RCD ESPANYOL VS FC BARCELONA  MATCH ANALYSIS:

Fc Barcelona won 0-2 in their visit to Espanyol’s Power8 stadium on the 33rd La Liga game Saturday.

Luis Enrique made one change to his typical starting XI. He started Rafinha instead of Rakitic in midfield, together with Busquets and Iniesta. In defense, Alves, Piqué, Mathieu and Alba played in front of Claudio Bravo. Up front, Messi, Neymar and Suárez formed the attacking line as usual.

Espanyol used a flat 4-4-2. Casilla minded the sticks behind Moreno and González. Arbilla and Duarte played as fullbacks. The midfield line was formed by Vázquez and Alvarez on the flanks, with the pair Abraham and Cañas in the center. Up front, Caicedo and Sergio Garcia played as forwards.

The first half was totally dominated by the culés. The periquitos were waiting for them, without pressing Piqué and Mascherano. Caicedo and Sergio Garcia were mainly focused on preventing Busquets from receiving the ball

The blaugranas were patient, moving the ball from one side to another without risk of losing it. Messi, as usual, was the one who created danger and destabilized the Espanyol block. Messi dropped to receive the ball and suddenly, two options could be taken.

The first option Messi could take was to manage to turn, eliminate the pressure and face the goal defended by Casilla. Then he would give one of his through balls to Neymar who could then cut inside or decide to open the play to the left flank with Jordi Alba.

The second option was to combine with Rafinha and Alves. The three of them would attract up to five opponents. Thanks to their exquisite technique, they did not lose the ball and then they could pass it backwards to Busquets who would transfer to Iniesta who was unmanned on the opposite side of the pitch.

The No. 8 would then decide where and when to pass the ball, combining with Alba and Neymar in a brilliant first half as you can see from the graph of Iniesta’s passes during the first half (Source: squawka.com).

Once Barcelona managed to push the blanquiazul toward their goal and maintain the ball in their opponent’s half, the positions of the forwards were key. Suárez normally acted as a pure 9, occupying the two central defenders and dropping to act as pivot. Messi would situate himself as a pure No. 10, and Neymar would join them in the central channel and would run fiercely toward the goal.

Barça’s shape was looking much more like a diamond 4-4-2 than a 4-3-3.

Stats confirmed that situation; Leo stayed 66 percent of the time in the center 

FC Barcelona lost very few balls. When they did, since all their players were installed very high inside Espanyol’s half, they pressed quickly with several players at the same time.

Therefore they recovered the ball very fast and in a dangerous zone, or at least they forced the periquitos to play long balls that Piqué, Mascherano and Busquets would win.

After 20 minutes, Espanyol tried a few times to prevent Barça from building from the back. They pressed the central defenders who had no problems in sending long balls toward Suárez. This resulted in Espanyol having the ball a bit more and trying to play from the back as well. But the blaugrana forwards pressed them as well and forced them to play long balls recovered by Luis Enrique’s team.

The first half ended 0-2 with 79 percent of possession for Barça. Espanyol was only able to play seven passes in its opponent’s final third (as can be seen in the graph below from squawka.com) and only managed to shoot for the first time on the 27th minute.

The second half was different since Alba was sent off at the 54th minute. Mathieu substituted Rafinha and played as left fullback. The right interior position was left empty, Messi, Suárez and Neymar playing upfront until Rakitic came in for Suárez and the team finally adopted a 4-3-2. In the last minutes, Xavi entered the pitch for Iniesta and played his 500th La Liga game for the club.

Espanyol was more threatening on the second half but the score did not change. Another victory for Barcelona, with only five games to go until, hopefully, the title.

                                                                                                                         -mass

Celta 0-1 Barcelona

MATCH ANALYSIS:

overall analysis:

many of us (barca fans) saw this match as a revenge for our loss to celta in campnou.....but the match didn't started in a similar manner from starting this promises to be a really good match. at starting barca was patient and home side tried to test barca defence but their attacks are not in a settled manner. then the home side almost got there 1st goal ...thanks bravo for a wonderful save. If he mistimed the tackle the it could be a textbook red card and penalty which could have made things worst for barca. here comes our little magician with his trademark run down the center to edge of the area and curl one on goal but the placement of shot is such that you would expect a save then neymar went for a rebound but it can only buy us a corner kick. after this more positive attacking moves from hosts but not that commanding in the final third . almost around 20th min I saw something which i don't like to.....uruguayan fell theoretically though there is a minimal contact and plead ref for a penalty (suarez plz dont repeat these kind of things)....after that messi lead a positive barca possession for some time but counterpart of trio was unsure...neymar really lost his touch. after this celta defence was workless for good five minutes which can explain the scenario of the match. seriously our midfield had not played its role in attack which made messi to play deeper and deeper. in between celta convert a chance which is given off-side (which is really a off-side) and their striker missed a baby sitter.......end of first half goal less but entertaining...barca shocked by celtas dominance.

#dani alves managed to stop nolito just once in total first half.

second half:

almost 3 minutes into second half neymar finds net with an excellent curler but it is ruled out as the flags are up. the barca started to dominate the game with the help of there passing triangles and started to attack celta defence but cant finish the things. at 59 min rafina was subbed off on comes xavi in his place. rafinha failed to continue his form still a decent performance. are that messi went to join neymar and suarez up front leaving his playmaker job to xavi. larrivey who scored the lone goal in reverse is taken off. here comes the important part of the match ........thank you mathieu 

• 73'

  Goal Jérémy Mathieu
  BREAKTHROUGH! BARCA HAVE DONE IT! Mathieu rises spectacularly at the back post to crash a diving header into the top corner from Xavi's in-swinging free-kick!

  here it is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM5xtwo58xQ

finally some thing to cheer... he is our ramos.

             after the goal celta started to search for an equalizer and pique started to prove he is one of the best defender in the world right now. 13 interceptions !.......... thanks god we have pique 

just after the goal iniesta who had a quiet evening was subbed off for pedro and later suarez for rakitic. at the end the match naturally we started to pass the time and this time with the help of a free kick for which fabian(celta player) got frustrated and thrown a piece of grass in to sergio face for which he is awarded with a RED CARD. 

link of  the expulsion video: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsPNXO4PhZ8

 and as we enter in to injury time .......a series of beautiful passes opened up celtas defence and messi was asked to finish he tried to chip the goal keeper but it went over the cross bar .....sad to see him after that miss. and in the last minute of the game busquets made a wonderful tackle to deny a goal but celta's nolito asked for a penalty but ended up getting a yellow card for his dive ............ end of the match.

HIGHLIGHTS:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtY1qKRuZ9k

FULL TIME : CELTA DE VIGO 0 - 1 FC BARCELONA

however barca are 4 points clear real madrid but they are far from the best in this match. 

lets hope for a better tomorrow .................VISCA EL BARCA. 

  

FC BARCELONA ANTHEM 

El Cant del Barça is the name given to the official anthem of the Futbol Club Barcelona 

El Cant del Barça is the name given to the official anthem of the Futbol Club Barcelona. It was first played in 1974 at Camp Nou as part of the club’s 75th anniversary celebration. The words were written by Jaume Picas and Josep Maria Espinàs and the music was composed by Manuel Valls i Gorina.

The official version of the song was performed by the choir Coral Sant Jordi. It was written entirely in the Catalan language. In the FC Barcelona Museum we can hear the Cant del Barça in different languages, including all the languages of every player to have worn the Barça shirt. We can also enjoy the Cant del Barça as sung by the fans in Camp Nou at the 29 November 2009 match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.

As a well-established ritual in the early matches in the Nou Camp stadium's public address strong feel-good anthem of the club, 'Can not Barca' fans to sing well.

The 'Cant del Barca' is not, however, neither the first nor the only song that had the club.

In Catalan
Tot el camp
és un clam
som la gent blaugrana
Tant se val d'on venim
si del sud o del nord
ara estem d'acord, ara estem d'acord,
una bandera ens agermana.
Blaugrana al vent
un crit valent
tenim un nom el sap tothom:
Barça, Barça, Baaarça!

Jugadors, seguidors,
tots units fem força.
Son molt anys plens d'afanys,
son molts gols que hem cridat
i s'ha demostrat, i s'ha demostrat,
que mai ningu no ens podrà torcer.
Blaugrana al vent
un crit valent
tenim un nom el sap tothom:
Barça, Barça, Baaarça!

which means

The whole stadium
Roars with one voice,
We all wear blue and scarlet;
Wherever we are from,
From the south or from the north,
Now we all agree, we all agree,
One flag seals our brotherhood:

Blue and scarlet in the wind,
Our cry is bold,
We have a name,
That everyone knows:
Barça, Barça, Barça!

Players,
Supporters,
Together we are strong;
And after many years of struggle,
And many goals we’ve cheered,
We’ve shown them all, we’ve shown them all,
That we can never be defeated:

Blue and scarlet in the wind,
Our cry is bold,
We have a name,
That everyone knows:
Barça, Barça, Barça!

- siva teja amarneni

BARCELONA:

• 23 March 2015
 
• • 01:30
 IST
• • Camp Nou, Barcelona

• Referee: Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz
 
• • Attendance: 98760
• -siva teja amarneni

• It is the name given in football to any match between fierce rivals Real Madrid C.F. and FC Barcelona. Originally it referred only to those competitions held in the Spanish championship, but nowadays the term has been generalized, and tends to include every single match between the two clubs: UEFA Champions League, Copa del Rey, etc. Other than the UEFA Champions League Final, it is the biggest club game in the world, watched by hundreds of million viewers around the world. The March 2014 game had a global audience of 400 million viewers. The recent one was held in camp nou the home ground of FC Barcelona on 23rd march 2015.
  • And the to game went on like this, and the players are ready to enter and there is little conversations going on between the players of RM and FCB as most of them are international team mates. as players enter the ground they can see a huge mosaic created by barca fans and they can also hear barca anthem ("EL CANT DEL BARCA"). 

    this is the mosaic created by  FC BARCELONA supporters
    
    
    
    as usually barca players entered cheering the crowd and real madrid players entered by showing some of there abilities and cheering among them selves. And every one took there respective positions while captains of the teams (iniesta (FCB) and casillas (real madrid))came to participate in toss which is won by iniesta who choose to take the kick off.........
    1st half analysis in next article
                               -siva teja amarneni