tata martino

FC Barcelona are no longer the Spanish League leaders. Barça suffered their third league defeat of the season against Real Sociedad (3-1) on Saturday evening. It was a grim night for Barça, who were chasing the game for most of the 90 minutes and never looked comfortable against a Real Sociedad who were lethal on the break. The defeat leaves Barça three points behind Real Madrid, who top the table. Gerardo Martino made six changes to the team who won in Manchester on Tuesday, with Song playing as the holding midfielder and  Busquets in an inside right role, whilst Xavi and Cesc started on the bench and Montoya, Bartra, Adriano and Neymar were back in the starting line up .

City and Barça kick off the first leg of the Champions League Round of 16 at the Etihad this Tuesday evening (8:45 PM CET). Lots has been said about the tie against Manchester City since December, when the draw for the Champions League knock out round took place. It’s likely the most attractive match up of the round as the ambitious English project goes up against the consistency of the Catalans. The English side will feature in their first ever Champions League knock out round, while the Blaugrana have made it to the semi-finals for six consecutive years. The two teams share an enormous capacity for scoring goals and, with the arrival of Pellegrini to City’s bench, an inclination for attacking football.

Three days ahead of their trip to Manchester, Barça put on a sparkling performance to reaffirm their top spot in the Spanish League with a 6-0 win over Rayo on Saturday evening. Adriano, Messi (2), Alexis, Pedro and Neymar scored the goals in the win. Two first half goals opened the door and after the break the chances and goals just kept coming. Rayo refused to park the bus though and despite the obvious gap in class between them and their hosts, the Madrid team stuck firm to their own attacking style and the game opened up with both teams playing the ball out from the back and pressing high up the pitch. Martino gave the crowd something else to cheer, bringing on Neymar after his month long injury lay off on 61 minutes.

A goal from Messi secures passage to the final of the Copa del Rey. Barça will face off against Real Madrid on April 19. The team managed by Gerardo Martino preserved their 2-0 advantage and they qualified without too much difficulty. When push comes to shove, this team responds: they are in the final after having won seven of their eight Cup matches this season and with Leo Messi, who scored the go-ahead goal in San Sebastián, as the highest goal scorer of the competition. In the final minutes of the match Griezmann netted the equaliser, but it was too little to late to trouble a Barça side that had completed one of the best first halves so far this season.

Barça overcome the elements to re-take the Spanish League’s top spot in Seville - a spot they’d held all season until last weekend. Although Martino’s side weren’t as dominant as normal this Sunday evening, they showed a lethal finishing touch up front to come back from the hosts’ early strike with Alexis, Messi –two lovely goals – and Cesc give Barça an important win in the rain. On the quarter hour Seville took the lead thanks to an unlucky rebound off Bartra as Alberto Moreno shot from the edge of the box.In the first half, Seville had four clear chances and only put one away, whilst Barça finished off the two opportunities they had to go in with a 1-2 lead.

Barça want to leave this weekend's 2-3 defeat to Valencia behind. The match presents a good “opportunity to vindicate the team” declared FC Barcelona’s Manager Tata Martino on Tuesday. Martino called up all available players, but he must cut four players from the squad before kick off, scheduled this Wednesday at 10 pm CET. Catalans and Basques will duke it out for a spot in the final of the Copa del Rey, a competition the Blaugrana recently won in 2012 and 2009. On paper the tie looks fairly levelled despite the 4-1 result from the Spanish League match between the two sides. Both Barça and Real Sociedad, since the new year, have practically identical records.

FC Barcelona have suffered painful defeat at home to Valencia, which brings an end to a wonderful run of 25 consecutive wins in league matches at the Camp Nou. The visitors, coached by former Barça man Pizzi, took a practical approach to the game and took their chances when they came. They go home with all three points from a match that looked to be safely under Barça’s control at half-time, but from that moment on, luck was simply not on Barça’s side. Not even Messi’s penalty to put Barcelona back in contention, or the immense pressure in the final minutes despite being a man down following Alba’s sending off, were enough to prevent Valencia from winning at the Camp Nou for the first time in a decade.

Barça once again take on Llevant (also called Levante) after the 1-4 from the first leg of the Spanish Cup quarter-final tie. It will be the third showdown between to two sides in ten days. Throughout the competition Tata Martino has had a policy of rotating players into the starting team for Cup matches, and it doesn’t look like there will be an exception tonight. Iniesta, Puyol, Song and Montoya are back in the squad, while Xavi, Busquets and Alves didn’t make the team. If Barça make good on the result from the first leg, it will be the team’s seventh semi-final Cup berth in eight years (they were eliminated in the quarter-final round in 2010).

Three goals from the Catalan and an own goal from Juanfran give FC Barcelona a 1-4 victory at the Ciutat de Valencia. Leo Messi assisted Tello all three times. Three goals for the Catalan – his first hat trick in the FC Barcelona strip – finished the game and perhaps the quarter-final tie. FC Barcelona bounced back from this weekend’s draw in the Spanish League as they comfortably defeated Levante in the first leg of the Copa del Rey quarter-finals. They did it despite having to deal with a very similar match to the one played this Sunday. Now, Barça and Levante will close out the three-game series next week on Wednesday, January 29, at the Camp Nou (22:00 CET).

Martino’s take on Llevant (also called Levante) at the Ciutat de Valencia for the Spanish Cup match after drawing with the Valencia-based side three days ago in the League. The Blaugrana return to scene where they drew 1-1 with the Llevant side, but this Wednesday evening, Tata Martino’s men will try to get a good result ahead of the second leg of the Cup tie at the Camp Nou. The FC Barcelona manager named 18 players to the team for the match. Dani Alves, who missed this weekend’s game against Levante due to suspension, and Carles Puyol made the team. Piqué, Montoya, Cuenca (technical reasons), Iniesta, Neymar Jr, Afellay, Dos Santos and Oier (injured) did not make the team.

Unlucky Barça drop two points at the Ciutat de València (1-1) in a game where they deserved more. The first of the three games FC Barcelona play against Levante over the next ten days ended in a draw. Barça had the chances, particularly in the second half, but an inspired performance from the home keeper Keylor Navas meant the points were shared, with Vyntra opening for Levante early on and Pique equalising soon after. With nine changes form the team that started in the Spanish Cup against Getafe midweek, Barça made it clear from the start who was going to be dominating possession, whilst Levante were happy to sit back and take any chances that came their way.

Barça reached the next round of the competition. Messi scored a brace, Xavi featured in his 700^th official match for the Catalan team and Neymar picked up an ankle injury. At first it looked as though the player had seriously injured his knee, but Barça’s medical team concluded that he had sprained his right ankle. FC Barcelona played a fairly practical game against Getafe. At the start, the Blaugrana controlled the flow of play through possession, and they managed to threaten Codina’s goal thanks to the Neymar-Messi partnership. In the first half, Getafe also had their chances to score, but Pinto was up to the task of denying the home team.

Barça are close to the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey. The 4-0 from the first leg at the Camp Nou against Getafe give the Blaugrana quite a bit of breathing room this Thursday evening (22:00 CET) in Madrid. However, the tie isn’t over and Barça must secure passage to the next round of the competition at the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez. Two experiences, in 2007 and this season, show how dangerous is Getafe in his own stadium. FC Barcelona’s Boss, Tata Martino, left Busquets, Jordi Alba and Iniesta out of the team. If Xavi Hernández. features this evening against Getafe, it will be the midfielder’s 700^th official match in the Blaugrana strip.

FC Barcelona have agreed to renew Marc Bartra’s contract until June 30, 2017. The defender will sign the new contract in the coming weeks and his buy-out clause will be set at 25 million euros. Bartra, who started playing in Barça’s youth academy in 2002, made his debut for the first team on February 14, 2010, away to Altético Madrid. From that point on he combined his first team work with his reserve team duties. He was promoted to the first team in the 2012/13 season. This year, Marc Bartra has progressively earned Tata Martino’s confidence thanks to his good performances on the pitch. He’s featured in 14 matches this season and he’s scored one goal. This year, Marc Bartra has progressively earned Tata Martino’s confidence thanks to his good performances on the pitch. He’s featured in 14 matches this season and he’s scored one goal.

The last 20 years have brought us only three matches between Culés and Colchoneros in which Barça and Atlético were the top ranked teams in La Liga. In this particular situation, Atlético have the historic edge seeing that they won two of the three matches. This season Barça and Atlético are level on points, but the Blaugrana are on top due to their better goal average. In the 2012/13 season, when Barça, league leaders on 43 points, hosted Diego Simeone’s men (37 points) for round 16 of La Liga. Barça won 4-1, and Tito Vilanova’s team took a nine-point advantage over their most immediate pursuers. The Blaugrana went on to win the title after securing a record-breaking haul of 100 points.