Barça take on Mallorca at Camp Nou tomorrow night in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi final hoping to claim a place in the final which will take place in Valencia’s...

Barça travel to Santander to take on Racing at El Sardinero tomorrow afternoon (kick off 5pm) without injured captain Carles Puyol. However, Rafa Marquez is back to take Puyol's place in defence alongside Gerard Piqué. We will be looking for three more points in the march towards our 19th La Liga title but Racing proved in the 1-1 draw at Camp Nou in September that they will be no pushover.

Racing will be full of confidence after winning their last two matches away at Getafe and Sevilla. They won 0-2 at Sevilla despite playing for an...

It may only be the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey, but tomorrow night's return match with Espanyol could quite fairly be called the most important game of the season so far. There is always the chance to recover after a defeat in La Liga, but failure to win against our local rivals will see us knocked out of the cup and our dreams of a treble will be over. The fact that we haven't actually won anything since 2006 would make defeat more difficult and could produce a negative reaction in the league. I don't wish to sound over dramatic, but the fact that most people seem to think the game will be a walkover makes it all the more dangerous.

Barça begin the second half of the season with a home game against Numancia, the only team to have beaten us in the league so far all season. That 1-0 defeat back in August had many doubters raising their opinions about the suitability of Pep Guardiola for the role of first team coach. Five months later and Guardiola has few critics now as his team go from strength to strength. Many fans are now talking about the possibility of winning the treble this season: meanwhile Guardiola does his best to keep the team thinking about just one thing - winning the next match.

Despite beating Barça, Numancia have struggled this season and are currently just above the relegation zone in 17th...

Pep Guardiola will wait until after tomorrow morning's training session before announcing the squad of 16 players to take on Espanyol in tomorrow night's Copa del Rey quarter final first leg at the Olympic Stadium on Montjuic. Victor Sanchez is available again after recovering from a muscle tear so Guardiola has everyone to choose from besides Gabi Milito who is still out injured.

Espanyol yesterday named Mauricio Pochettino as their third coach of this season after sacking the previous incumbent Mané after Espanyol's 4-0 defeat at Malaga on Sunday. Pochettino will have to make do without Raul Tamudo who is still out injured,...

Tomorrow evening (kick off 8pm) Barça take on Deportivo de La Coruña at Camp Nou in a match which brings to an end the first half of the season, if Barça win we will obtain an all-time record of 50 points from these first nineteen games, can anyone imagine a repeat in the remaining nineteen games and a grand total of 100 points at the end of the season? As has become usual this season Pep Guardiola will announce his squad on the day of the match, but he has everyone fit to choose from bar Gabi Milito who is still a few weeks away from a return. Leo Messi, Andres Iniesta, Dani Alves and Sergio Busquets all trained normally today after...

Barça take a fairly comfortable 3-1 lead into tomorrow night's Copa del Rey second leg match with Atletico Madrid at Camp Nou. However, Pep Guardiola is insisting on the importance of the game and has declared that the tie is not over yet. Nevertheless it seems probable that some players will be rested, the most likely being Xavi and Messi after their trip to Zurich for the Fifa awards ceremony.

Atletico will be without the suspended Maniche and Heitinga, and the injured Seitaridis and Maxi Rodriguez, while coach Javier Aguirre has chosen to rest striker Diego Forlan for the game. while it is...

Barça travel today to Pamplona for tomorrow evening's game against Osasuna without Rafa Marquez who is suspended, and Alex Hleb who has an ankle injury. But the good news is that Eric Abidal has got over his cold and has been included in the squad. There is also a return for Victor Valdés, Xavi Hernandez, Carles Puyol, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Samuel Eto'o who were all rested for Tuesday's Copa del Rey game at Atletico Madrid. If Xavi plays it will be his 300th league game for Barça, Louis Vaan Gaal gave him his debut on October 3 1998 in a 1-3 away win at Valencia.

Osasuna are bottom of the table on 13 points, but they have been improving since Jose Antonio Camacho took over as coach in October. In his first match in...

Pep Guardiola will make several changes to the team that beat Mallorca for tomorrow night's Copa del Rey first leg game at Atletico Madrid. Carles Puyol, Rafa Marquez and Alex Hleb are all nursing injuries while Victor Valdés, Xavi Hernandez, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Samuel Eto'o have all been rested and will not travel. Coming into the 16 man squad are Albert Jorquera, Martin Caceres, Gerard Pique, Pedro Rodriguez and Leo Messi.

Atletico's coach Javier Aguirre has announced the team that will start against Barça and the surprise is that dangerman Kun Agüero will start on the bench. There...

La Liga is back this evening with the first game of the new year at home to Mallorca (kick off 8pm). Barça will be hoping to continue the excellent form shown in the last few months of 2008 with a victory which will put us 13 points clear at the top of the table. With the Copa del Rey games to be played midweek this month we can expect to see Pep Guardiola reverting to using more rotations again and seeing as players such as Messi and Alves have only just got back from their christmas break they may be rested for tonight's game.

The good news for Barça is the return of Andres Iniesta who has been out since getting injured against Basle on November 4th,...