Gerard Pique played DJ once again during Barcelona's flight back from Madrid after facing Getafe, and this time, he had a larger audience as the club's basketball team shared the flight.
Minutes after takeoff Pique was again back at the plane's sound system, hooking his ipod up to it, and though the plane's staff gave him a bit of trouble at first, in the end he won them over.

The aftermath of the Chelsea v Barca Champions League semi-final game yesterday has been... well, nasty. I can understand why Chelsea supporter's feel crushed and I won't dig the shank in deeper. But I have to say that Drogba's and Ballack's performances after the game and the supposed "handball" incident with Eto'o respectively, as well as manager Hiddink's comments about some kind of UEFA conspiracy that prevented Chelsea from winning, were ridiculous.

Another Champions League semi-final, another season of near misses all but complete for Chelsea fans. Even victory over Everton in the FA Cup would do little to make up for another 12 months of thwarted dreams. I never thought I would say this, but I can almost sympathise with Didier Drogba's reaction.

Both Manchester United and Barcelona's appeals to overturn suspensions were denied by UEFA on Monday.

In the statement released by Europe‘s governing body it stated "All three players are therefore suspended for one UEFA club competition match and will serve their suspensions when Barcelona FC meet Manchester United FC in the UEFA Champions League final in Rome on 27 May"

Honestly, I am more than happy to give up Fletcher for both Abidal and Daniel Alves.

I'm having major computer problems this week, so I haven't been able to do much research into what will be going on today. (I will be here for the game, though, so please stop by and keep me company.)

What I've read is that pretty much the entire starting lineup has changed, with the exception of Benzema and Anelka.

Knockout competitions can be very tough, especially when we're playing the return leg away, but after this match Barca is as good as qualified.
The team barely scraped past Valladolid with a single goal just a few days before, but the quarter final of the Champions League was much different.

vs

Today head coach Pep Guardiola announced the 20 players available for tomorrow's Champions League match at home against Chelsea. With no real suprises Pinto, Sanchez and Rodriguez were the three that will not be present for the match. In additional Guardiola will have to drop two more players by match time tomorrow.

Ten things I noticed from this week's Champions League semifinals:

1. Much Ado About Nothing – Much to the woe of slobbering, over enthusiastic journalists everywhere, the Barcelona myth was partially debunked on Tuesday. It's not that they were awful by any stretch of the imagination, but when faced with an equally good team who didn't stand aside and let them play through them they looked more than a little stumped.

Barcelona have reportedly continued their chase for Liverpool's midfield hardman, Javier Mascherano.
The treble winners have been linked with a move for the Argentina captain since before the season ended, and it is now believed that they could use French defender Eric Abidal to tempt the Merseysiders to part company with their star midfielder.

JOSEP LAGO/AFP/Getty Images

Head coach Pep Guardiola and his team arrived in London today in preparation for their match Friday against Tottenham in the first of two matches at Wembley. 17 players from the first squad and 11 from the youth academy and reserve team made the trip. The biggest surprise for fans coming out to see Barcelona play in London will be Lionel Messi.

AP Photo/Manu Fernandez

On Saturday Barcelona continue their race for the La Liga title when they travel to Madrid to take on 14th place Getage. The team will arrive on gameday in order to remain near home as long as possible to rest up for the busy week ahead.

Coach Pep Guardiola announced today the team that will travel to take on Getafe.

In one of the most sensational displays away from home, FC Barcelona humiliated Real Madrid by scoring half a dozen goal against the. With the 2-6 victory FC Barcelona has extracted some revenge for the humiliation at the same ground last season. In a match billed to be the "Title Decider" this season, Barca showed their technical superiority to emerge comfortable winners.

Chelsea were literally 1 minute away from securing a rematch of last years Champions League final. BUT
Andreas Iniesta secured Barcelona's place in Europe's most prestigious final with a wonder strike 3 minutes into injury time!

Although Barcelona squeezed by Chelsea, they paid a high price.

An under strength FC Barcelona side was held to a 1-1 draw by Totenham in their first pre-season friendly in the Wembley Cup. Bojan Krikic gave FC Barcelona the lead in the 32nd minute but Totenham equalised in the 82nd minute through Livermore's header. Guardiola decided to rest majority of stars from the squad who made it to London.

The first training of the season with Barca's full squad took place today, with all the first team players attending except Hleb, who is awaiting his loan out to Inter Milan. Most of the youth players have rejoined the B-team, except for Muniesa, Jonathan, Jeffren and Fontas, who continue training with the senior squad (remember that Sanchez and Pedro have aleady recently been confirmed as part of the first team).

Barca pick up where they left off in the Champions League, meeting Russian club Rubin Kazan at home in the final match of the group stages first leg. We'll be looking not just for a win that will keep Barca at the top of their CL group, but also for a clean sheet that will maintain the team's current form of not having conceded a single CL goal this season, something only three other teams have accomplished so far.

Joseph Guardiola has announced a 19 men squad who will travel to Getafe tomorrow. Both Jorquera and Pinto are included in the squad as Valdes is carrying a slight knock and may not fearture in tomorrow's encounter. Getafe is the only team in La Liga whom the Blaugrana has not yet beaten this season.

Valdes - 5.5 - Made some crucial saves. But his blunder which gifted Valencia the equaliser was the turning point of the match. If he had shown a bit of sense to punch the ball away rather than try to catch it, Barca would have heading to half-time with a goal lead. He was not the only one responsible for the poor game, but he played a big part in it.

Pep Guardiola has named all the available players in the squad which will travel to London. Carles Puyol, who is suspended for the leg will also travel with the squad. The squad announced are Valdés, Jorquera, Pinto, Alves, Víctor Sánchez, Piqué, Cáceres, Abidal, Sylvinho, Touré Yaya, Keita, Busquets, Gudjohnsen, Xavi, Iniesta, Hleb, Bojan, Henry, Eto'o, Messi and Pedro.

UEFA, according to conspiracy theorists, have "got the final they wanted". Chelsea were knocked out of the Champions League by Barcelona last night, and the opening line of this post is already being widely repeated as the truth. One would have to have a heart of stone to not feel some degree of sympathy for Chelsea - they had approximately two and a half strong calls for a penalty waved away and Barcelona's goal was their only shot on target of the entire match.

The game that made Chelsea a bunch of raving lunatics.
Afterward I was left shaking my head.
Barcelona didn't deserve to win the game.
Messi and Eto'o were invisible. Chelsea dominated the chances and, yes, had earned at least one penalty kick. Oh yeah, Barca blocked two shots in the penalty box with arms -- freakin' Pique even admitted his guilt.

That's exactly what we're going to have for the match in Rome. There has not been a match as important as this one all season, it's the friggin Champions League final here, and we must play it without both our fullbacks.
.Why? Becuase the UEFA have again refused to admit the protests against the respective cards shown to Dani Alves and Abidal, saying that the protests were submitted not on time and with no real grounds for contesting the referee's decisions.

"We are going to surprise Barcelona and we are going to win this final." This confident statement wasn't from the mouth of a drunk Basque fisherman in a Bilbao bar. Or one of the 20,000 fans who watched their teams final training session at San Mames. It was spouted by in form Athletic Bilbao striker Fernando Llorente.

Real Mallorca - 2, Barca - 1
Guardiola decided to rest majority of first team players against Real Mallorca. The makeshift side had three Barca B team members - Xavi Torres, Oier Olazabal and Pedro. Barca went ahead with a goal from Eto in the tenth minute but wasted a flurry of chances to end the game, especially Eto.

Barcelona stands against the trope of English dominance. If they lose, it will be UEFA's last shot at a concerted effort in keeping parity. Well, as per conspiracy theorists. How many times will they rely on Tom Hennings Ovrebro? Then there is Platini's 6+5 argument. Surely, that was hatched to loosen the English death grip on the CL.

FC Barcelona's official website has reported that FC Barcelona and Inter Milan have reached the beginning of an agreement for the transfer of the Brazilian Scherrer Cabelino Maxwell Andrade "Maxwell" for a fee of 4.5 million Euros with an additional 0,5 million in variable payments. Now with that signing it is certain that we have neded our interest in Luis Fileppe of Deportivo.

After some long much deserved rest, FC Barcelona has started their pre-season tour. FC Barcelona will be first seen competing in the Wembley Cup against Totenham on friday 24th July. Guardiola has picked a 28 man squad for the trip to London. The squad contains 17 from senior squad and 11 from the youth and reserve teams.

Head coach Pep Guardiola announced the 26 players that will be making the trip to the United States for the US Tour. Two names missing from the list are Alexander Hleb and Martín Cáceres both who are rumored to be going out on loan for next season.

The 26 players are:
Valdés, Jorquera, Jorquera, Puyol, Alves, Sánchez, Piqué, Márquez, Henrique, Abidal, Maxwell, Xavi, Touré, Keita, Busquets, Gudjohnsen, Iniesta, Henry, Pedro, Messi, Bojan, Ibrahimovic, Muniesa, Font s, Jonathan dos Santos and Jeffren.

Athletic Bilbao vs Barca Preview
In contrast to the other major leagues in Europe, the Spanish Super Cup is a two legged affair. The first leg will be held tonight at San Mamés ; the second leg will held at the Camp Nou next sunday. Guardiola has announced the squad which is travelling to face Athletic Bilbao - Valdés, Pinto, Alves, Maxwell, Abidal, Puyol, Piqué, Font s, Muniesa, Touré, Keita, Xavi, Gudjohnsen, Busquets, Bojan, Pedro, Jeffren, Henry and Jonathan Dos Santos.

Abou Diaby: Serbia attack's most dangerous weapon?

This upcoming weekend will be filled with World Qualifiers up until Tuesday so I will not comment much on Le Championnat from last weekend that saw a very disappointing 0 – 0 between Marseille and Bordeaux, a very convincing 3 - 0 win by PSG against Lille, St Etienne's first 3 points versus a sad Grenoble and more Lyon magic thanks to Lisandro Lopez (ARG), Gomis (FRA) and Bastos (BRA).

FC Barcelona will be looking to register their first victory in this season's Champions League tonight when they face Dynamo Kiev at the Camp Nou. At the Guardiola described how important is this game and a failure to win will put emnormous pressure on the Barcelona side, especially we have to play at Ukraine and Russia in the onset of winter.

LES ÉQUIPES PROBABLES

FRANCE: Mandanda - Sagna, Gallas, Abidal, Evra - Govou, L. Diarra, Toulalan, Henry (cap.) - Anelka, Gignac
ILES FÉROÉ: Mikkelsen - Danielsen, Gregersen, Eliasen, Davidsen - A. Olsen, S. Olsen, Benjaminsen, Loekin - Jakobsen - Hansen

I was willing to bet my house yesterday that we'd be playing two DMs, and guess what?

The freezing cold is what worries us most about this match, as Barca face Rubin Kazan in the snowy, below-zero temeperatures that are the norm in Ruissia this time fo year. Rubin are used to it, but some of our boys have never played in such extreme cold. The oppositon themselvs are no piece of cake either, on top of that; they're the only team that has beaten us so far this season.

FC Barcelona has essentially put their Champions League qualification at risk by drawing against the Russian champions. With this draw we stand at second in standing and have a chance to end the night at third in overall standing if there is anything other than a draw in the match against Inter and Kiev.

If you're only going to have 5 players play well, make sure they include at least three defenders and the goalkeeper. I'm writing in a vacuum I did have the Setanta commentator who rightly pointed out how poor France were, but I have to say that I thought France were shocking.

Good performances: Sagna, Evra, Gallas, Lloris, Anelka
Poor: Henry, A.

Charlize Theron continues to embarrass herself, Ireland and FIFA throughout the World Cup Draw (alright, maybe FIFA doesn't need help in that department). Her longtime partner, Stuart Townsend, is Irish..but is that really an excuse for her complete lack of professionalism?

• Interesting article from ESPN on the reactions to the French WC Qualification.

Manchester United are set to secure the future of their Argentinean striker Carlos Tevez, reports in England indicate today. Ferguson has seemingly been highly impressed with the way in which Tevez has responded so positively to being left out of the side earlier in the season, with the striker being recalled to the first-team after [.

Se trata del lateral izquierdo brasileño del Inter de Milán y tiene muchas papeletas para convertirse en próximo futbolista del Barça para la siguiente temporada. El jugador estuvo primero en el Ajax, dónde explotó de la mano de Ronald Koeman. El refuerzo en el lateral izquierdo se antoja primordial para el equipo culé.

(highlights di Bayern Monaco-Barcellona 1-1)
BAYERN (4-4-2): Butt; Lell, Lucio, Demichelis, Lahm; Ottl, Van Bommel, Ze Roberto (Hamit Haltintop), Ribery; Toni, Sosa (Borowski). All.: Klinsmann.
BARCELLONA (4-3-3): Valdes; Daniel Alves, Puyol, Piqué, Abidal; Xavi, Touré, Iniesta (Hleb); Messi, Eto'o, Keita.

FC Barcelona set up a semi final show down with Chelsea in this year's Champions League with a 1-1 draw against Bayern Munich. Frank Ribery put Bayern in the lead early in the second half but a stunning strike from Keita kept Barca's unbeaten streak intact. Barca already had the match in bag after a 4-0 crushing of Bayern at home but they still need to see off this leg and they did it brilliantly.