They weren't invited to the party at Cibeles square in Madrid, but the Barcelona boys still enjoyed drinks on the house (or rather, on Gerard Pique's bill) last night! / via Marca

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They may be ruled out of tonight's match against Malaga due to injuries and feeling sad about Guardiola's departure but Pique and Alexis Sanchez aren't going to let it get to them. Chin up! / via Sport

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Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel has voiced his frustration at the manner in which Barcelona forward Alexis Sanchez convinced the referee's assistant to issue a red car to Blues captain John Terry at Camp Nou last night.

Terry was sent off in the 37th minute of Chelsea's 2-2 draw (a 3-2 win on aggregate) for kneeing Sanchez when both players were off the ball.

Dissecting the disappointment: 4 key reasons for Barcelona's failure this season is a post from: Just Football

The first thing to point out here is that this is no obituary piece.

Barcelona are not in crisis, this is not intended to imply that Barça are a crumbling empire or spent force (let's see what Pep Guardiola decides regarding his future first) and this is not meant to be an overly critical sharpening of the knives.

An extremely resilient Chelsea side fought against all odds to defeat FC Barcelona 3-2 on aggregate and progress to the UEFA Champions League Final in Munich on May 19.

The Blues, who carried over a 1-0 advantage to Camp Nou from their first leg home win, clawed back from 2-0 down on the night to draw 2-2 with a very late equalizer.

No matter what you've heard from this morning, the real protagonist of Chelsea's almost inconceivable 1-0 victory over Barcelona last night was Roberto di Matteo. That's right it wasn't goalscorer Drogba or his provider Ramires although they do deserve credit for their commandeering efforts alongside Ivanovic and Cahill, who prevented Messi from seducing the ball.

Revenge is at hand.

Team sheets
Chelsea
Cech, Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Cole, Lampard, Mikel, Meireles, Ramires, Mata, Drogba. Bench: Turnbull, Essien, Malouda, Bosingwa, Torres, Kalou, Sturridge.

Barcelona
Valdés, Alves, Puyol, Mascherano, Adriano, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Cesc, Messi, Sanchez.

TweetReal Madrid moved back to the top of La Liga after a 4-1 thrashing of city rivals Atletico Madrid with Cristiano Ronaldo bagging a hat-trick. After seeing their lead at the top of La Liga whittled down to just one point after Barcelona's 4-0 win against Getafe the night before, grabbing all three points was [.

TweetReal Madrid moved back to the top of La Liga after a 4-1 thrashing of city rivals Atletico Madrid with Cristiano Ronaldo bagging a hat-trick. After seeing their lead at the top of La Liga whittled down to just one point after Barcelona's 4-0 win against Getafe the night before, grabbing all three points was [.

TweetBarcelona moved to within one point of Real Madrid after a 4-0 demolition of Getafe at the Camp Nou leaving the race for La Liga back on A brace by Alexis Sanchez and further goals by Lionel Messi, as well as Pedro helped seal the 4-0 win as Pep Guardiola's men racked up their 10th [...]

Welcome to Offbeat Wednesday, where we share gossip from the weird, wacky world of football. This week, read about David Beckham's new role as Father of the Year, the new WAG musical in London and Ronaldo and Neymar's new ad!

Look who has been busy trying to snatch the 'Father of the Year' trophy away from a certain Robin van Persie!

06.03.2012 - Barcelona siente el trajín y, lejos de liderar la Liga española, viaja (segundo) a 10 puntos de un filoso y goleador Real Madrid.
Los triunfos no dejan de llegar pero no tan sobrios como de costumbre y Pep Guardiola (DT) puede también brotarse. Fue lo que pasó en la última presentación del Barça (3-1 a Sporting Gijón).

Is Barcelona's dominance of La Liga about to end? is a post from: Just Football

What's wrong with Barcelona these days? Jake Meador has a few ideas:

In his tribute to Dutch soccer, Brilliant Orange, journalist David Winter writes of how the Dutch brand of attractive, free-flowing beautiful soccer always seemed to be overcome by a more utilitarian, pragmatic (German) approach.

PSP photographer Paul Rudderow was on hand for rain soaked Wednesday night's 1–1 draw between Ghana Football Association and Federacion de Futbol de Chile at PPL Park. Here's a look at what he saw.

The opening handshake

The Ghana starters

The Chile starters

Pile up at midfield

Dominic Oduro holds off Lucas Dominguez

Shelly Ali Muntari takes the leg from under Alexis Sanchez

Luis Casanova holds off Jonathan Mensah

Jonathan Mensah turns between Gary Medel and Jose Rojas

Matias Fernandez moving up field

Matias Fernandez backheels to Humberto Suazo

Junior Fernandes gets up first

Marcelo Diaz slide tackles Andre Ayew

Happy Chile fans

Derek Owusu Boateng takes on Jose Rojas and Osvaldo Gonzalez

Derek Owusu Boateng walks over Marcelo Diaz

Anthony Annan stretches for the ball

Daniel Agyei moving up field

Alexis Sanchez goes up for a header

Perentoria affermazione del Barcellona, nel match disputato contro il Leverkusen e valido per l'andata degli ottavi di finale della Champions League. L'undici di Guardiola espugna la Bay Arena con il risultato di 3 a 1 e, di fatto, archivia il discorso qualificazione, a spese dei ragazzi di Robin Dutt, trasformando la gara di ritorno alContinua a leggere .

Before tonight's classic match in the Spanish League Real Madrid had every reason to be optimistic; they were leading the Spanish league, had won their last 15 matches (a record only achieved by Real Madrids' legendary side from the 1960s), and were pumping in goals. They were obviously full of confidence to take a greater lead ahead of their archrivals at home in Madrid.

Gara senza storia al Camp Nou nell'anticipo della 17/a giornata di Liga, tra Barcellona e Rayo Vallecano. L'undici di Guardiola, impegnato (dall'8 al 18 dicembre) nel Mondiale per Club in Giappone, ha avuto la meglio per 4-0 sulla compagine madrilena. Grande protagonista l'ex Udinese, il cileno Alexis Sanchez, finalmente decisivo dopo alcune difficolt a causaContinua a leggere .

MIRA ESO! Everyone in that photo above has a different facial expression and a different story to tell, from Dani Alves who is about to break into a funk carioca, David Villa who is keeping his hands politely to himself to Mascherano who seems annoyed with the crowd (probably not, it's the default look of the Tevez clan.

The Italian Serie A since yesterday has an unexpected leader: Udinese Calcio. After the amazing 4th place of the last year Francesco Guidolin's team is now at the top of the league despite the selling of many foundamental players during the last summer market.

Players like Gokhan Inler, Alexis Sanchez and Cristian Zapata have been sold for more than £ 60 millions and replaced with less expensive players such as Gabriel Torje ( £ 5 millions from Dinamo Bucaresti) and Danilo Larangeira (form Palmeiras).

It's Monday... which means it's time for La Liga Lunes! The sad news, of course, comes from the Barca camp where they have announced their new Chilean signing, Alexis Sanchez, will be sidelined for two months. He suffered a torn hamstring in his right leg which is the most common injury among runners.

We reach the end of the road in our Serie A club previews for 2011-2012 with Udinese Calcio. Not as flash as big brother Juventus, our northerners from the Friuli–Venezia Giulia region do have an eye for young talent. But as Serie A Weekly writer Lorenzo Vicini points out, shame they couldn't keep at least one of their major transfers out this summer for Champions League competition,.

Stesso allenatore, stesso risultato, Pep Guardiola è il legame vincente della squadra più forte del pianeta calcio. L'altra sera al Camp Nou il Barcellona ha dominato, stravolto, stregato, impietrito gli avversari del Villarreal, praticamente inesistenti, mai con un possesso palla che andasse oltre i tre, quattro passaggi.

Stesso allenatore, stesso risultato, Pep Guardiola è il legame vincente della squadra più forte del pianeta calcio. L'altra sera al Camp Nou il Barcellona ha dominato, stravolto, stregato, impietrito gli avversari del Villarreal, praticamente inesistenti, mai con un possesso palla che andasse oltre i tre, quattro passaggi.

Udinese star Alexis Sanchez has completed a move to Barcelona having turned down the offers of Chelsea and Manchester City for the Catalan club. The future of Sanchez, who has been far from successful in selling Chile Copa America Shirts after his side crashed out at the Quarter Final stage with a 2-1 defeat at the hands of underdogs Venezuela, has been the subject of much speculation after an excellent season with the Udinese, with some of the biggest names in European football entering the race for his signature.

Being away for two weeks during some work for our new portal, Futbolita.TV does not mean that we won't be here for you during preseason. We're back and we can't wait to kick this season off!

Hot off the Spanish press (from the newspaper with reporters who are willing to hold your arms as you are walking on unstable grass conditions: El Mundo Deportivo) is the news that Kun Aguero's transfer to Man City will be finalized by Wednesday!

Many would say Barcelona could not get any stronger following the way they despatched of Manchester United in the 2010/11 Champions League final at Wembley. Perhaps they just have with the acquisition of Serie A's best player, Alexis Sanchez of Udinese.

Parting with £23million for the Chilean's services, the Catalan giants could end up paying a further £10million in add-ons.

Barcelona have completed the signing of Chilean winger Alexis Sanchez from Udinese for £33 million. Udinese and Barcelona managed to come to an agreement with personal terms between Sanchez and his new club being swiftly agreed upon shortly afterwards. The Chilean becomes Pep Guardiola's first major signing this summer as Barca's young coach seeks to [.

Sanchez al Barcellona, Bojan alla Roma. Il triangolo di calciomercato si è chiuso definitivamente, con l'arrivo in Catalogna del Nino Maravilla cileno, acquistato dai blaugrana per la cifra di 26 milioni (+11 circa di bonus). L'operazione, conclusa nella serata di ieri, ha dato il via libera alla partenza del giovane e talentuoso Bojan Krkic che, [.

Finally, its over. FC BARCELONA has announced officially ( via Twitter ) the signing of Chilean International & UDINESE forward, the 22 year old ALEXIS SANCHEZ. FC Barcelona Directives & player representative passed all this morning-afternoon in a Barcelona Hotel shutting all the details. Alexis Sanchez (photoshop by Sport.

FC Barcelona The news hit hard last night & is doing the rounds across the Spanish Sports newspapers this morning. The signing by FC BARCELONA of Chilean 23 year old International & UDINESE player ALEXIS SANCHEZ is imminent with a full announcement in hours. Alexis Sanchez The final transfer number dances from source to source but the most talked about figure is around 43M€ with Italian Club

FC Barcelona The news hit hard last night & is doing the rounds across the Spanish Sports newspapers this morning. The signing by FC BARCELONA of Chilean 23 year old International & UDINESE player ALEXIS SANCHEZ is imminent with a full announcement in hours. Alexis Sanchez The final transfer number dances from source to source but the most talked about figure is around 43M€ with Italian Club

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During the Copa América the languagecaster team will explain a football phrase or cliche for learners of English who love the sport. Click on the link below to hear the word or phrase, while you can also read the transcript below that.

After a brilliant season last year, Francesco Guidolin steered Udinese to 4th place and a place in the Champions league qualifying stage, with this a lot is expected in the coming term. With all the success, vultures have swarmed Udine and are looking at their best players. The very talented forward Alexis Sanchez is turning heads with both Manchester United and Manchester City interested, along.

Please don't go This advert for Chilean beer company Cristal has cunningly/unintentionally pre-empted the Alexis Sanchez transfer saga. The premise of the advert is that Chile's top stars are saying goodbye to Europe to head back to South America for the Copa America. The European's are distraught to see their stars, including Sanchez, Sevilla's Gary [.

Barcelona are believed to have agreed a £33m deal for Udinese whizz-kid Alexis Sanchez. The expected four year deal will net the Chilean £2.7m.
View Barcelona Jerseys here!

Barcelona are ready to finalize the signing of Udinese winger Alexis Sanchez after the Chilean was allowed to leave his training camp in South America to finalize the deal.

Chilean coach Claudio Borghi gave Sanchez permission to leave the Chilean training camp ahead of the upcoming Copa America tournament to fly to Spain and finalize a £33million move to the European champions.

The comparisons to Cristiano Ronaldo are vast: the obscene skills, the personality, the abs, the diving it's all there if in slightly watered down form for Alexis Sanchez.

Alexis also retains the possibility of this summer's most expensive signing not quite CR territory, however as he's heavily rumored to be off to Barcelona for many many wheelbarrows of euros.

Alexis Sanchez has somehow become one of the hottest names in the transfer market this summer, with perhaps no club linked as strongly to the Udinese frontman than Barcelona. However, Sanchez's transfer would be, at best, premature and at worse, a total disaster. Taking into account the player's lack of Champions' League experience, enormous price-tag unbefitting of a player who has done.

The Mirror is reporting that Manchester United are ready to seal a £27million deal for the Udinese's Chilean star from under the noses of Manchester City and Barcelona.
Continue to the full story

Around here, we take the tabloids with a grain of salt. You know this. But sometimes, sometimes a story is so ridiculous that you just have run with it.

We did it when the Guardian linked us with an £80 million move for Kaka in July 2008. We did it again when that wretched lot decided to really shake Middle-earth and shove a pair of Liverpool men down our collective throats.