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

Barça Weekly Digest 2 (12th Oct to 23th Oct)

A bit late in the week, here it is our periodic news roundup:

Of course, this week we had two Barça matches, first of them against Valencia ( 0 - 0)

- Valencia drop first points after goalles draw with Valencia (the Guardian)
- Valencia deny Barcelona best ever Spanish league start (AFP)

Later in the week, on Tuesday, there was the Champions League match against Rubin Kazan, Barcelona lost 1 -2 in an unfortunate match

- Barcelona upset, 2-1, by Rubin Kazan in Champions League play (LA Times)
- Europe's Big Names Falter on Surreal Night (NY Times)
- Pep Guardiola ready to fight after shock home defeat (The Guardian)


What have been the consequences of this to poor result matches?

- Iniesta tries to water thinks down: There is no Crisis at Barcelona (goal.com)
- Alves blow for Barça (he'll be sidelined for 3 weeks) (Sky Sports)


But this weekend there's an opportunity for things to become normal again as Barça plays vs Zaragoza on Sunday. It's a bit early for some major news, there seems to be only medical related ones, but they are all positive:

- Dmytro Chygrynski Returns to Full Training For Barcelona (Goal.com)
- Medical: Henry recovers from injury (TotalBarça)

Let's have a look at how is Robinho soap opera going:

- Barcelona cool on move for City's Robinho (ESPN)
- Injured Robinho faces longer spell on Manchester City sidelines (The Guardian)

To finish with this, let's see other news on Barça's marketplace:

- Barcelona extend contract of Puyol for three more years (Lavanguardia in Spanish)
- Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas tops Barcelona's January shopping list  (Daily Mail)

That's all. See you next week.

Barça Weekly Digest 1 (5th Oct to 11th Oct)

Today I start a weekly digest all things Barça. This will be a compilation of the best blog posts and also the most important news on Barcelona's world. Lets start.

Biggest news of the week is Barça wanting Robinho and Fabregas:

- Robinho could be a January target for Barça (The Independent)
- Fabregas nears Barcelona switch (ExtraFootie)

What about Barça players on their national teams? It was a WorldCup qualifier week:

- Diego Forlan relishes Uruguay's 'battle of life and death' with Argentina (Daily Telegraph)
- World Cup Debate: Should Fabregas Be One of Spain's Untouchables? (Goal.com)

Next weekend Valencia plays against Barça at Mestalla Stadium, being a WorldCup week there hasn't been much talk:

- We can beat Barcelona - Valencia's keeper Cesar (Goal.com)
- David Villa makes progress in race to face Barça (Goal.com)
- El regreso por lesión de Xavi a Barcelona crispa el entorno de la selección (Xavi's injury related coming back to Barcelona irritates national's team entourage (Lavanguardia.es)

That's all. See you next week.