This evening at 8.45 pm bt, Barcelona plays the first game of the Champions league group stage against Portuguese club Sporting.
Sporting is leading the Portuguese league with 6 points out of two games. Two weeks ago, they beat Braga with 0-1. Postiga scored after three minutes and this is the team tha played: Rui Patrício, Abel, Caneira, Tonel, Grimi, Rochemback, João Moutinho, Romagnoli (67 Miguel Veloso), Izmailov, Hélder Postiga (55 Tiuí), Derlei (85 Vukcevic).This is only the second time that Barcelona and Sporting meet in an official game. In the 1986-1987 season, Barcelona eliminated Sporting in the second round of the Uefa cup (1-0, 2-1). In 1999, Sporting played the Gamper tournament, that was won by Barcelona with 3-1. Sporting midfielder Rochemback played two seasons for Barcelona from 2001 to 2003 (read more here).
Sporting squad list:
Rui Patrício, Tiago, Abel, Pedro Silva, Polga, Tonel, Caneira, Grimi, Adrien, Miguel Veloso, Rochemback, Pereirinha, Moutinho, Romagnoli, Izmailov, Derlei, Postiga, Tiuí, Yannick
Barcelona squad list:
Valdés, Pinto, Alves, Márquez, Piqué, Puyol, Cáceres, Sylvinho, Xavi, Touré, Keita, Iniesta, Gudjohnsen, Messi, Eto'o, Bojan, Henry, Pedro
Before, during and after the match, you can comment on the game here.
Posts
57 comments:
Miguel Veloso, Rochemback Moutinho, that sounds like an interesting midfield. Control over midfield will be crucial.
After the draw I was really optimistic, but since we had this bad liga start, which also means a lot more pressure.
I want Touré-Xavi-Keita in midfield and Messi-Eto'o-Pedro up front. Although it will of course be Henry. If Henry plays, I think it's better that Sylvinho plays, so he can fill the gap on the left.
Touré, Xavi, Keita in a home game would be a disaster. I think we will see them often when we play away in CL but the most likely lineup considering that we play at Camp Nou and the pressure from fans and media to win the most likely lineup is this:
Valdes - Alves, Puyol, Marquez, Sylvinho - Touré, Xavi, Iniesta - Henry, Eto'o, Messi
An more defensive lineup which I think we will see in the away games:
Valdes - Alves, Puyol, Marquez, Caceres/Abidal - Toure, Keita, Xavi - Messi, Eto'o, Iniesta
I don't think playing Keita is necesarily more defensive. Don't forget they bought Keita because they wanted to lift up midfield scoring. He can also push better forward than Iniesta can.
Anyone know where I can watch the game live on internet? They are clearly not prioritizing this game in Sweden =( .
Valdes
Alves-Payol-Marquez-caceres
Toure
kieta
xavi
Messi iniesta
Henry
rojadirecta.com normally does the trick...
Anonymous I am planning to move to Sweden soon, but If I will have this problem with Barcelona games then, hm...i better think again:))
i would like to re-post my post from the Racing game since it was the last post ad most didnt see it.
NOUBARCA said...
its so funny that people are not after INIESTA, XAVI, MESSI, ETO, KEITA for not soring or @least hitting the target. If our midfielders cant shoot to save thier lives, then its a shame but we can all open our mouths and run abidal & valdes down. I am not their greatest fan but there must be a balance and if most of you here are BARCA coach, there would be loads of SACRED COWS (iniesta, xavi, yaya, messi espcialy) no matter how badly they perfom, Abidal & Vlades gets the blame for the only goal we concede in a 0-1 loss but your "golden sons" dont get a blame for not attempting to score from midfield. Am sure some of you wish HENRY played so you blame him too.. get real guys and lets call a spade a spade. INIESTA, SAMMY AND XAVI didnt do enough yesterday. Guddy would @least shoot at goal. enuff said
14 September, 2008
OFFICIAL-----------valdez
-alves-----pique------marquez------puyol-
-xavi----keita----iniesta-
messi--------------eto----------------henry
official!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No english Non-PTP-stream working? Only two listed at rojadirecta. One is in spanish and the other not broadcasting.
@ noubarca
I agree with u on that one.
Espn classics and espn deportes
we look goodso far 10mins.. i hope we score tho
GOALLLLLL
GOOOOLLLLLL AZO AZO AZO AZO... we look good lol
GOOOOLLLAAAAZZOOOOO!!!!
Phew, what a load off. Hopefully the game will open up now and more opportunities will present itself.
Puyol playing LB, I guess that means Pique is ahead of Caceres on the depth chart.
Just a random comment, we go to the wings a little too often. Sometimes when we hit them on the break there's a lot of open space but instead of just going direct we swing it to the side and that allows them to get back on defense.
Anyone a good link???!!!
Finally a goal out of a corner, perfect. Very solid game so far, hope they can keep it and maybe at one or two more for the confidence, vamos Barçççççççççççççççççççççççççççççççça!
I like the performance so far.
Negative note: how must Touré and Sylvinho feel nowadays?
i hope Arsne doesnt whisper some sweet french nonsense into Yaya ears.
any live ling????
pls...
Whats wrong with us?!??!!? Why cant we score a freakin goal in open play?? Our player need to learn how to pull the trigger earlier....too many touches!
anyone cane tell us how was it altogrther? where was poyol playing and how was his performance?
this is what i am tuking abt. These Guys need to shoot at goal. Cant believe we are playing like we have 6-0 lead while its just 1 gaol. God help us @ last nobody wld blame poor Abidal
yes we definately need to shoot earlier.. if we did we would have 3 or 4 goals right now... messi alone had like 3 chances already... great goal from marquez tho. FCB! ps: PENALTY!! GOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLL AZO AZO AZO AZO
if you ove Henry say "yeah yeah"
"si si" lol
game on.....
2-1 :(
theres what you call "killing a game off"... Pls explain to these guys in Catalan
umm... bojan anyone??
I don't like this...I wish Samu wasnt replaced. we need some one to put pressure up top on the defenders and the keeper.
Damn i dont want to see Toure again...i hope he goes to Arsenal..he is too slow. he turns like a train damn it
@ charles who would you rather see? Keita isnt a DM he is very attack minded. And trains dont turn @least in London..lol
Xavi Inesta dont work..eh?
MESSI'S A MONSTER!... xavi's a beast 3-1 im satisfied :)
GOOOOOOOOOOOOLAAAAAAAAAAAAZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
XAVIIIIII pure catalan goal!!!! Iniesta chips the ball from a free kick from the left side of the box and Xavi touches for goal!!!
again only two chances and one goal for the opponents. and we had so many chances. messi 1 meter in front of the goal, iniesta 8 meters, etc.. how many 100% chances do we need to score once? they have to improve a lot. really!!!
Finaly!!!!
Things are going better
Just keep it going
Més que un club!!!!
GOOD GAME ! DONT EVEN STAR CRYING ABIDAL DEFENCE OHHH BLAH BLAH BLAH ABIDAL DIDNT PLAY HAPPY.. !!!!! BARCA WON.
supreme!!!....one of the best defensive performance this year...and barca also show that they can play verry well in an important game without messi doing well not.."bad day for messi"...but again..pure class defence!!! imo best players of the game: "PIQUE THE WALL, KEITA THE HORSE, ETO THE WARRIOR, XAVI...hmm THE MASTER!!!"
WHAT ABOUT MARQUEZ THE SCORER HELLO! DEFENCE WAS VERY GOOD.. TRUE..
Piqué - Best signing this summer, future spanish international player.
I think Puyol is better at Left or Right back than a central defender. He's to 'Wild' to play central. Hope he will play left back, with Abidal as backup. Then you have Marquez, Piqué, Caceres & Milito for central.
Great game, but we need to improve finishing. They need to shoot earlyr on goal, and not dribbling and then shoot from 3 meters in front of goal. Just shoot on sight
oh yes i sorry forget marquez!!! havn`t seen him playing so gud for a long time..."MARQUEZ THE HERO" without his goal the game would have ended maybe 0:0 or only 1:0..his goal gave barca more confident of scoring...they have improve..evry single playing was tearing their body apart not to draw or in worst case even loose..hope that mentality will last long
kxevin...
I'm waiting for your report!!
since I didn't have the app. to watch the match.
LOL pure catalan goal?!well I guess that goal scored on Barcelona was Puyol so that was a PURE CATALAN mistake!!
We easily control the game and ball possession was like 70%-30%. But lack in finishing really got me worried. Well, a good result anyway.
Good game. Not excellent, but good. I like the way we were set out defensively, we seemed a bit more solid today. Pique was pretty solid throughout and I like that we finally have some height in the defence. Definitely one for the future!
We are getting better with each game and will continue to get better. The goals will come, it is a mixture of confidence, lack of fitness and just well, bad luck. Like i said in an earlier post I dont think we will see Barca play to their full potential till Jan but once they do I cant see many teams stopping us. We are playing well and creating chances against teams who put 9 behind the ball....imagine what will happen when a team actually tries to play us. Has yet to happen this season so lets see!
We played a good team tonight as well. Sporting are no walk in the park.
The one thing I would say is that the players take too long to shoot. I think that is a lack of confidence though and will improve as we begin to play better and score more goals.
Henry was good tonight, he made his presence known and that is good to see. He worked hard for the ball and made a lot of runs (even though not all of them were fruitful), he will also get better. Pedro is a little gem and I think he is going to steal Henrys spot if he doesnt watch himself. He gives us pace, width and he has some nice little skills.
Keita was on top form as well tonight. Completely dominated the midfield, broke down everything and kept the midfield moving. He allows Xavi so much more freedom.
Oh and what about Pep with his team selection/formation tonight. He was spot on and he changed his tactics to adapt to the game (something Frank NEVER did). He was clever to bring on Pedro and not Bojan. Pedro is a proper winger and he pulls the defenders out wide, giving Messi more space in the middle. Did you notice how much more space he had in the middle once Pedro came on. Brilliant! Im starting to like Pep more and more....
The result is positive=everyone is praising, well I am happy u guys started to feel happy:) Lot of positives in the game and some negatives, but I am sure u will be singing the positives, so I will keep that for u, and I dont want to spoil the pleasure of the first win talking about the negatives, I just hope Pepe learned some more lessons today, it doesn't have to be after a loss to figure out what is needed to be improved, but as I said before (when the team was going thru bad period) this team definitely have the quality to go far in this season, i just hope to start noticing improvements here and there, but i guess i will need to be patient for 5 other games, fair enough.
Pst, I noticed that no one is mentioning iniesta, is it a sign for the old Xavi story who had been underrated for long time? he was the horse of the team tonight, helping in midfield, opening on left flank, bouncing back to help payol on the left, crowning his perfect defensive/offensive performance by a typical iniesta brand assist...damn if he just improve his finishing...
Hey pep, is there any way that you can get highlights of the barca games to post on your website? That would really make the sight much better
agree with ramzi.if iniesta becomes a better finisher,he will become pretty unstoppable
Waleed, find your way over to The Offside for the fullness: http://barcelona.theoffside.com/team-news/barca-3-sporting-1-or-see-what-i-mean.html
But in a nutshell, Iniesta was man of the match. He was spectacular. Messi was clunky, the weakest link in the offense. Henry and Eto'o have never worked better together than they did tonight. When both were attacking the box with Messi coming in behind them, it was so dangerous.
Agreed with the comment about Puyol on the wing. The only problem there is his pace, or lack thereof. Still, he's light years better than Sylvinho, who came right in and gave a ball away.
Xavi was amazing, so smart with the ball, and Pique will, by the end of the season, be the side's best defender.
Henry was the player we thought we'd bought today. As Ramzi said over on The Offside, wow.
Yaya showed why he's a better pure defensive mid than Keita. Balls that Keita would back pass on, Yaya's strength and ball control keeps the offense moving forward. Charles, Yaya is the best defensive mid in the world right now. He does have a peculiar running style, but look at his movement compared to other players. He's fast. Lumbering, but fast. And when he comes in, the midfield goes on lockdown. His presence made that third goal inevitable.
Oh. People are probably still trying to figure out some way to blame Abidal for that goal. I can help with that one: If Abidal didn't suck so bad, he would have been in there, then Puyol would have been marking the goal scorer much more closely than Marquez, and we would have won 3-0. (There. Glad to be of help.)
Abidal deserves much love. He's our best left back, period.
And lest I forget, Keita was majestic. Now everyone sees why we bought him. If he isn't harassing the keeper, Marquez' weak-ass header doesn't go in. No way.
Eto'o worked his butt off, too.
Man of the match: Guardiola, for taking Abidal out!
(player,comment,rating)
Valdes = Solid 7
Pique = Good 7
Marquez = Acceptable 7.5
Puyol > Abidal 6.5
Alves = Improved 7.5
Xavi = Master 8
Iniesta = Great 8
Keita > Toure 8
Messi = Bad luck 6.5
Eto'o = Good 7
Henry = Improved 7
Toure = Bench 6
Pedro = Bench 6
Sylvinho = N/A
@barca4life:
Highlights are part of the plan, in a few weeks time, they could be there.
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