Jose Mourinho, the boss of Real Madrid has decided to play an attacking line-up in Sundays game and it seems that it will be a wise deicision. Jose is going to challenge Barcelona and will have to attack the European Champions. In the recent seasons, Read Madrid was regarded as an inferior team as compared to their Catalan rivals. But, this time, it seems they are concentrating on their strengths and not worrying about Barca’s strengths.

The fear that is posing in front of Real Madrid is that Barcelona’s players attack very dangerously and give them less chance to show their adventurous side. Real Madrid really needs to win this match in order to get strong in soccer psychologically.

Arsenal tried hard and appeared to be heading towards the right direction, however, somehow failed in their attempt. Barcelona, on the other hand, controlled much of the game and created quite a few chances on goal in the first half. Finally Messi opened the scorecard in the third minute of injury time. The first goal boosted the confidence of the Barcelona side.

However, the game came to a level in the 53rd minute off an own goal from Sergio Busquets in the favor of Arsenal. However, it soon became all Barcelona match when they finally broke through with Messi, David Villa and Xavi. Arsenal had their chance to save themselves. However, Nicklas Bendtner was unable to control a ball that would have had him in on goal. 

In about a fortnight from now, FC Barcelona meets in the first leg of the round of 16 of UEFA Champions League. Going steady with the achievement in Liga along with visible performance on FIFA Ballon d’Or, FC Barcelona’s game has definitely sharpened the minds of supporters of Arsenal FC. And the question that is going on everyone’s mind right now is how to stop this powerful team.

Moreover, the reminiscence of the last encounter between the teams during UEFA Champions League last season’s quarterfinals is still fresh where Josep Guardiola’s team

Knock down the English Premier side 6-3. Undoubtedly, the four-goal performance of Lionel Messi’s in the second leg was the biggest contributor.

The absence of Puyol due to knee injury in the first match is quite unlucky. However, Messi, the top scorer of the last season with 27 goals combined in the Liga and Europe in 2010/11 along with 15 assists is unstoppable. It is yet to see now, how the Arsenals manage to fight him this season. In addition, 17 goal assists between Pedro Rodríguez and Daniel Alves this term, it seems Barcelona is a tough possession this time. 

Messi had a wonderful chance to score his hat-trick but Alexandros Tzorvas came with a wonderful save to deny him the opportunity in the 55th minute. Messi though more than made up for the miss as he managed to set up another couple of goals for his side in the later part of the game. Barcelona got through the Greek side’s defense when Dani Alves managed to net a wonderful scoop by Lionel Messi. The outcome of the match was just the way the Barca side wanted. They had hoped to make a winning start in the Group D opener and have their eyes set at Wembley stadium next year.

Barca was crowned European Champions for the first time in 1992 at Wembley stadium. The Catalan giants also managed to bring cheer to their fans after the dismal performance in La Liga. Barca started very aggressively and had three near misses inside the first 12 minutes of the game. The Champions League opener has set up the tournament nicely for the Barca side who would definitely try to repeat their amazing performance in the remaining matches.

In a record breaking performance, Barcelona has once again been crowned as the La Liga champions of Spain. They edged their ace rivals Real Madrid to win the Spanish league by beating Valladolid 4-0 during their last match of the season. Barcelona recorded 99 points during the season and this is an all time record. Putting behind their Champions league failure they showed tremendous character to win the league title.

It was a very closely fought season with Real Madrid matching them with some impressive performances. But eventually, Barcelona managed to clinch the title with some disciplined and clinical performances. The cash rich Real Madrid failed to win a single major title for the second consecutive season and it was huge disappointment for their fans.

Real Madrid had spent almost $250 million this season in acquiring the best players across the world, including Ronaldo, but failed to live up to the expectations. In the end the Messi magic overpowered them. Messi has been instrumental for Barcelona this season and has once again proved what a great player he is.

During the final day of the season Barcelona, playing in front of the home crowd looked absolutely invincible against Valladolid and displayed some breathtaking football against the hapless opponents. On the other hand Real Madrid ended their lackluster season with a 1-1 draw with Malaga.

It was undoubtedly one of the most intense seasons of all times and Real Madrid have only themselves to blame for not taking home a single trophy and hats off to Barcelona and Messi for a wonderful season.

Barcelona looked all set to retain their La Liga title as they defeated Deportivo Coruna 3-0 in their home match on Wednesday. Bojan Krkic, Yaya Toure and Pedro fired a goal each to ensure their team had an easy walk on the park. Barcelona had ensured a three point table top lead by defeating Real Madrid 2-0 on Saturday and their win against Deportivo Coruna means they now stand six points clear of the next best team in the La Liga table.

The clash that was held in the Nou Camp stadium again saw Barcelona stamping their authority over their rivals. They had suffered a major setback before the match as both Ibrahamovic and Andres Iniesta were reported injured. The Deportivo’s defense was shaken very early by Xavi who helped Bojan to score a decisive goal in the 16th minute of the match. Rafael Marquez and Messi also made their intentions very clear but were ably cleared by the defenders.

However, if you had to choose the best out of the three goals it would have to be the one that Pedro scored in the 69th minute. He made the spectacular goal from the inside of the visitor’s half. The efforts of Aranzubia to keep his team in the match faced a serious dent when a powerful strike from Toure made the score read 3-0 in favor of Barcelona.

The first leg semi-final of the Champions League proved to be a thrilling encounter between Inter Milan and Barcelona. The match that took place on Tuesday saw Inter Milan emerge victorious as the match finished with a score of 3-1 in their favor. Pedro had given Barcelona a great start but his good work was soon spoiled by Wesley Sneijder, Diego Milito and Maicon of Inter Milan as Barcelona conceded their first two- goal margin loss under their manager Pep Guardiola.

The result has set up the second leg quite nicely which would take place next Wednesday at Nou Camp. Carles Puyol, the Barcelona captain and Dejan Stankovic of Inter Milan would miss their return as both of them were booked. The teams put up a great show in front of the crowd and made it very clear as to why the Champions League is considered to be the top club competition of Europe. Jose Mourinho was very wary about the second leg and said another loss may mean goodbye to the coach.

However, he was very happy with the team’s present performance and felt that they deserved to win. Barcelona took the initiative after they took a 14 hour bus journey to get to the venue owing to the restriction of flights due to the Icelandic volcano eruption. Inter Milan won the last European Cup in 1965 and have not been able to make it to the last four in the Champions League since 2003. However, they showed great character and some excellent skills to stun Barcelona with their steel plated resilience.

The current champions Barcelona finished with a 1-1 draw against Stuttgart in the Champions League clash. Stuttgart took the lead in the match with the help of the header by Brazilian striker Cacau but Zlatan Ibrahimovic of Barcelona leveled the score with a crucial goal. The draw means that Stuttgart now has the difficult task of scoring in the Camp Nou if they are to reach the quarterfinals.

Barcelona seemed to be missing the boat in the first half of the match. However, they were able to make a strong comeback in the second half. Andres Iniesta of Barcelona accepted that their team really found it tough going in the initial stages of the match and though they were delighted at the outcome of this encounter they still have another tough one coming ahead.

Andoni Zubizarreta, the former goalkeeper of Barca and Spain felt that Barcelona played like real champions putting their character and quality on display. The crowd gathered at the Mercedes-Benz Arena went absolutely crazy with the kind of intensity that was shown by Stuttgart as they fiercely attacked the Barcelona team. 

After the initial frenzy, Barcelona took full control of the match with the second half seeing them have over 63 percent of possession with the Stuttgart players looking tired from their first half exertions. There was also a weird incident just 20 minutes before time when a shot by Ibrahamovic seemed to have hit Cristian Molinaro’s arm but there was no penalty given by the referee.

Player Diddier Drogba argued with the referee in tunnel and on the pitch. He is likely to face the sternest action. When fourth penalty appeal was turned down by the referee, Michael Ballack ran 40 yards to confront with him. He was given a yellow card for the same. Skipper John Terry criticized Overbo and will be charged for this. The fourth player is Chelsea full-back José Bosingwa. He is convicted of calling the referee a thief who was bought. Jose has no doubt apologized for commenting like this.

The controlling body might ban Drogba to play some matches. However, they will be taking video evidences for their decision. Referee Overbo is out of England after the match is not commenting anything on the incident as asked by UEFA. Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink tried to question referee’s decision but was of no use. The UEFA spokesman said “We never comment on the performance of the referee.” We all are waiting for a fair decision from UEFA’s general secretary David Taylor as we all believe that the chaotic scenes have disgraced Champions League.

When a person thought about Barcelona, Ronaldinho was the first player that came to mind. Maybe captain, Carlos Puyol, entered some people’s minds however the fantastic play maker is hard to resist. When Barca started signing and selling players, Ronaldinho’s name was attached to almost all the rumors out there. Now that he is truly gone, a new Barcelona must find a replacement or change the way that they play. Barcelona has brought in many talented players that some could say are ‘dinho’s replacements. However, are these players future World Players of the Year? I think these players have some big shoes to fill. Here are the possible replacements:

• Xavi
• Iniesta
• Yaya Toure
• Martin Caceres
• Marc Crosas
• Aliksandr Hleb
• Seydou Keita

Out of the list above, 3 players are incumbents and 4 are new comers. The list is a very solid one and any manager would love to fill an attacking midfield position with one of them.

In the end, I question a lot of the decisions made this season. The biggest decision I would have to criticize is Gio Dos Santos‘ departure. By selling him, Barca sold off a potential replacement for ‘dinho. I thought at such a young age, Gio has shown immense talent and has truly proved himself on the field. Another decisions that is arguable, is letting Deco walk. While his sights were set on a return with Chelsea coach Felipe Scolari, he has played with Barca for four years, so he surely does have something in him for the Catalan side. Alas, that obviously did not change his decision. So Now that the Ronaldinho era for Barca has ended, we shall see a new, revamped side. One that does not need a single play-maker but relies on many different play-makers. I am very hopeful for both parties and wish the very best for my two favorites in Europe, Barcelona and AC Milan. Farwell ‘dinho and thanks for the memories.