September 2008 - Posts

• Puyol hits out at crowd violence

  Captain Carles Puyol refused to wave to fans who had been responsible for the crowd trouble as he left the Olympic Stadium at the weekend and while he wants to eradicate this fringe element he responded angrily to suggestions by Espanyol that Barca fans were enticing them. "The players are 100 per cent against violence and it was completely out of place the accusations that we urged it. We were surprised, when you are playing and your heart rate is pumping you just want to celebrate with the fans and also in that area were friends and family. At no time were we looking to support or promote violence," he said. "We would though like to offer apologies if these celebrations did upset anyone. We did not see much of what was going on in the stands and it was only when the game was stopped that we found out, the referee said he had stopped the game because people were coming on the pitch and were posing a danger." Posted Sep 30 2008, 03:44 AM by Tim with no comments

• Barca scrape past Espanyol in an incident packed derby

  On chances alone Barca clearly deserved to win in Montjuic but it took a lucky deflection and a cool finish from Messi from the penalty spot for them to take the three points. Knowing that Real Madrid had stolen a fortunate victory away at Betis, Guardiola's men knew they had to win to keep in touch and they did just that although it took them until injury time to go ahead. Espanyol down to ten men with Nene sent-off spent the game defending, and having gone ahead through virtually their own chance, it looked as though Barca would never find a breakthrough. That was though until a rebound off Jarque allowed Henry to stroke the ball home, then late on Eto'o was fouled and Messi completed the turnaround. The talking point of the game though will sadly be the Boixos Nois - the ultra fans - who once again brought embarrassment to the club by setting off flares and with Espanyol fans also invading the pitch the match had to be suspended. For once president Joan Laporta is right in the way he has tried to kick out the Boixos Nois from the Camp Nou and it is strange to think that former president Joan Gaspart was actually one of their fans. Posted Sep 28 2008, 12:00 PM by Tim with no comments

• Gudjohnsen saves the day as defence looks weak

  Substitute Eidur Gudjohnsen was the unlikely hero for Barcelona as they beat Betis in mid-week to get the first home win of the season and maybe this will spark the confidence which the Icelander badly needs. Gudjohnsen maybe has been unlucky having been labelled as one of the problems with the team over the last two seasons, but is he really to blame and how much a part has he played in the decline? Let's face it he has hardly played, never was he given the chance. Eto'o was back firing the goals a sight to lift the heart although he wasn't the same in the second half. In fact what went wrong with the team after the break as they went from tearing Betis apart to being unable to string more than two passes together. The worst of all though was the defence, Caceres struggled badly on his debut as did Marquez against Jose Mari. They badly missed the leadership of Puyol and Milito also is badly missed.         Posted Sep 26 2008, 05:17 AM by Tim with 1 comment(s)