Xavi: “Footballing respect is what’s important”

The Barça midfielder reckons it’s perfectly normal that the Espanyol players offer a guard of honour to the new League champions this Sunday: “in the same way we had to when Real Madrid were crowned champions”. 

“Casilla said this Wednesday that the players would do it. I understand their fans but footballing respect is what’s important”, according to Xavi. 

The Catalan was speaking after picking up the Premi Barça Jugadors prize in recognition of his fair play during the 2011/12 season

Montoya, Bartra, Tello, Muniesa and Thiago in Spanish under 21 squad for Euros

Barça players Montoya, Bartra, Tello, Muniesa and Thiago have been named in Spain’s Under-21 squad for the Eurpoean Championships to be held in Israel between June 3rd and 19th. FC Barcelona are the team providing most players for the Spanish squad

Julen Lopetegui announced his squad this Thursday, which also includes: Mariño, De Gea, Joel Robles, Iker Muniain, Koke, Carvajal, Rodrigo, Sarabia, Nacho, Morata, Camacho, Isco, Alberto Moreno, Illarramendi, Iñigo Martínez, Canales and Álvaro González.

Miss Malaga game

Montoya, Bartra, Tello and Thiago will all miss Barça’s final league game against Malaga, as they will have to report to the Spanish camp at Las Rozas next Monday to prepare for the tournament.Barça B’s Marc Muniesa will alos miss his team’s last two games against Villarreal and Jerez.

The squad fly out to Israel on June 3rd and play Russia (6 June), Germany (9 June) and Holland (12 June) in their first round of games.

Adriano and Alves work with the rest of the group

The Brazilian, who has extended his contract with the Club till 2017, can play at full back on either flank, centre half, in midfield and also on the wing. 

With every season he’s scored more goals. 

Adriano Correia, who has extended his contract until 2017, is the perfect versatility player for FC Barcelona. That versatility has seen him play in five different positions- and always at the highest level. Adriano has played as both left and right back, centre half, in the middle and as a winger and that quality combined with his immense talent have made him a player the coaches know they can place their trust in.

More goals with every season

Adriano was the Club’s first signing under President Rosell and he has enjoyed more and more opportunities with each season – something he has repaid with more and more goals. He scored just once in the 2010/11 campaign, 3 the following year and this season he has doubled that to six, so far. A tireless team player, Adriano has also shown himself to be a great finisher from distance, with spectacular goals against Valencia and Atletico de Madrid in particular.

105 games and 10 goals

Only injuries have kept Adriano from making more appearances over his three years at the Club, though he in fact played in 105 games (31 in 2010/11, 40 in 2011/12 and 34 so far this season), and scored 10 times. Only once has he mana

The next edition of the Champions League takes shape

22 teams have qualified for next year's competition, the remaining 10 will feature the Champions League qualifiers later this summer
As this season’s edition of the Champions League comes to a close with the final between Borussia Dortmund and FC Bayern Munich, the next edition of the most prestigious club competition has started to take shape. It should be noted that the top eight seeded teams cannot face each other in the group phase given that each team will be placed in their own group. 

The top eight seeded teams are Barça, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Madrid, Manchester United,Arsenal, Porto and Benfica. There are a couple of pending matters still yet to be decided, however. Arsenal need to progress past the Champions League qualifying round, and if Borussia Dortmund win this year’s Champions League title, they will be seeded next season. 

10 teams yet to qualify 

In addition to the seeded teams, Manchester City, Atlético Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, BayerLeverkusen, Juventus, Naples, Paris Saint-Germain, Olympique Marseille, CSKA Moscow, Ajax,Shakhtar Donetsk, Olympiakos, Galatasaray, Anderlecht and Copenhagen have all qualified for the next edition of the competition. 

Therefore, only 10 teams have yet to qualify (among them Arsenal) for the group stage. The 10 Champions League berths will be awarded to the teams that progress past the qualifying round.

The group stage draw will take place on August 29 of 2013 and the first games will be played on September 17 and 18. The Champions League final will be played on Saturday, May 24 of 2014, at Da Luz stadium in Lisbon.

Andrés Iniesta, in a ‘hangout’ with Pato: “Playing in Brazil is magic”

Iniesta took part in a hangout with Google + with Pato to talk about the Confederations Cup to be held this summer in Brazil 

The Barça midfielder spoke about his goals against Chelsea in 2009 and in eth 2010 World Cup Final 

To mark this summer’s Confederations Cup and the 2014 World Cup – both set to be held in Brazil – Iniesta participated in a hangout on the Google + page together with the Corinthians and Brazil strikerAlexandre Pato. Journalists and fans also took part in the hangout. The two exchanged congratulations for Barça’s league title and Corinthians winning of the Campeonato Paulista. Iniesta described Pato as “ a really good player – I especially remember the great goal he scored against us when he was with Milan”, whilst Pato returned the compliment claiming: “playing against Iniesta is a pleasure, He is a magnificent player and a great champion. Barça are always very strong and I wish them many titles”.

Final we’d all like to see

Iniesta expressed his excitement at the possibility of facing the five times world champions:“for any player, to face Brazil at the Maracana is a unique, magic experience. It’ll be great and something special to face Pato, Neymar and the rest of the Brazilians”.

Alexandre Pato would also like to see a Spain-Brazil final: “it’d be an exciting final, which everyone would want to see!” Pato also explained the progress the Brazilian game has made over recent years: “it’s become more physical and better organised tactically than when I left for Europe and this development will help our national team”.

Elche return 24 years later

Elche are the first team to be promoted to the top flight this season and that means Barça will face them next year for the first time since 1989 

Bakero and Amor scored the goals in Barça’s win the last time Elche were in the top flight 

The draw between Barça B and Alcorcon on Saturday meant that Elche were mathematically promoted from the second division – the first of three who will be coming up next year. Elche will be returning to La Liga for the first time since 1989 and marking their 20th season in the top flight of Spanish football.

Stats in Barça’s favour

Of the 38 games played between Barça and Elche in the league, Barça have won 19, drawn 11 and lost just 8 – the most recent in the 1974/5 season when they lost 1-0 in Alicante.

Unbeaten at the Camp Nou

Barça’s record is even better at home, with 12 wins, 7 draws and not a single defeat. The last time Elche came to the Camp Nou was on 12 February 1989 when they were beaten 2-0 with goals from Bakero and Amor (2-0). The two have also met twice in the Cup – in the last 16 in 1962/63 and in the quarter finals three years later. Barça won both ties.

Azulgrana RoundUp, Week 31 - Messi: "I'm only focused on staying at FC Barcelona"

Leo Messi sat down with Televisión Azteca’s Inés Sainz last week to give his take on FC Barcelona’s 2012/13 season. “I was very happy to win La Liga,” starts Messi, “the Spanish league is a very important competition because of the rivals we had to go up against, like Real Madrid; they are one of the best teams in the world.” 

Even though Barça took control of table from the first week of the competition, Messi says that the road that led the team to the title wasn’t an easy one to travel. “The truth is that this hasn’t been easy because we came into this season after a big change,” says the Argentinian in reference to Guardiola’s departure. He adds: “Things went well with Tito [Vilanova], because he practically didn’t change anything. But we noticed a change when he left, not because Roura or the training staff who stayed on didn’t do a good job but because we were missing our head manager ... It wasn’t the same. One year is a long time and it’s great that we can finish it by celebrating.” 

The tough Champions League campaign, in addition to Éric Abidal and Tito Vilanova’s absence for large swaths of the year, certainly added to the burden the players had to carry throughout an otherwise successful season. “You can’t always win,” says Messi in reference to Barça's elimination from the Champions League at the hands of Bayern Munich. “We’ve been playing our brand of football for years and managers and teams have studied it. But we can’t lose our heads after what happened this season. We can’t change Barcelona’s style of play because that’s what has defined the team for years. We have to stay calm and focus on next year.”

When asked about his future plans, the Argentinian superstar declared, “I’m only focused on staying at Barcelona until the end. I’d like to play in Argentina one day, but I won’t play for another European team.”