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FC Barcelona will visit Los Pajaritos Stadium on August the 31st, in Soria, to play Numancia in the first game of La Liga 2008/09.
The rest of the fixtures are:
Athletic de Bilbao - Almería.
Osasuna - Villarreal.
Deportivo de La Coruña - Real Madrid.
Numancia - FC Barcelona.
Racing - Sevilla.
Sporting - Getafe.
Betis - Recreativo de Huelva.
Espanyol - Valladolid.
Atlético de Madrid - Málaga.
Valencia - Mallorca.
Visit here for all FC Barcelona tickets.
FC Barcelona threw away a good share of their options to win the league title this year, after an unexpected defeat against Villareal at home. On Saturday Real Madrid had obtained a priceless victory against RCD Espanyol in Bernabeu Stadium, so the pressure was on the Catalan team. Quite inexplicably Barcelona did show a poor performance during great part of the game, which deserved the 1-2 final scored.
FC Barcelona noticed in excess the absence of Leonel Messi, and lost the fresh and electric level that had been showing in League and Champions League after the team got a draw against Athletic Bilbao in San Mames. The defeat against Atletico de Madrid the previous Saturday had been seen as an accident, but the reality is that the two points gap between Barsa and Real Madrid increased until five points. After the weekend, FC Barcelona are again eight points behind Real Madrid, a point less than before the crisis started in the White Team. The moral in the Catalan team seems quite fragile after this defeat, with President Laporta confirming that it has been a big hit in the aspirations of the team. He could not hide the disappointment that the defeat has meant for the club and said “The League is slipping away from our fingers”.
Things seem to be going good in Camp Barça. The team have recovered their best version and that has helped several players to improve their performances. As a proof, Eto’o signed his first hat-trick in La Liga for the first time since he has been playing in the Spanish League. The two previous times he scored three goals in one game were in UEFA Cup (against Hapoel Nicosia in the season 2003/2004), playing for Mallorca, and Champions League (against Panathinaikos in the season 2005/2006), already playing for Barça.
Samuel has scored 8 goals in the current edition of the Spanish League, which could seem mediocre numbers for a world class striker. However, the figures are outsanding as Eto’o has only played six League games, due to being injured for over two months and his performance in the Africa Cup of Nations, where Cameroon were defeated in the final.
FC Barcelona are now just two points behind Real Madrid as the White Team suffered another setback last Sunday, this time at home against Getafe, while the Catalan team had taken advantage of Levante (5-1) a couple of hours before.
FC Barcelona resurrection
Barsa did not seem to notice the effort of having played during the week and looked fresh from the 3-2 win against Celtic, and got an easy 5-1 win against the bottom La Liga qualified Levante UD at the Camp Nou. Eto´o scored a fantastic hat-trick, following the initial goals from Xavi and Messi.
This win, united to the first Real Madrid loss at Santiago Bernabeu sin February 2008, closed the gap between the two teams to two single points. Real Madrid have still the lead but FC Barcelona have the psychological factor in their favour, after closing the gap 5 points in four games.
Easy win against Levante
FC Barcelona had no mercy of Levante UD, showing that the team are back in good form. Leonel Xavi scored the first goal just after 14′. Riga scored a penalty (41′) after an unnecessary handball by Zambrotta, the weakest player of the team during the first half of the game, but just three minutes later Messi put things clear with a good strike after an even better series of passes with Xavi.
The game finished there and then, as Levante completely dissapear from the pitch. However, Eto’o wanted to make clear that he is back and did it scoring a hat-trick (56′, 62′ and 87′). The best version of FC Barcelona was back.
FC reduced the gap with Real Madrid to five points, when there are still 14 games to be played -or 42 points. After a very irregular season, the team seem to realise that Real Madrid are not unbeatable, after they lost against two, theoretically, minor teams (Almeria, the revelation of the League, and Betis). Next weekend could be favorable to the Catalan team, as they play Levante (last classified) just before Real Madrid play Getafe in Bernabeu Stadium. FC Barcelona have closed four points in the last three games, which has increased the optimism of the squad. However, they need to understand that there is not any scope for further mistakes. The impact of the defeat against Real Madrid in Nou Camp that increased the gap to seven points was, as expected, difficult to overtake. However, seven League games afterwards, the reality is that the gap has closed up two points.
The target is to reach the game in Bernabeu Stadium (two before the last league game) with chances to overtake Real Madrid. There are 11 games to be played before that much expected “el clasico” in which the team have to face every game as a final, in order to reduce further the 5 points gap.
FC Barcelona are traveling to Sevilla without seven of their main players. Deco and Sylvinho have increased the list of unavailable players. Also, Zambrotta and Bojan came back injured from their stay with the Italian and Spanish national squads. These four players add up to the previously accounted absences of Puyol, Ezquerro and Jorquera, injured, and Etoo and Toure, still in the Africa Cup of Nations.
Ronaldinho to play from the start
The long list of unavailable players will mean that Ronaldinho will play from the beginning, 48 days after the defeat in Camp Nou against Real Madrid.
Marquez and Giovani, in the list
Rikjaard included Marquez and Giovani in the squad in spite of having returned from the US on Friday afternoon, where yesterday they played a friendly game with their national squads -the defender played the entire game and will travel to Sevilla without having completed a training session with the team this week.
We all know that, in football, things change within minutes. One day Real Madrid is unbeatable and the following day they become only humans. One day the league looks decided and, the following day, closing the 6 points gap with the eternal rival seems like an achievable quest. If we bear in mind that there are 16 remaining league games to played -a total of 48 points- it feels obvious that it’s a bit too soon to consider the league finished. FC Barcelona fans don’t forget that last season Real Madrid achieved something very similar, so they are specially keen to get their revenge.
A big percentage of the real chances to reach their target will depend on the result of the two next games, both outside the Nou Camp, against Sevilla and Zaragoza. If FC Barcelona comes back with two victories in the pocket, we might be talking about a completely different story until the end of the season. After those games the team will also add two important players, Toure Yaya and Samuel Etoo, playing the Cup of Africa at the moment.
Xavi´s goal two minutes from the hour was enough to beat Osasuna and reduce the gap with Real Madrid to six point, after the White Team lost against Almeria on Saturday. It´s true that now all the teams come to Camp Nou to put 10 players behind the ball, but it´s also true that the squad are not making good use of all the chances of goal that they generate. We saw that against Villareal on Wednesday and last night against Osasuna. It seems the opposite to how Real Madrid have been winning their games lately, which is taking advantage of every goal chance.
Rikjaard’s men chased Ricardo’s goal for the entire half, but the Osasuna goalkeeper’s performance was outstanding. The best chances for FC Barcelona came from Messi (15′), from Iniesta in a one to one with Ricardo after a great pass from Bojan (28′), and another great kick from Messi that missed the goal by centimeters (40′). Also Henry showed his class (32′), and Bojan, who was very active during the first half, tried in the minutes 38 and 44.
Second half to be forgotten
The second half was a completely different story. Apart from the goal, two minutes from the end, there was just one goal chance by Deco (69′). But the miracle came in the minute 88′, when Xavi took the Camp Nou from their depression with a superb goal, the most celebrated one in the last times.
La Liga is not decided
FC Barcelona reduced to six the nine points disadvantage with Real Madrid, after their unexpected defeat in Almeria on Saturday.