23 responses so far ↓

• FCB - Canada // Mar 10, 2008 at 0:34

  I don’t know what to say as I can not figure this team out. C’est la vie I guess.

• kuga // Mar 10, 2008 at 0:37

  i dont understand y henry is so lazy…he’s hardly picking up any loose ball past him…

• e10 // Mar 10, 2008 at 0:49

  This is a shocking result.
  Its gonna be very hard now to pip the title from Real Madrid.
  I agree with FCB-Canada, whats with this team ?

• Taras // Mar 10, 2008 at 1:09

  Bad game. On my opinion, players that PLAYED tonight are Zambrotta, Abidal, Ronaldinho, Iniesta and Xavi. Ronnie deserved 6.5 I guess. He gave lots of good passes and made some good touches. And his last free kick was great, just unlucky. Zambrotta was very active in attack.

• joan amenos // Mar 10, 2008 at 1:14

  I did not know this performance until now. I am very surprised. It’s terrible.

• Blaugrana // Mar 10, 2008 at 2:35

  If iam correct nic said a long tym ago that we nidd mostly wins &few draws & N0 losses, thats two losses naw i thnk 2 be real we just nid 2 focus on the copa cos it’s the 0NLY title we luk gud 2 get,

• Morzzan // Mar 10, 2008 at 3:10

  To be honest, Barca did not play all bad, they were actually unlucky to give away the second goal. Both teams played well, barca definitely deserved atleast a point, but certainly not all 3. And Nic, can u please tell me as to why there exists such a rivalry between Madrid and Barca? I am from India, and was curious.

• BOBBY // Mar 10, 2008 at 4:57

  gio shouldve played more time bojan didnt do much in attack

• Rafael // Mar 10, 2008 at 5:07

  Back to the drawing board.

• Shahenshah // Mar 10, 2008 at 6:09

  I am beginning to lose faith

  Messi’s absence clearly effected the game today………there was absolutely no right winger.

  Ronaldinho on the right? What?! That makes no sense. Putting eto’o on the right I will abide with, but switching Ronaldinho all the way to the right was ludicrous on Rijkaard’s part.

  Not once during the first half did I see Ronaldinho near the sideline starting an attack. It was mostly Zambrotta running up and down the right flank and I have never seen that man be so involved in the attack. Hell he was attacking more than defending. Ronaldinho had no clue what to do and near the end of the half he was basically playing striker alongside Eto’o.

  Not saying Ronaldinho performed badly. He tried hard and made some nice crosses right to Henry’s feet from the right side but seriously, leave Ronaldinho on the left. He barely saw the ball during the first half.

  During the second half when he was back on the left his performance improved by a ton.

  I am not gonna lie, getting Henry was a waste of money. He just does not have that drive anymore. Are you kidding me? This man has not done anything spectacular this season and is extremely lethargic. He doesnt deserve to be taking Ronaldinho’s spot nor Eto’o’s. The ball is fed to him quite alot and he just wastes it.

  In fact in the game today during the second half, Ronaldinho running full speed, dashing defenders and trying his damn hardest to keep the play alive, passes the ball off to Henry in the middle. The ball sails 2 feet wide of Henry’s chest and during this whole time Henry didnt make a single effort to receive it. I tried to believe in him but I am just not convinced.

  The only one who could make a proper effort filling in for Messi is Iniesta and he proved it today. Hell even his dribbling technique is similar to Messi’s. Good lord he is underrated.

  This would have been a definite win if Rijkaard had gone with Ronaldinho on the left, Eto’o in the middle and Iniesta on the right. The way things were before this “Fantastic four” bullshit.

• Varughese // Mar 10, 2008 at 6:12

  There is a pattern emerging:
  we have conceded about 9 goals in the last three weeks and that is the problem. We should go back to the same tactic we used agnst Sevilla and Villareal in Copa del Rey. Defend well, we can still score goals. That second goal was comedy, no one was interested in closing down or marking opposition players.

• Varughese // Mar 10, 2008 at 7:19

  Cheer Up Guys… Life will be tough some times…actually most of times

• Jay // Mar 10, 2008 at 9:26

  It just got tougher than it ever was…..

• John // Mar 10, 2008 at 9:44

  As the Duke of Wellington one said… “They came on in the same old way and we stopped them in the same old way” Perhaps the same can be said of Barca… Teams are getting used to tactics employed by Barca and those teams good enough and coached well enough are able to overcome the way Barca play. Valencia and Villarreal were both organised and stubborn and got results at the Camp Nou in recent weeks.

  Everyone will be deeply frustrated by the last two league performances… these were two must win games and we have lost both in what can only be described as performances that were well below par… They were disjointed last night… Henry did not click with the rest. Eto’os first touch was not good… Roanaldinho to be fair looks to be improving… The defence was not good at all… Xavi again was tireless.

  Last season we conspired to throw away the league the same is happening again… Changes have to be made in the summer, last season and this season the team has seemed to have no direction… Progress in the champion’s league is all well and good but the fact is that the league form has not been good. Also we have not played a quality team in Champions League… How long will we last in the competition when we come up against good side?

  Laporta needs to make some big decisions in the summer, the club must strive to evolve and improve all the time at the moment the club is at best stagnating at worst going backwards… Two years ago I would never have believed I would have said this but perhaps it is time for Jose… I am sure he would bring the ethics of teamwork and hard work back to a set of players that are badly in need of some fresh strategic impetus… With the players in the squad Barca should be so much better than they have been over the last 18 months. We are watching one of the worst cases of underachievement in European Football.

• Taras // Mar 10, 2008 at 11:34

  First I absolutely agree with what Shahenshah said. In the second half Ronnie improved a lot and began making good chances. Also well said about Henry. Barca is not his team.

• Speeka // Mar 10, 2008 at 11:44

  God awfull result, was glimmer of light when Xavi scored(again) but too many players off form & no finishing power from our strikers. Defence had a few key player’s missing & we were playing one of the beter sides in La Liga, but its no excuse, those player’s should be playing better than that. Henry was missing most of the game, Eto’o still not his old self & Bojan trying to be like Messi too much.
  Going to be hard trying to catch Madrid in the league especially now that they arent in the CL anymore. We’ll be coming out next round too if we continue playing like this.

• Frede // Mar 10, 2008 at 12:15

  This is the worst possible way to start my week… My team failed, and my fellow Dane, Jon Dahl Tommason, was the man behind

  I think this game showed us, that Henry should start on the bench the next weeks. Bojans entrance lighted up the game, so he should get the chance in the starting lineup next week.

  If something dramatic doesnt happen, we should maybe be more concerned finishing 3rd than 2nd. Dont you think so? On the other hand, Real is still riding their luck without playing well, so lets keep up the hope!

  Visca Barca

• Nic // Mar 10, 2008 at 12:58

  Morzzan - Answering your question on the Barça-Madrid rivalry could fill a book. On a strictly sporting level they are obvious rivals as the two biggest clubs in Spain representing the two biggest cities. However, the rivalry goes much much deeper than that and involves a lot of history and politics. I’m not going to try and explain more than to say that during Franco’s dictatorship the Catalan people were oppressed and they saw Barça as a symbol of Catalunya. I’d rather not risk trying to explain more deeply as I have no wish to go into the politics here. If you want to know more about Franco here’s what wikipedia say about him - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Franco

• voonte // Mar 10, 2008 at 13:25

  This game reflects how barca have played throughout this season. Hard work, but few chances to score, and even fewer goals. We need to be really careful about Villareal as they’re only 4 points behind now. But Villareal deserved this win, they were better.

  It was great to see Ronaldinho, Abidal, Zambrotta and Iniesta. Thuram and Valdes also did a good job.

• Hugo Steckelmacher // Mar 10, 2008 at 15:34

  Hi all,

  http://soccerlens.com/lionel-messi-injury/6360/ for a look at the Messi injury situation.

  Cheers,

  Hugo

• blaugranaboy // Mar 10, 2008 at 16:33

  wow, finally i find a barcelona site where people actually speak sense and cleraly watch the match. id like in particular to reply to Shahenshah, who spoke the truest words ever, Henry was such a waste of money. Its so frustrating watching him play, all he ever does if waste paces. He has no speed anymore and his touches suck. You can also see his drive or confidence is lacking. Dinho did try very hard and had a few good passes and touches, but like one guy said 6.5 is a about right, but its not where he needs to be. Xavi has by far been the most on form player at the moment, he is just sheer class. The result was terrible, really gutted me after when it was 2 pts they gave me hope again for this season. I think a good 5 or 6 players need to be sold come summer and some young, proven replacements must come in.

• Youssef Gazia // Mar 11, 2008 at 23:14

  And we all thought, ”2008 will be our year”

• layi // Mar 15, 2008 at 23:10

  signing henry was like the way madrid signed beckham, thank God we didnt sign our other galacticos…but even upon that, we’re totally messed up…my main worry is still with rijkaard, i really liked him…but is he now blind or what? a top class manager always knows when something is not working

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