Having rushed my report I need to share a few more thoughts on yesterday’s victory. Firstly, Messi’s injury has been confirmed and he looks like being out for five weeks. This means that as well as the Madrid match he will probably miss three more league games: the visit to Mallorca and the home games with Murcia and Racing. Although he is obviously a big loss, I see no reason why Barça can’t win all these games.

Barça’s problems this season have all been away from home, the return of Samuel Eto’o is a great bonus in this respect. I’ve already written about the importance of Eto’o in putting the opposition defence under pressure http://fcbnews.com/why-barca-suffer-away-from-home/ and yesterday demonstrasted this perfectly in the first few minutes. In the first minute Eto’o chased the ball as the Valencia defenders passed it between themselves, eventually the pressure forced them to pass the ball back to goalkeeper Cañizares, Eto’o kept going, sprinting towards Cañizares who despite having time was panicked into kicking the ball straight to Leo Messi, and from Messi’s cross Eto’o was inches away from a scoring chance. Then in the twelfth minute Messi chased Helguera and forced him to pass back to Cañizares, once again Eto’o ran at the goalkeeper who this time kicked the ball into touch. From the resulting throw-in Barça scored their first goal.

This pressurizing is something that both Thierry Henry and Ronaldinho could learn from, with Eto’o in the team others are inspired to work harder. Fortunately Eto’o will be available for the trip to Mallorca and if he plays I think we can win it. The away form of Barça is infinitely better with Eto’o playing (see link above) and it is interesting that Barça are also looking better away without Henry and Ronnie. Bravo Rijkaard on a brave decision to leave Ronnie on the bench yesterday, the response from Gudjohnsen was excellent.

I should also mention Guddy’s partners in midfield yesterday. Toure Yaya risked missing El Clasico if he had been booked, but he played very well and gave no indication that his mind was on anything except winning three points. And Xavi Hernandez was quite superb, I don’t recall seeing him play so well since his injury in the 2005/6 season. I always felt he had never quite regained the form he showed prior to that injury, yesterday’s performance gave me a lot of hope that he can return to being the player he was in 2005.

Lastly I’d like to mention the second goal yesterday. This was Barça at their best. From a Puyol throw in on the right there were 19 passes (not including Puyol’s throw) which ended with Eto’o through on goal. Every player except Iniesta and Valdés was involved. The sequence was as follows: Puyol (throw) -Eto’o (one touch) -Messi (1 touch) -Eto’o (1) -Puyol (2) -Messi (4) -Xavi (4) -Milito (1) -Abidal (4) -Toure (3) -Puyol (2) -Toure (2)-Marquez (1) -Xavi (1) -Milito (3) -Gudjohnsen (1) -Xavi (1) -Eto’o (4) -Xavi (2) - Messi (2) - Eto’o (1) - Goal!!!

The bad news is that Madrid won this evening and remain four points clear. Barça must beat them next week to pull the difference back to one point for the Christmas/New Year break.