Highlights: Osasuna - Barcelona (UPDATED)

Barça did all the right things to merit a clear win, but in the last minute an auto goal (Piqué), equalized the match. Barça stays on top of La Liga, but misses a good opportunity.

End of 2nd Half : Osasuna 1 - Barcelona 1

90+ Goal Goal by Piqué (1-1) Inside the six-yard box.

Osasuna 1 - Barcelona 1 (Pique autogoal)

72:55 Goal Goal by Keita (0-1) After a pass from Puyol. From inside the area.

Osasuna 0 - Barcelona 1 (Keita)

2nd Half Starts

End of 1st Half

00:53 Shot Chance for Messi. with left foot. After a rebound. Ricardo saves.

Chance for Messi

1st Half Starts

Prematch again: Osasuna - Barcelona (Liga BBVA)

We're back on track and ready to kick ass! (Mmm, maybe we should continue keeping our low profile and not bragging about mighty Barça too much, you never know when they can pull an Alcorcon on you.)

Let's see, with most of the players recovered from their injuries (we got Henry back, but not Alves or Milito), we can count on a full strength team at Pamplona. This may be a possible lineup:

The full list of players traveling to Pamplona is this:

Valdés, Pinto, Puyol, Piqué, Chygrynskiy, Márquez, Abidal, Maxwell, Keita, Touré, Sergio, Iniesta, Jeffren, Xavi, Messi, Ibrahimovic, Pedro, Henry y Messi

Osasuna is the opposite of Barça in soccer terms. Their coach, Camacho, is all about strenght and fight, old school style. They have been doing ok on La Liga with 10 out of 15 point won. Guardiola remembers for sure last year's 2 - 3 win with a last minute goal but Messi as that was a turning point for Barça in the fight for La Liga. Expect a tough start, with much pressure on Barça's midfield. That will be the key to winning the match and Xavi must have plenty of help from Busquets and Keita in order to succeed. Beware of Osasuna striker Pandiani, a frequent scorer and also his attacking mate Aranda.

Messi's goal last year against Osasuna

Thinking of watching it online? It's a bit soon, but you can start with our guide on watching Barça online we posted last weekend. Remember the match is played on Saturday the 31 of Octorber, at 20:00h spanish hour.

Barça Weekly Digest 3 (24th Oct to 29th October)

Very productive week for Barcelona, we ended winning on La Liga and Copa del Rey. Ghosts of crisis are over, I hope, for the whole season.


Victory over Zaragoza (Barça's back on track)

- Barça trash Zaragoza to go three clear of Real (The Guardian)
- Barça score six to cruise to La Liga summit (TheSportReview)

Liga BBVA Awards: Five out of Six

- Messi awarded best player in 2008 Spanish league (USA Today)
- Lionel Messi and Barcelona dominate LFP Player Awards (Goal.com)

Victory over Cultural Leonesa (also Madrid loses 4 - 0)

- Copa del Rey: Pedro gives Barcelona two-goal advantage (ESPN Soccernet)
- Guardiola relieved to avoid upset (FIFA.com)

Feature Articles

- Take a break, Messi (SkySports)
- Rivaldo lauds 'unstoppable' Messi and Barcelona (Extrafootie)

Quote time

I am improving with every game for Barcelona

- Ibrahimovic

I used to train with Sinisa Mihajlovic, and he knows how to shoot free kicks. I had him for one or two years and when you see him take free kicks the only thing you can do is learn from him

- Ibrahimovic on his free kick goal last Sunday

These games are the most dangerous because they are taken for granted. We've got a very good result, and we are pleased.

 - Pep Guardiola about the Copa del Rey victory

People tend to be guided by results, but we know that if we continue playing like that then we will almost always win.

- Xavi refering to the game lost against Rubin after the victory over Zaragoza on Sunday.

It is impossible to see the Barca Messi playing for Argentina. They are two different teams with different players, different systems

- Sergi Busquets on criticism over Messi's game with Argentina

Full Time Highlights: Cultural Leonesa 0 - Barcelona 2 (Copa del Rey)

End of second half begins. Barça wins  2 - 0 The second half has been quite easy. Cultural players seemd tired and Barça could have scored one or twice. The second leg will be in two weeks

Stay tuned for the Cultural vs. Barça match highlights here.




63:13        Goal!!   Goal by Pedro (0-2) The pass was from Jeffren. He scored in the six-yard box.

Cultural 0 - Barcelona 2 (Pedro)

Second half begins

End of First half. Barça is having ball possesion but playing at a slow pace. Anyway, better skills are showing up and we are already one up.


40:22        Goal!!!    Goal by Pedro (0-1) He picks up the rebound and scores. He was in the 18-yard box.

Cultural 0 - Barcelona 1 (Pedro)

Cultural Leonesa - Barcelona : Watch online (UPDATED)

UPDATE!! Here are the links:

NO	soccershow777	ar	Ustream	360	Play
NO	iraqgoals44	ar	Ustream	350	Play
P2P	Television_Española	es	Tvuplayer	145	Play
NO	Sharing	es	Justin		Play
NO	razelec	ar	Justin		Play
NO	nawaf_almzeed	ar	Justin		Play
NO	almdridi7	ar	Justin		Play
NO	mboisset	ar	Justin		Play
NO	peter20021	ar	Justin		Play
NO	eh1979	ar	Justin		Play
NO	tododeportetv2	es	Justin		Play
NO	saiass	es	Justin		Play
NO	saidsport_saidsport6	es	Justin		Play
NO	futboltotal01	es	Justin		Play
NO	On Tv Mix1	es	Justin		Play

Stay tuned, I'll be posting the links soon. Meanwhile, I recommend you read my blog post with a small tutorial on watching Barça matches online (just after the links table). Anyway we'll be posting here the links to the stream websites and P2P channels that broadcast Cultural Leonesa - Barcelona when we have them. Remember the match is at 10pm Spanish time.

Prematch: Cultural Leonesa - Barcelona (Copa del Rey)

Tonight is the return of La Copa del Rey. Cultural Leonesa plays in Spanish 2a División B, that is the 3rd division of Spanish Leagues. This should be an easy match, but, beware, as Real Madrid suffered yesterday a humiliating defeat (4 -0 to Alcorcon) against a rival of a similar level.

The most probable lineup, as newspaper are reporting is: Pinto; Abidal, Márquez, Chygrynskiy, Maxwell; Sergio Busquets, Touré Yaya, Keita; Jeffrén, Bojan y Pedro

If you're planning on watching the match tonigh, remember neither Carles Puyol, Gerard Piqué, Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta, Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Lionel Messi will be playing. Finally they are getting some rest. Five Barça's youth team are going to León and will start the match on the bench.

Fontàs, Benítez, Jonathan Soriano, Jonathan Dos Santos y Gai Assulin
 are the five Barça's youth team players going to León

Who is Cultural Leonesa?

First of all, Cultural Leonesa is the team of the President of Spain, Rodríguez Zapatero. Wel, it's one of both teams, being the other one... Barça. He even is a 'socio' and has a seat. Anyway, he's said not to be attending today.

As we've already said Cultural plays on Spanish 3rd Division and is not doing very well (they are in the last places of their league) Their main player is Jito, an exbarcelonist that has scored 9 goals in 10 league matches with Cultural this season.

Fifty years ago (1956) Barcelona played against Cultural Leonesa in Cultural's one and only First Division year. Nowadays they struggle to survive not just sportwise but economically.

Remember, the match is the first of two matches against Cultural and is played tonight at 10 pm Spanish hour.

We never throw away a match, even less a whole tournament

- Guardiola, asked about the absence of his top players

To score a goal would be incredible

- Jito, Cultural's best and only scorer




Related links:
- Copa del Rey preview (goal.com)
- Barcelona will treat the Copa del Rey seriously (goal.com)

El Tango de Messi

'Més que un crack' music by Marcelo Marcadante and lyrics by Pablo Marchetti

El chaval con la Número 10 ni na ni na que compró por 10 euros

El chaval con la que dice Messi lleva el balón

cruza la plaza de la vida de gracia, levanta la cabeza y chuta a portería, siempre a portería

Feliz entre dos márgenes sin rumbo, qué importa si son ciudades

si son días o no son nada. No son nada

Partir, hartarse, renunciar, tachar nostalgias

Llegar para viajar al mundo. Visca el mundo

Viajar, para llegar a este lugar.

El pibe con la camiseta del Barsa. Número 10 ni na ni nada

20 pesos son paragua, la compré en constitución

El pibe con la que dice Messi lleva la pelota

cruza la plaza de Villa Lugano, levanta las orejas y le pega al arco, siempre al arco

Feliz entre dos márgenes, sin rumbo, qué importa si son ciudades

si son vidas o no son nada. No son nada

Partir, hartarse renunciar, tachar nostalgias

Llegar para viajar a otro mundo. Visca el mundo

Viajar para llegar a este lugar.

'Més que un crack' (More than a crack) music by Marcelo Marcadante and lyrics by Pablo Marchetti

(via elmundodeportivo.es)


Related links:
- Soccertunes Podcast Maradona Special  (Diego Maradona sung and praised by Andrés Calamaro and others)

It's Quote Time: Barcelona 6 - Zaragoza 1 Edition

I never doubt of Messi

- Guardiola

Fist time of the season we knew how to read spaces

- Guardiola

Ibra is a huge player and every match our connection is better

- Messi

I get more attention, me and space. We are working on it because the coach asked for it

- Ibrahimovic

I'm happy but I am not a goal scorer. If (Leo) Messi or Ibrahimovic scores, it's better for the team.

- Keita

Puyol is a bit of a whiner

- Guardiola

(I love this quote)

We din't got the ball because the coach asks the players to give it to the opponent

- Marcelino García Toral (Zaragoza´s coach) angrily asking to a repoter's question about Zaragoza's lack of ball possesion

Highlights: Barcelona - Zaragoza (Liga BBVA)

Stay tuned for the Barça vs. Zaragoza match highlights here.

(6-1) 85:54        Goal!!    Goal by Keita  Header After a corner kick taken by Iniesta. From inside the area.

Barcelona 6 - Zaragoza 1 (Keita)

(5-1) 80:40        Goal!!   Goal by Messi  with left foot. After a pass from Iniesta. He was in the 18-yard box.

Barcelona 5 - Zaragoza 1 (Messi)

(4-1) 78:04        Goal!!    Goal by Jorge López. The pass was from Lafita.

Barcelona 4 - Zaragoza 1 (Jorge Lopez)

(4-0) 56:18        Goal!!    Goal by Ibrahimovic He got the ball from Keita. From inside the area.

Barcelona 4 - Zaragoza 0 (Ibrahimovic)

Second Half

End of Fist Half
(3-0) 40:05 Keita again!! He kicks to score after an Ibrahimovic pass

Barcelona 3 - Zaragoza 0 (Keita)

(2-0) 28:36 Ibrahimovic scores from a free throw. Great goal.

Barcelona 2 - Zaragoza 0 - (Ibrahimovic)

(1-0) 23:54 Keita scores with a header. Messi passed the ball.

Barcelona 1 - Zaragoza 0 (Keita)