Barcelona managed to secure a strong footing in the Champions League last 16 tie against Manchester City.
They won the first leg 2-1 at the Etihad stadium, which puts them in a strong position. The advantage could have been even more significant had Lionel Messi converted the penalty awarded in the latter stages of the match. Still, the Catalan club can go into the second leg in front of their own supporters with a lot of confidence. Midfielder Andres Iniesta, though, warns Barcelona against complacency against a team of City’s quality.
The reigning Premier League champions have been suffering from inconsistent form throughout this campaign, but they have produced some brilliant performances nonetheless. They were knocked out of the Champions League at the same stage last season. Barcelona were their opponents back then too and City almost came close to pulling a major shock at the Camp Nou. Iniesta says that the team should be focused from the first whistle. Read more »
Not being able to sign any new players during a transfer window is a huge disadvantage for managers as they aren’t able to strengthen the areas of their respective clubs that have appeared to be most vulnerable and Barcelona’s Luis Enrique is not going to be able to reinforce some of the more weaker sections of his team due to the transfer ban that Barcelona received which will not allow the Spanish club on signing any new performers and it’s going to last the entire year of 2015.
Even with this transfer ban, Andres Iniesta believes that the team has enough depth to continue winning trophies.
Iniesta said that his teammates aren’t even contemplating finishing this season without winning trophies as they are just focused to continue playing despite everything that has and will occur in the ongoing season. Read more »
Andres Iniesta will not be able to play for three weeks on account of an injury he suffered on Saturday 25th October’s match against Real Madrid which took place at Santiago Bernabeu stadium.
Iniesta will miss four matches due to his injury. He will not be able to play for his team Barcelona in their match against Espanyol which is the final of Copa Catalunya. He will also miss La Liga matches against Celta Vigo and Almeira, also, he’s likely to miss the Champions League match against Ajax.
He will also be unable to play for Spain in a Euro 2016 qualifier match against Belarus. He will also miss Spain’s friendly match against Germany. Iniesta is likely to return in Barcelona’s match against Sevilla which will take place on 22nd November. Barcelona lost 3-1 to Real Madrid and Iniesta was responsible for a mistake that helped Real Madrid get their third goal. Barcelona was defeated for the first time in the 2014-15 La Liga season.
Luis Enrique, manager of the Barcelona team made a surprising decision of putting Jeremy Mathieu, who usually plays at the centre, at the left back position. Jeremy Mathieu later said that the decision was surprising for him too and further added that coach has final authority in deciding which position a player of the team would play.
Mathieu said that the team made a good start but the unsurpassable counter attack of Real Madrid made them vulnerable and particularly the second goal of Real Madrid destroyed Barcelona’s Morale.
Mathieu said that the team has to work hard to improve their performance in dead ball situations. He confirmed that in spite of having tall players in the team, they are having difficulties in dead ball situations.
Presently, Real Madrid is at the topmost position in the Liga BBVA Table and Barcelona is at the fourth position.
March 11, 2015 3:40 am | 