The nearly 3,000 Barça fans that will make it to Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge on Wednesday to watch the Champions League semi-finals will be greeted in Catalan by the local team. FC Barcelona has Catalan as its first language, and the club has traditionally felt very much attached to Catalan society and culture.
Barça have beaten AC Milan in style to extend their legend by becoming the first team to qualify for five consecutive semi finals in the Champions League era. Messi, with two penalties, and Iniesta got the Barça goals.
Barça need to beat AC Milan at the Camp Nou in order to qualify for the semi finals of the Champions League for the fifth consecutive season. FC Barcelona will only make it into the semi finals if they beat AC Milan at the Camp Nou (20.45h CET). 88% of the home results this season would be enough to ensure Barça go into the last four.
Barça took a 0-0 draw from Milan at the San Siro on Wednesday evening - leaving the return game at the Camp Nou to decide who gets through to the Champions League semi-final. AC Milan were hemmed into their own half, especially before the break and at the end of the game.
FC Barcelona, the Kings of the competition, qualified for another Spanish Cup Final after beating Valencia at the Camp Nou, thanks to goals from Cesc and Xavi, one in each half. Guardiola’s team will play the Cup Final against Athletic Bilbao for the second time in 3 years.
FC Barcelona vs Al-Sadd ended with goals from Adriano (2), Keita and Maxwell. The goals put an end to Qatari club Al-Sadd’s participation in the competition, and Barça will face Santos FC from Brazil in Sunday’s title decider. However, Barça’s striker David Villa broke his tibia and might be off for 4 to 5 months.
FC Barcelona will face Girona FC in Tarragona’s Nou Estadi, in the semi finals of the Copa Catalunya on Monday, August 8. The other semi final is between RCD Espanyol and Nàstic de Tarragona.
The Panathinaikos, Montepaschi Siena, Maccabi Tel-Aviv and Real Madrid are playing to become the European champions. The winner will be known on Sunday afternoon. Last year, FC Barcelona won the competition in Paris, but this year Barça will have to look the games from the sidelines.
FC Barcelona and Manchester United will meet in the 2011 Champions League Final on May 28th at Wembley Stadium – the 11th time the two teams have met in Europe and the 8th game between them in the Champions League. This year final repeats the Champions League final of 2009, when Barça won United by 2-0.
Barça have qualified for the Champions League final at the expense of Real Madrid following tonight’s draw at the Camp Nou. Pedro scored the winner for a side that dominated the possession and produced most of the chances.
FC Barcelona look to build on their 0-2 lead from last week when they take on Real Madrid this evening (20.45h CET) in the fourth and final ‘clásico’ between the two sides over the last few weeks. Guardiola welcomes back Iniesta and Abidal to the squad.
Barça trained on the Nou Camp pitch on Monday evening ahead of their Champions League semi final second leg against Real Madrid. The great news for Guardiola was that Iniesta and Abidal trained normally and are in the squad for the Champions League game against Mourinho's Real Madrid.
Catalan and FC Barcelona flags, as well as a message of thanks formed by 95,000 cards handed out to the fans will greet the team at the Nou Camp on Tuesday. It will cheer the team before the Champions League game against Real Madrid. Fans can take part in this homage to the team via Twitter, with the hashtag #graciesequip.
FC Barcelona will present an official complaint about the Real Madrid manager to UEFA’s Control and Disciplinary Body for what it considers “a violation of basic standards of behaviour”. The UEFA already decided to look on Wednesday's events. In the evening, it was known that Real Madrid also decided to file a complaint against Barça players for going against fair-play. The latter accusation seems quite surprising after having watched the game and Real Madrid's behaviour on and outside the pitch.
FC Barcelona gave a footballing lesson at the Real Madrid’ stadium Santiago Bernabeu, climaxing in two Leo Messi goals -one of which will surely go down as a classic- that put them in the driving seat for a place in the Wembley final ahead of next week’s second leg at the Nou Camp.