strongest at the mo...

Frank Rijkaard has got a fair bit of thinking to do this weekend to decide who will make up the XI to play Villarreal, but no decision will be more difficult than deciding who plays in attack and more precisely who plays on the right side of attack in place of the injured Leo Messi.

In the last couple of games against Atletico and Celtic Rijkaard put Samuel Eto'o on the right when Messi wasn't playing but the idea didn't really work. The problem comes when he decides to play the three remaining fantasticos. Ronaldinho, Henry and Eto'o can all play in the centre and can all play on the left, however, none of them seems particularly comfortable on the right side of attack.

This seems to be because none of them are wingers in the classical sense, rather they can play wide with the intentio...

Frank Rijkaard's decision to leave out Toure Yaya and Leo Messi for Saturday's game at Atletico Madrid confounded many fans and raised the question of whether players should be rotated. Many quite rightly feel that important players such as Messi and Toure should always play in the big games. In a television interview yesterday Txiki Begiristain claimed that Tuesday's game with Celtic is more important than the game with Atletico; I couldn't agree more, but one thing is more important whereas more difficult is another thing altogether.   

As fans we can only judge the players on their performances in the matches, and from this we form our opinions as to who is in the best form to be picked each week. From this it is quite logical that most of us arrive to the conclusion that both Messi and To...

Four weeks ago I wrote an article entitled Can Barça win this season's Champions League? The intention of the article was to try and lift the spirit of Barça fans who saw La Liga as lost after our draw in Bilbao which left Madrid nine points clear. While in the article I claim that the league was still possible, I never in my wildest dreams imagined Barça would reduce the gap by seven points in just four games.

I have said before that one of Barça's biggest problems is that we tend to judge how good we are in relation to how well Madrid are doing. Despite gaining a decent amount of points in the first half of the season there was talk of crisis at Barça due to the gap that Madrid had built up. ...

Not for the first time this season Barça have suffered the detrimental effects of an international break. There have been four international breaks so far this season and with one exception Barça have played very poorly in the following game. In Semptember Barça drew 0-0 in Osasuna in one of the worst games of the season while in October Villarreal ran all over Barça to win 3-1. 

The one exception was in November when Barça beat Recreativo 3-0 at home, and now we have seen another lousy performance against Sevilla. Barça were missing both Deco and Zambrotta due to injuries they picked up in the Italy-Portugal friendly, and we definitely suffered the consequences of the Italian's absence. However, this is meant as an observation more than as an excuse. Barça are a massive clu...

I went to bed last night very concerned for Barça's chances in La Liga, but convinced it was by no means impossible to catch Real Madrid. I can recall two occasions in 1991/2 and 2003/4 that Barça have made massive comebacks to finish above Madrid at the end of the season. Nevertheless I accept it is unlikely. What has surprised me today is to hear so many fans saying we have no chance in the Champions League.

Putting aside the fact that Barça are still favourites with the bookmakers (I admit I wouldn't risk a bet when the odds are only 7/2), I still feel Barça have the players to win it this season if we can get a bit of luck. On this season's form so far, I would say Barça have nine players (Valdés, Puyol, Marquez, Milito, Abidal, Toure, Iniesta, Messi and Eto'o) who are p...

You have probably already heard about the new organization set up to represent the interests of the clubs. The G14 is to be disbanded and replaced by the European Clubs Association (ECA) which will represent 103 clubs from 53 different football associations. Karl Heinze Rummenigge from Bayern Munich will be ECA's first president and Barça's Joan Laporta will be vice-president. AC Milan, Chelsea, Ajax and Lyon will have board members. Elections will be held at the end of the current season. Rummenigge and Laporta will also get to form part of Uefa's executive committee but they will not have a right to vote.

There are four main agreements that the clubs have made with Fifa and Uefa concerning international football. First, Fifa and Uefa have agreed to put a fund of €174 million toward...

As we approach the halfway point in this season's league programme, the question has been put to me as to whether Barça can turn things around this season. My first reaction to this question is to ask myself: are things really that bad at the moment?

If Barça win their game next Saturday at home to Murcia - as they should - they will reach the halfway point with a total of 40 points. We ought to remember that last season Barça lost the title on goal difference to Real Madrid with both teams on 76 points. The fantastic year that Barça won the Champions League they won La Liga with a total of 82 points. With this in mind I don't think we can say things are going terribly.

One of Barça's biggest problems is that they are always judged in comparison to how Madrid are doing. I am convi...

The search for a subtitute goalkeeper may prove to be more complicated than I had first thought. Santi Cañizares is a non-starter as he would not be eligible to play for Barça in either La Liga or the Champions League this season. Barça need to find a goalkeeper who could play in both tournaments and this reduces the possibilities considerably.

One candidate being touted by the press is Getafe's Oscar Ustari. The 21-year-old Argentinian has only played in four league games and so would be eligible for the league, he has also played in this season's Uefa Cup, but Uefa rules say he could still play in the Champions League.

Another possibility being mentioned is Manchester City's Kasper Schmeichel, son of the legendary Peter. Schmeichel is 20 years old and is currently on loan to Cardiff City. ...