La Liga Review

A sorry state of mind in Barcelona

Fc Barcelona's fragile hold over the top of La Liga was finally, yet somehow inevitably, brought to an end at the Camp Nou last night. Sobis' 89th minute equaliser for Betis saw Barcelona surrender their role in the driving seat and the race for the title is now no longer in their hands. Its now up to Real Madrid, who lead Barcelona thanks to a superior head-to-head, which side of the eternal divide will be celebrating in a months time.

Seemingly all but those who actually have the power to influence matters within Barcelona could see it coming and for the fans who have been watching nervously through their fingers it was all too much. The Laporta regime received its first 'Panyolada' as the home crowd showed their displeasure by waving their handkerchiefs at the forlorn looking President.

With four games to go until the end of the season there may yet still be another twist to what is turning out to be a fascinating climax to the end of the Spanish league championship. The irony is that as Barcelona surrendered their lead at the top over the last few weeks, it was Real Madrid who increasingly gained momentum and closed the gap on their rivals. For all those watching it was becoming clear that Fc Barcelona were repeating the mistakes of the Galactico experiment a few years earlier.

Last night's result was all the more difficult for the Barcelona fans to endure because it came at the end of what was arguably Barcelona's best display for quite some time. Samuel Eto'o looked like the menacing presence in attack that terrorised European defences over the last two seasons whilst Xavi , Iniesta and Deco orchestrated the midfield sublimely. Perhaps, on another night, Barcelona might have ran out 5-0 winners, such was their dominance and creativity.

However, the late equaliser from Sobis that followed some shambolic defending brought about by a quickly taken free kick, seemed to be as much a product of the impending sense of doom that engulfs the Catalan club as it was a consequence of Barcelona failing to convert their numerous chances into a comfortable lead. It seems all but the Barcelona players believe that the title is headed to Madrid, and even they hardly sound convincing.

Jorge Valdano once said that a football team is essentially a state of mind. He also said that results depend upon that state of mind, not what players you have or what opponents you face.

If it is a state of mind that is going to decide the title, then the Ramblas is going to be a very quite place next month.

Week 34 La Liga team of the week

We've decided to take a few liberties with our team of the week this week and play people out of position all over the pitch. We can do that you see. After all, its not as if we are ever going to have 90,000 Barcelona fans waving their hankies at us or that we'll ever get a visit from Ramon Calderon giving us the boot halfway through the season.

Real Madrid pile on the pressure

Real Madrid top the La Liga, for the first time since October 2005, after clawing their way back from 1-3 down against Espanyol at the Santiago Bernabeu last night. How long they remain in pole position is entirely up to rivals Fc Barcelona who face Real Betis at the Camp Nou this evening.

The difference between the two sides at the top may only be down to one point, but the psychological advantage that Fabio Capello's men hold over Rijkaard's is immeasurable. Whilst Real Madrid are seemingly unstoppable at the moment, Barcelona appear to be hanging on for dear life.

For 45 minutes last night it was a very different story and credit must be give to Espanyol for their part in the unfolding drama that is providing a thrilling end to the Spanish season. Ernesto Valverde fully vindicated criticism that his side had travelled to the Spanish capital willing to hand over all three points to Barcelona's rivals. However, his second string side fully vindicated their coach's team selection, leading 3-1 by the interval thanks to a Walter Pandiani hatrick.

Real Madrid have, in Fabio Capello, a coach who has a reputation for imposing an spirit of indefatigability upon all of his sides and the Italian was not about to surrender his the fight for the title just yet. An ineffective Guti, the star against Sevilla a week ago, reminded everyone why he starts so few games for Madrid and was replaced by Reyes.

Within minutes of the restart a visibly roused and re-shuffled Madrid responded with a strike from Raul to reduce the deficit to just the single goal. Reyes endorsed Capello's changes further when he levelled the score on the hour mark.

By now all inside the Bernabeu seemed to sense that this was going to be Real Madrid's night and the crowd responded in kind. That it took until the 90th minute for Higuain to deliver the killer blow is testimony to Espanyol's commitment that this was not just an inconvenience for them ahead of Wednesday's UEFA cup final.

After the game Capello said that if Real Madrid continue to play with the same spirit then the league title is theirs for sure. Of course, in Barcelona they know that's not entirely true and that if Rijkaard's side can pick themselves up from their midweek humiliation then there is little that Capello can do about it.

Capello praised the Bernabeu crowd and said that their support had been fundamental in inspiring the Real comeback. In Madrid they believe that the title is theirs. The crowd at the Camp Nou this evening have an equally important part to play and the notoriously fickle Barcelona supporters may well influence the outcome of the game, and the destination of the league trophy.

Whether the Barcelona fans, or the players, have the conviction that they can do it is another matter altogether.

Sunday´s Previews

Getafe (8th) v Atletico Madrid (6th)

This match pits one side who have just secured a place in next season’s UEFA cup against another who are desperate to follow suit.

Getafe are will be in a high after that astonishing 4-0 win over Barcelona and can play tonight safe in the knowledge that as Copa del Rey finalists their place in European football is assured for next season whatever the outcome of the match against Sevilla. Abbondanzieri returns in goal but the ever dependable Alexis has failed to recover from an injury picked up against Barcelona.

Atletico, who have not lost on their last three visits to Getafe, are sweating over the fitness of Fernando Torres and Luccin in their bid to do what they always somehow manage to do and dissappoint the fans by missing out on Europe for yet another year.

Nastic (20th) v Real Sociedad (19th)

A real relegation scrap if ever their was one. Whichever side loses this one is almost certainly relegated and it is very likely to be quite a tense atmosphere in Tarragona this afternoon, not helped by the match fixing stories that have been doing the rounds.

Paco Flores celebrates his 150th game in charge of a top flight club by dropping Makukula and bringing in Marco, Campano and Pinilla.

Real Sociedad have been hit with a real injury and suspension crisis in defence when they least needed it and Miguel Angel Lotina is forced to raid the youth team to cover for the missing Javi Garrido, Mikel Gonzalez and Gerardo Garcia.

Celta Vigo (18th) v Levante (16th)

Another battle for survival. Stoichkov has taken his side away to Portugal for the week in order to prepare for the fight ahead. With no new injury worries the Bulgarian can at least count on a full squad to choose from. Gustavo Lopez claims that Celta will play this game at “200 Per Cent!”. I’m not sure but I think its illegal to field 22 players.

Levante, meanwhile, will be hit by the absence of striker Salva Ballesta through injury.

Real Madrid v Espanyol & Sevilla Recreativo Preview

Real Madrid (2nd) Espanyol (11rh) at the Santiago Bernabeu. 21:00 hrs BST

Quite remarkably, nine Espanyol first team players have missed the flight from Barcelona to the capital ahead of the game with Real Madrid this evening. Tamudo, De la Pena, Riera, David Garcia, Zabaleta, Jarque, Rufete, Moises Hurtado and Ito have all been left behind in Catalunya by mistake. This was obviously an accident as Ernesto Valverde continues to insist that the midweek UEFA cup final has had no bearing on his approach to tonight's game and that he travels to the Bernabeu looking for a win. Pandiani is likely to start up front, with the in-form Corominas playing down the right wing.

Its probably safe to say that Real Madrid would also sincerely like to win this game as well, especially considering that victory would see them overtake Barcelona and occupy first place in La Liga for 24 hours at least. The suspensions handed out to Beckham and Robinho will force Capello to hand starting places to Higuain and Guti whilst Roberto Carlos will make a return to the side following his lengthy lay off through injury.

Robinho should be reasonably pleased with the choice of match referee after complaining that were it not for the hapless officials, Real Madrid would have won the league title already. Tonight's man in the middle has overseen seven games at the Bernabeu and Real Madrid have won six of them.

If Espanyol shock everyone with a victory, including themselves, then it will represent their first win at the Bernabeu in eleven seasons. Espanyol have also been beaten 4-0 on their last two visits to Real Madrid.

Sevilla (3rd) v Recreativo(7th)

The other UEFA cup finalists, Sevilla, face what appears to be, at first glance, a fairly straight forward home game against Recreativo Huelva. However, this game has added spice, not least because it is a regional derby, but also because both sides are playing for a place in two different European competitions.

Whilst Sevilla are bidding for their first ever place in the Champions League, Recreativo are trying to claim a UEFA cup spot for the first time in their history. With Barcelona failing to reach the Copa del Rey final, the seventh place in La Liga no longer offers UEFA Cup participation as a reward.

Both sides have it all to play for.

Consequently, Juande Ramos lists a full strength squad and only the injured or suspended players (Javi Navarro, Hinkel, Chevanton and Adriano) have failed to make the list. Ocio and Luis Fabiano return to the squad after missing out on the midweek cup action through suspension, whilst Jesus Navas is handed a place after overcoming a lack of form and confidence.

Laquait gets his first start in goal for Recreativo in quite some time and returns to the side in the absence of goalkeeper Lopez Vallejo, suffering with tendonitis. Viqueira and Dani Bautista have been left out for tactical reasons whilst Edu Moya and Iago Bouzon miss out through injury.

Sevilla are likely to get back to winning was following last week's defeat at the Bernabeu and the prospect of Champions league football next season should provide incentive enough to avoid minds being distracted by the pending UEFA cup final on Wednesday. Sevilla have won on both occasions that these two sides have previously met and should Recreativo mange a win they will join Mallorca as the only away side to pick up 3 points at the Sanchez Pizjuan this season.

The Lion didn't sleep tonight

If you don't speak Spanish and just happened to be passing a newsstand in Spain today you will probably be wondering what that word 'Verguenza' means, seeing as its plastered across the front pages of almost every newspaper south of the Pyrenees and north of Tangiers.

The photos of a forlorn Ronaldinho and a dejected Samuel Eto'o accompanying the headlines are probably a bit of a clue: 'Verguenza' means 'Shame'.

Shameful! screamed both El mundo Deportivo and Sport. You can probably work out what '"Humillación" and "Ridículo" means all by yourselves. If you're a Barça fan you probably don't want to know and should probably be steering clear of AS and Marca anyway.

That's how the Spanish press hammered home the fact that Getafe managed one of the most stunning cup comebacks ever seen in Spanish football to overturn Barcelona's 5-2 first leg advantage with a 4-0 hammering of the Catalan giants last night. And boy did Barcelona come crashing down to earth.

The shockwaves were still being felt at the Barcelona training ground this afternoon as around a hundred fans turned up to let the players know exactly what they thought of them.

"You have no shame!" hollered one particularly irate senior citizen whilst his wife decided to make do with wagging her finger and muttering something about mercenaries at the players as they jogged past. By the time the players were on their second lap of the training ground, the same old man decided to remind Samuel Eto'o of his comments that he had come to Barcelona to "run like a black man and live like a white man".

"They've even got you running like a white man now!" raged the geriatric cheerleader. Thankfully his wife decided to cart him off before he got even more politically incorrect, either that or gave himself a coronary.

Whether it was the fans that greeted the players at the airport and at the training ground, the press or just the steam visibly blasting out of Rijkaard's ears, something clearly had an effect. We were treated to a rare appearance by Samuel Eto'o in the press conference that habitually follows training.

"I've never felt so ashamed" said Eto'o, clearly having picked up on the word of the day, "I wanted to dig a hole in the ground and crawl into it after the game last night"

"I don't know what went wrong" he added, "I haven't slept all night thinking about it and I still don't know why we played the way we did"

Starting with a home game against Betis on Sunday, Barcelona have five games left to save the season from disaster and secure a third successive La Liga title. When asked if last night's defeat means that Barcelona have lost the respect of their opponents, Eto'o replied "Ask me that question again in five games time. Then we'll talk"

"As we say in Cameroon, you should always fear the Lion until you can be sure that it is dead" said a defiant Eto'o.

One thing is certain. We'll get to find out whether the Lion still has a pulse by the time the club sets off on its next round the world promotional tour in the summer. If it doesn't then the marketing men at the camp nou will have another beast to try and flog along with the dead horse.

Barcelona humiliated by Getafe

Getafe secured a place in the Copa del Rey final after soundly beating Fc Barcelona 4-0 in the second leg semi final at the Alfonso Perez Coliseo last night.

The visitors looked assure of a place in the final against Sevilla, taking a 5-2 lead into the second leg, but were brought back down to earth after putting on one of their worst displays under Frank Rijkaard.

Credit must be given to Getafe who mounted one of the most astonishing comebacks in recent history. Two goals in either half ensured that Bernd Schuster's side ran out 6-5 aggregate winners.

Barcelona started the match looking the most likely to score and Casquero's opening goal proved to be a shock to the visitors and a spur to the home side and their sell out crowd. Guiza gave Getafe a two goal lead shortly after, stabbing the ball home following a chaotic goalmouth scramble.

Angel Vivar Dorado made it 3-0 just after 70 minutes and then Guiza's second of the match three minutes later completed the humiliation for Rijkaard and his team.

The Barcelona coach said after the match that "This is one of the hardest nights I've ever experienced as a coach. I had the feeling of being incapable of doing anything. We haven't got any excuses. We failed to react from the very first minute and we really suffered a lot.
"We left a very bad impression and I feel very bad, like all the players. We couldn't do anything. We were incapable. It's been a really hard night for all of us and a very tough blow."

The Dutchmen offered his apologies to the Barça fans and said "We have to focus on the league now and try to finish the season with our dignity intact"

It was a disastrous night all round for Barcelona who are fully aware that they have handed psychological advantage to rivals Real Madrid in the race for the La Liga title. Carles Puyol summed up just how bad Barcelona were when he said that "If Getafe had wanted to score a few more they probably could have done"

The fact that goal keeper Jorquera was Barcelona's best performer on the night, probably just about says it all.

Puyol summed up how most Barcelona fans felt when he said "It's difficult to say anything. I feel furious and helpless,"

Barcelona will have to wait until Sunday and their crucial league fixture against Real Betis, at the Camp Nou, to make it up to those fans.

Getafe - Barcelona preview

After sportingly complaining that his players should have kicked Leo Messi off the ball and out of the game in the first leg of the Copa del Rey, Bernd Schuster will not have to worry about the ‘next’ Maradona running rings around his benevolent defenders this evening. Frank Rijkaard has opted to wrap the Argentine wonder kid in cotton wool ahead of Barcelona’s second leg meeting with Getafe at the Coliseum Alfonso Perez.

Before heading off for Madrid, Rijkaard warned against overconfidence in spite of his side’s 5-2 lead over their rivals competing for a place in the final. Tonight’s game provides some form of distraction for Barcelona, welcome or otherwise, from an increasingly tense finale to the La Liga season.

The Barcelona coach is keen to protect some of his players ahead of what the press are calling the ‘five finals’ in the Liga climax. Rijkaard has travelled to Madrid without the injured Deco and Marquez and the ‘rested’ Thuram, Motta, Ezquerro and Messi.

Oleguer is therefore likely to partner Puyol in the centre of defence and is a clear sign that Rijkaard is more than willing to at least offer Getafe a glimmer of hope and present the opposition with the kind of gaping holes that they gifted his side three weeks ago. Schuster, who has not been shy of contributing to the war of words emanating from the ‘Royal’ side of Madrid , predicted a 4-1 home win for his side.

Word must have got out that Oleguer starts in the centre of defence as Getafe have managed to sell out for the first time in two seasons and the home fans clearly fancy their chances. After failing to convince his players to turn up for the first half in the first leg, Schuster has decided to pin inspirational messages from the fans to the dressing room wall in a bid to rouse his charges.

Perhaps Schuster should invite Michel Salgado in to the dressing room to give the team talk if he is looking for inspiration. The Real Madrid player has been complaining to the press that he considers it an affront to all Madrid fans that Barcelona should be allowed to play the Copa del Rey final at the Bernabeu on the 23rd of June.

Prediction:

La Liga Review thinks that Barcelona will get the chance to rub Salgado’s nose in it come the middle of June and face Sevilla in the final. However, what do we know? In search of opinion ahead of tonight’s game, Barcelona based Sport canvassed the opinion of Madrid’s last remaining urban shepherd. Andres Garcia, “struggling to be heard over the sound of his sheep” predicted a stunning comeback from Getafe.

Was that really the sound of sheep or just Robinho and Cicinho bleating about Spanish referees handing the title to Barcelona?

Sevilla through to final

Sevilla have confirmed their place in the Copa del Rey final after seeing off Deportivo La Coruna at the Sanchez Pizjuan in the semi final second leg last night.

Sevilla finished up 5-0 aggregate winners, building upon the 3-0 lead carried over from the first meeting, courtesy of goals from Sergio Duda and Ernesto Chevanton. The contest was as good as over when Portuguese midfielder Duda sent a 25 yard free kick sailing past a static Munua, in goal for Depor, after just three minutes.

Chevanton completed the job with a strike just after the half hour mark that rounded off an impressive passage of play for the Andalucians. Deportivo failed to respond and the 2002 cup winners finished the tie unable to score in either leg.

Juande Ramos, who was able to rest some of his key players, now looks forward to an exciting end to the 2006-7 campaign, with his side still in the hunt for three major trophies. Sevilla are now set to play in two finals - the UEFA cup and the Copa Del Rey - whilst still mathematically being in contention for La Liga.

Ramos said after the match “At 1-0 Deportivo threw in the towel and the tie was as good as over. The most important thing was that we didn’t have to over exert ourselves ahead of the final five remaining league fixtures”

The Sevilla coach is convinced his side will face Barcelona in the Copa Del Rey final. The Catalans head to Getafe's Coliseum Alfonso Perez stadium this evening, with the visitors seemingly comfortable holding a 5-2 lead from the first leg.

Espanyol through to final

Ernesto Valverde has finally been able to lay the ghost of Leverkusen to rest after seeing his Espanyol side defeat Werder Bremen and secure a place in the final against Sevilla on the 16th May.

The coach had been a part of the Espanyol side who threw away a three goal lead against Bayer Leverkusen in the 1988 UEFA cup final and subsequently lost on penalties. There was a genuine fear that history was being repeated when Hugo Almeida gave Bremen the lead early on in the second leg and threatened Espanyol’s three goal advantage from the first. However, Miroslav Klose’s foolish sending off midway through the first half, followed by Corominas’ early second half strike, meant that Espanyol could start to look forward to a trip to Glasgow. Jesús María Lacruz sealed the win for the Barcelona side who finished 5-1 winners on aggregate.

After the match, Valverde said “Of course, we are more than happy tonight. Our team made it and it's not every day you get to a European final.”

The Espanyol coach is aware of the importance of the competition to the Barcelona side who are enjoying their moment in the European spotlight and who so often live in the shadows of their more illustrious neighbors Barcelona.

“We have now reached a second UEFA Cup final 19 years after our first, and my players will be very motivated. Getting there is a great achievement, especially for a side like ours” added Valverde, who is wary of the threat that his opponents in the final pose his side –“ Sevilla are the holders and are having a great season. They're still in with a chance of winning the Primera División and the Copa del Rey as well as the UEFA Cup, but they won't be giving anything away to us”

Ferrán Corominas, scorer of the first crucial away goal for Espanyol is determined to enjoy the moment however and told "The coach has refused to use the word Glasgow for the past week, but secretly we've all been talking about it," club president Daniel Sánchez Llibre joked, as Ernesto Valverde vaulted a barrier to embrace him. "Now we have a final against Sevilla to look forward to."

Sevilla v Osasuna UEFA cup preview

An all Spanish UEFA cup semi final sees current holders Sevilla take on Osasuna for a place in the final. The Andalucians may have gone in to the first leg in Pamplona as favourites, but their bid to become only the second team in history to successfully defend the trophy was undermined by a 1-0 defeat in the away fixture.

Juande Ramos’ team can consider themselves fortunate to be facing just the one goal deficit after Osasuna had plenty of chances to increase their lead following Soldado’s 55th minute headed goal in the first leg. Sevilla may have been overconfident in Pamplona and will not make the same mistake in tonight’s home fixture.