Motta is out, and being replaced by Iniesta...Puyol may sit as well...good thing LVG secured all those attacking mids that he has sitting on the bench, cause we don't need defense.... from FCB.com Andrés Iniesta has been drafted into the Barcelona squad to face Lokomotiv to replace Thiago Motta who suffered a setback in his bid to recover from injury. The Italian-Brazilian midfielder has pains in his right leg and has withdrawn from the side. Despite Motta's withdrawal, club doctor Ricard Pruna believes that the injury is not the serious and that he the players will not play as a precaution. Carles Puyol is also a doubt to play in the match after twisting his knee in training on Tuesday. The Catalan defender damaged the external lateral ligament, but it has been confirmed that it is not serious. Puyol will undergo further tests before deciding whether he is fit to play against Lokomotiv. With Michael Reiziger, Philippe Christanval and Patrick Andersson all injured, Louis Van Gaal will forced to play Philip Coco, Gabri or Gaizka Mendieta in Puyol's place.
Hellllllo? anybody out there? Still too mad to post? Even the cules' are staying away (only 62,000 at Camp Nou today). Puyol had THE most amazing save. Check out the video on uefa.com..its brilliant. Other than that, it sounded like a fairly lackluster affair. Mendieta finally got involved and once again the squad had several good chances they didn't convert but the main thing is that Barça won the group. Most of the other groups are wide open, so who knows what the draw for Group Phase II will look like. More importantly, maybe this will calm some nerves on the domestic front. jc
Four matches and four victories. It's a good start to the Champions' League but it isn't by any stretch of the imagination an indication of things to come. That's not being pessimistic, but in all fairness, we haven't really faced sizeable opposition that some of the other clubs have due to fixtures. Still, qualification to the second round is always the goal when you start the CL so bravo Barcelona. Cent vegades mes fort, cent vegades mes gran Per molts anys, endavant!!
Riquelme seemed to be involved a lot according to match tracker. I guess I was a little surprised he took the corners and the free kicks, but then thinking about it, who would you rather have that was available? I tend to agree with Almogavar92, four matches, four wins. Barca taking care of business. I'm hoping the style will come when the back line is more settled, ie Andersson comes back, whats up with him anyway? Is he training? Close to fitness? Plus, who would you rather be today, Barca or Madrid? del Bosque is a good manager, but taking Zidane and McManaman off and letting the match slip away like that is terrible. Barca Tony
That was pretty awesome. I was listening to the UEFA panel show at the time and they were trying to describe it. I'm glad they posted the video highlights so quickly. I am happy that Barça have pretty much rolled through their first group, as expected. They will need to clean up their act in the second round though. What concerns me is that Mendieta was subbed out again. It's obviously not a fitness issue, as the guy can run for hours. He just hasn't been half as effective as he was pre-Italy. It would help if he was given less defensive responsibility, which reverts back to the 3 at the back issue. With Overmars supposedly fit again, the wing play can definitely create more chances if Van Mal lets it happen. Football is such a simple game when you really get down to it. I wonder how many more wasted points it's going to take for him to figure it out.
Well Overmars has some problems again and will be out due to injury. It doesn't sound serious but sometimes I get the feeling that he'll never play again.