Barcelona entertain Athletico or do they?

This game will feature the best striking talents available in La Liga. Both the teams boast having among the best striking talents of Europe in their ranks. If Barcelona have likes of Henry, Messia, Ibrahimovic, Athletico can boast of Forlan and Aguero who are themselves hot properties in Europe.

But they haven’t exactly fired for Athletico this season yet. Athletico had a very sad start to the season. First game was a loss to Malaga and 2nd game was a home draw. Midweek Champions League fixture they couldn’t score. They are very low on confidence and need to start getting some goals under their belt to boost their confidence. Forlan claimed during the week that wrong shoes ended his career for Manchester United. Probably he needs a change of shoes again to start scoring again. Whatever he needs to do, he needs to do pretty fast.

As for Barcelona – 2 La Liga games, 2 wins, 5 goals scored and none conceded. A stalemate in midweek Champions League fixture. Their defence is a bit dodgy but is getting the job done. Anybody on the pitch for them can score. Ibrahimovic has scored in both the games till now and is always a threat. Messi, Henry, Iniesta, Kieta and Xavi all can score from anywhere on the pitch.

They dominated possession against Inter but were not able to get any goals which is a worry for me. But Athletico’s defence doesn’t have what Inter’s defence had and therefore it should be an easy win for Barca.

3-0 in favor of Barcelona.

Barca dominate but don’t score

I have to admit I am disappointed. I thought this would be the pick of this round of Champions League matches but it didn’t turn out to be this way.

Even you couldn't score, neither could I

Why do matches between big teams turn out to be a disappointment? Not even a single goal. When players like Eto’o, Milito, Ibrahimovic, Henry, Messia and Xavi are on the pitch, how can they not score. So much talent and no end product.

I pointed in my preview of this game that Inter have a criticism of being too slow and not capable of beating big teams from England and Spain and it seems the criticism is absolutely right. Did they get the ball in this game? Barcelona had 65% of the possession. That is a huge figure. If your opposition has so much possession and they don’t score, then you are either lucky or have a great defence and I think it was a mix of both for Inter. Lucio and Chivu were great against the attacks of Barcelona.

But my bigger concern is that how Barcelona did not score in this game. So much possession and nothing to show for. They started with the best line up possible. Only Iniesta was a player who would default into their starting XI but was on bench. If their best XI was not able to break down Inter defence, what next? Who would you call on to change things around. I couldn’t see any game changers on bench except Iniesta and even he couldn’t help Barcelona score in this game.

Barcelona are playing the same way they were last season. And they run the risk of being unpredictable. Against big teams this could be a cause of worry. And there are no players on the bench that can be called on to change things around.

In the other match in the group Dynamo Kiev were 3-1 winners against FK Rubin Kazan.

Barca begin Champions League defence

Inter Milan

Barcelona

And what a place to begin it at. Barcelona start their UEFA Champions League defence with an away trip to San Siro to face Italian giants Inter Milan.

Call it a return for Zlatan Ibrahimovic so soon after his transfer from Inter to Barcelona or call it a welcome to his old employers Barcelona from Samuel Eto’o. It has all the ingredients of an interesting clash.

Both teams are in good form and boast some big names in the team list. Barcelona have the likes of Messi, Ibrahimovic, Xavi, Henry, Iniesta, Puyol. Barcelona on their are a hugely entertaining team but are yet to find their perfect touch. They have played 2 and won 2 in La Liga.

Inter Milan signed Samuel Eto’o and Wesley Sneijder during the summer. They have won 2 games out of 3 played and drawn 1. Their demolition of AC Milan stamped their authority on the Italian Serie A. They would be looking to show same kind of performance against Barcelona.

Barcelona’s defence still has questions around it and it would be interesting to see how they cope with the pace and skill of Samuel Eto’o. But they have enough in attack to cause trouble for Inter defence. Inter have a criticism of being too slow and too lacking in style to cause trouble to good English and Spanish opposition. This is a perfect opportunity for them to get rid of this tag.

My Prediction: 2-1 to Inter Milan with Eto’o outshining Ibrahimovic.

Barca visit table top Getafe

A look at the La Liga table will tell you that its a top of the table clash. In a way it is but not really. Getafe are leading the La Liga table right now just ahead of Barcelona on goal difference but we are just 1 game into the season.

La Liga returns after the international break with Barcelona making a trip to Getafe.

Getafe’s first game of the season was away to Racing Santander and they won it 4-1 with Roberto Soldado bagging a hat trick. Soldado was their top scorer last season and can prove a handful for the Barca defence who were not very convincing in their previous game against Sporting Gujon. Getafe have a reputation of being giant killers and would be more than happy to take points off Barcelona. Getafe would also be fresh after the break as not many of their players were on international duty. Also, Getafe have an unbeaten run of 15 games between end of last season, pre season friendlies and their first game of the season.

Barcelona would be welcoming back Iniesta from injury and considering many of their players would be tired due to international duty, Iniesta’s return would be very refreshing. Messi, Henry, Ibrahimovic, Puyol, Xavi.. almost the entire first XI was out on international duty. They won their first game against Sporting Gujon but were not very convincing in the victory. They dominated the game but the defence made some casual errors which can be punished by Getafe considering that Getafe are playing at home and are a very attacking team in comparison with Gujon. Barca would also be having one eye on their Champions League fixture against Inter Milan. Bojan Krkic, who has an excellent game against Gujon, won’t be featuring in this game due to the knock he picked up in the first game.

It would be an interesting game since Getafe would be looking to surprise Barca but that won’t be enough for them. Barca will win this 3-1 with Ibra on the score sheet.

Barca win, Ibra scores

I know this is coming very late but due to the time zone difference and time constraints I am barely ever able to watch Barcelona matches live.

To start with, I was surprised with the way Sporting Dujon played the game. It seemed that they never wanted the ball and were more than happy to see Barca play their passing game. Barca had like 74% possession in the game.

Barcelona included their new signings Ibrahiovic and Maxwell in the starting line up. Henry was rested and Messi was in Argentina for the World Cup qualifier (a rare chance to see country being given more importance than the club).

Bojan Krkic started in place of Henry and Pedro in place of Messi. I liked Bojan since he came onto the scene but somehow last season was a bit disappointing for him. But he had an amazing game. Scored the first goal and made a lot of dangerous runs into the box. The lad worked a lot before being taken off.

Kieta was also good in the midfield. He created the first goal with the header and scored the second.

Ibra was the one whom entire Nou Kamp public was watching but he was barely there in the first half. Barely had any touches and barely did create anything. But 2nd half was more promising for him. Created a couple of chances and scored one from a diving header. There was a chance in which he passed the ball to another player where he could have scored himself (thats where I saw the difference between Eto’o and Ibra). Overall considering his lack of match fitness and return from injury, he had an ok-ok game. Of course he would gel in with couple more games under his name.

The biggest disappointment to me was Maxwell who was guilty of giving away the ball way too much and was barely creating anything. His replacement Abidal looked a lot better in that position but again its too early to say anything in the season.

The defense looked a bit relaxed making a few errors. It seemed as if they don’t consider Sporting worthy enough opponent. Had it been some really quality opposition, they would have been punished severely for that. Hope they overcome this relaxed attitude in their upcoming games.

Positives: Good form Bojan and Kieta showed. Would like to see both of them playing more games but how would they fit in once Messi, Henry and Iniesta are back, needs to be seen.

Negatives: Defense needs to be concentrate more on the job.

Man of the Match: Tough choice between Kieta and Bojan but it should go to Kieta