Saturday 3 January 2009

Match discussion: Mallorca

This evening at 8 pm bt,
Barcelona plays the seventeenth game of the season against Mallorca.



Mallorca is ranked 17th in the Liga, with 14 points which is one point above the relegation zone. Last game, the team drew 0-0 against Sevilla, starting with Lux; Josemi, Nunes, Ramis, Corrales; Scaloni, Mario Suárez; Martí, Varela, Aduritz; Arango

Barcelona forward Samuel Eto'o played for Mallorca before he joined Barcelona in the summer of 2004.


Mallorca squad list:
Santana, Josemi, Ramis, Scaloni, Mario, Varela, Webo, Jurado, Aouate, Keita, Navarro, Nunes, Ayoze, Arango, Martí, Aduriz, Corrales, Lux

Barcelona squad list:
Valdés, Pinto, Jorquera, Alves, Puyol, Márquez, Cáceres, Abidal, Sylvinho, Xavi, Víctor Sánchez, Touré, Busquets, Keita, Gudjohnsen, Hleb, Messi, Eto'o, Bojan, Henry, Pedro, Iniesta


Before (what are your expectations, what's your prediction, what should be the line-up,...), during and after the match, you can comment on the game here.



!!! LIVE MATCH CHAT !!!

From two hours before until two hours after the game you can join a match chat (read more here)

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Official line-up:

Valdes - Sanchez Marquez Puyol Abidal - Xavi Yaya Gudjohnsen - Hleb Eto'o Henry

Louis said...

why is sanchez playing cb?...

Anonymous said...

If we lose there is only one man to blame. That lineup is a joke.

Anonymous said...

yes that lineup is nearly a joke but we have to win with such a formation, too.

i expected messi, iniesta and alves today. that would be a powerful lineup.

Anonymous said...

I LOVE Henry!

Anonymous said...

brilliant ball by guddy for iniesta's goal

Anonymous said...

Valdes - Sanchez Marquez Puyol Abidal-Xavi Yaya Gudjohnsen - Hleb Eto'o Henry

Anonymous said...

Not a great match, but three points and it is the most important just now.

Anonymous said...

Can anybody give mi torrent for this match cause i wasn't availible to watch=/tnx

Anonymous said...

Almost thought we faced Real Madrid. White jerseys and almost as defensive. Can anyone explain to me why Sanchez started as a centeback instead of Caceres who we paid 16 million euros for? It's a mystery to me. Best players today were Puyol and the BEAST Touré!

It was a joy to see Iniesta again too.

Erikoisasiantuntija said...

I liked the fact that Maradona came to see Messi, and Pep didn`t play him.
Yaya was fantastic. Subs worked out well. And I think this was one of the better games by Hleb.
At times looked impressive, but over all a bit rusty.

Thanks
Pep for this great blog.

Anonymous said...

SimonP.

Caceres didnt play because he and the others from south america got a long holiday. They all missed the traings this week. Alves did get some minutes in the end, because the situation forced Guradiola to put some "fire".

I hope very much that Cáceres will start the match in the cup against Atletico on tuesday.
Otherwise i will start to worry that somthing is a bit wrong.

By the way - it was a big chance to give Sanchez the central position. Very risky and we paid one goal for it.

I dont really agree that Puyol was very good on the right side this match. He didnt look so comfort from that position.

A tough match in tuesday in Madrid.

Another thing is the second goal. It looked like Godjhonsen was in offside. So maybe the refory did a misstake.
But it doesnt matter.
Three points.

Anonymous said...

For me, man of the match was definitely Marquez. I think he saved us at least 4 times this game :)

Anonymous said...

To FCB,

Puyol was man of the match. He played today on par with the best of the best full-backs in the world. He was nothing short of amazing. I would rate him a 9 out of 10. The only reason I wouldn't give him a ten is because he didn't score or set up the decisive goal.

Anonymous said...

ppl, ppl, there must b a reason why guardiola put sanchez there, you all know there is method to his madness, so stop complainin. would you rather he experiment against valencia or sevilla? He needs to give the youth a chance and more than d last 20 mins of a game to grow. positionally sanchez was sound, he just failed to make the tackle and its obvious now that speed isnt his strong suit. otherwise from that goal, he played a good match. I support gaurdiola, i prefer him to experiment now against lower placed teams. And to shut up any nay sayers, Busquets was an unknown till guardiola introduced him, so let the man do his job, he knows why he played snachez there.

Anonymous said...

P.S. Alll of you bashing sanchez, what about Yaya who lost the ball in the midfield in the first place? He was there toying with it till the striker took it away and ran with it. So be more thoughtful before dishing out blame.
Sorry for being so longwinded pep, just pissed at some of these comments

Anonymous said...

Of course we can questions things and even blames.
What is the meaning with discussions then if we onlt say ok for everything?

I want Pep to give the youngers a chanse. Sanchez did play some matches before, but it was in the midfield. And i am very happy to see how Pique and Busquets develop from unknown-position to todays position. I give Guardiola all the credit for that. He is a great coach.

But the central defender is one of the most important position. I thougt it was better to play Puyol + Marquez together in the centre as usel. It is a safe card, and let Sanchez to try something on the right.
It could be even better to play 3-4-3, i mean with only a three-man backline and put Sanchez in upper position.

But it went good in the end and all of us is happy today.

Everyone have his own ideas and it is a very common that fans think different.

Anonymous said...

I have a few reflections, I'd like to share.

First of all I think Henry's strike was clinical. Great goal, scoring with such a precision. I write this without a desire to discuss his future or success at the club.

And while on the left flank, I would like to comment Abidal. I don't think he is a good enough left back for Barcelona, not in defense and especially not in offense. He's a good centerback I would say, but he can't fill van Bronckhorst shoes, neither compete with DaniBoy.

I'm not saying he needs to be, or should be as offensive as DaniBoy, but in a game like this, Abidal need to be as creative offensively as Puyol showed possible out of a winger position.

Otherwise, I'm happy the sub-par performance of last night results in three points.

Anonymous said...

eto'o? drogba? adebayor?
NO...
Yaya Toure = African Player of The Year!
whats the chances of that.. when was the last time its not taken by a striker?..i dont really follow the awards..
hope yaya win..
but if it must be a striker then eto'o will do.. ;)

Anonymous said...

Are you guys up at the top kidding me. Maradona didn't come to Barcelona to watch Messi play, I'm sure he would have enjoyed it, but still. The only reason he came was to convince Laporta and Pep to let Leo play for Argentina.

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