After the most recent edition of El Cl sico, I've heard lots of pithy statements about Spanish football. The best was, "Mourinho should punish Sergio Ramos by forcing him to play as a defender." Most people praised Barcelona's incredible football. The Spanish speaking commentators I listened to repeatedly called the Blaugrana's style a dance; it was hard to disagree.

Having worshipped at many altars in my time, I took the chance to visit one of the greatest churches of all two weeks ago; the Camp Nou.

There, I saw Barcelona play Villarreal in one of the most entertaining encounters I have ever witnessed, and it left me begging the question: Are Barcelona even playing the same sport as other teams?

I knew I'd enjoy Diego Maradona's contribution to World Cup 2010, but I thought it would be more about his crazy antics like running over cameramen, making diva-ish requests and gifting us brilliant brilliant quotes. I dind't think it would be for his tactics.

Yet that's exactly what happened today, when Maradona fielded easily the most attacking line up of the World Cup so far, and Argentina beat Nigeria 1-0.

Barcelona's new president Sandro Rosell revealed earlier this week that the football club is having to take out a €150million loan in order to ease financial debts. Despite the enormity of the football club which generates high income via merchandise sales and tickets it is in a real financial mess as mass spending on new players and wages has contributed to their red status.

Barcelona and Real Madrid showed why they are the cream of the crop in La Liga. as they demolished the Racing and Villarreal respectively.
The champs got back in stride against a Racing Santander side that came out flat while the Blaugrana came out enraged. Andrés Iniesta opened the scoring for Barca in the seventh minute as he pounced on an Henrique deflection and hit the ball past Fabio Coltorti for his first goal since that historic strike at Stamford Bridge.

Arsenal FC will host FC Barcelona at the Emirates Stadium on the 31st of March in the first leg of what promises to be one of the most interesting Champions League Quarter Final ties in recent years.

The Gunners and The Blaugrana are widely acknowledged at two of the modern stylists of the beautiful game.

FC Barcelona and Arsenal drew 2-2 at the Emirates Stadium in London earlier today in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League quarter-finals series. Barcelona engaged in an onslaught on the Arsenal goal throughout the first half but were denied by the heroics of Gunners goalkeeper Manuel Almunia.

Who would have imagined that at the end of the game, the main story would be the players that would be absent instead of who will be playing. Although it was a match that turned out to be as advertised, there are still a great deal of uncertainties that need to be attended to by both sides. The one that is able to fill the gaps better, will come out on top.

Lionel Messi being chased by Gael Clichy and Denilson (Reuters)

This team never ceases to amaze me. When they are doubted the most, they come up the greatest.
It seems like a lesson I never learn. Despite all the odds not being in favor of the Blaugrana, they still stepped on to the pitch and defeated Arsenal 4-1 at the Camp Nou on Tuesday night.

Cristiano Ronaldo was dazzling against Racing Santander on Saturday. He led Real Madrid to a 6-1 victory with a remarkable four goal performance. The Portuguese forward was the subject of a lot of criticism in his first four games of the season where he was branded as "selfish" by the media.

Most soccer fans have been familiar with the FC Barcelona 2010/11 Nike home jersey since its launch in May. Now Nike has released an "Authentic" boxed version of the Blaugrana's 10/11 home kit that is identical to that used by the Lionel Messi, David Villa, Xavi and the rest of Pep Guardiola's side in Spanish [.

A festive atmosphere enveloped the Camp Nou on Saturday evening as the boys of the Blaugrana celebrated their unprecedented six-trophy year with their Barça faithful. Villarreal was a mere afterthought as the Barcelona players deservedly received their plaudits for a year of literal perfection.

Barcelona were able to avenge their midweek Copa del Rey elimination by trouncing a hapless Sevilla side 4-0 at the Nou Camp. The Blaugrana were able to dominate with 72% possession and not allowing the visitors one shot on goal the entire match. Although Barca were not able to score in the second half, the domination from midweek continued against an even weaker Sevilla defense; yet their weakness was compensated by their bravery as they hunkered down against the culé attack.

Fabregas (bottom left) and Pique (beside the keeper) were developed at Barca.

After a year when Barcelona won everything there was for a club team to win people have started wondering where the Blaugrana will go from here. This thinking has been compounded with Barca's premature exit in the Spanish Copa del Rey earlier this week.

FC Barcelona fans may have noticed that La Blaugrana have wearing a modified 2009/10 home kit featuring a golden badge in the mid-chest area since their second leg UEFA Champions meeting with VfB Stuttgart. The new addition to Barca's jersey is the FIFA Club World Cup Champions 2009 Badge commemorating their triumph at the 2009 FIFA Club World [.

Real Madrid prepare for El Clásico (AP)

If mentioned back in November that Real Madrid's Clásico at the Nou Camp was the most important match in the Galáctico 2.0 era. This was the match where Florentino Perez' big spending and free wheeling attitude had to be justified. He also had to show the world that his team was greater than Barca's Pep Team.

Ormai ne parlano tutti ed anche le risposte convergono: come fermare il Barça? Può essere l'Inter l'anti-blaugrana?

L'Inter ha l'antidoto per superare i catalani.

Il Barcelona è una squadra spaventosamente forte. Possiede una rosa sia qualitativamente che fisicamente dotata, con individualit di pregevole spicco.

Barca players try to loosen up for Tuesday's match.

Barcelona arrived in Milan by coach on Monday after having their flight cancelled due to the volcanic ash in the air. The Blaugrana made the 1,000 kilometre trek over two days and now will prepare in Milan for their showdown with Jose Mourinho's men.

Wesley Sneijder and Inter celebrate after beating Barca (AP)

If one were to say to us that Barcelona would have well over two-thirds possession against and outshot Inter at the San Siro, it was safe to say that they were just a formality away from heading to Madrid. Barcelona woud then suffer the biggest defeat of the Guardiola era at the hands of Inter 3-1.

The verdict has fallen following the 2 Champions League semi finals; it's Bayern Munich against Inter Milan.

Bayern won logically against Lyon. The truth always tells and Lyon just didn't have the required level to even think about making it to the final. Their 2 games against Bayern were appaling and I have rarely seen such weakness at this stage of the competition.

Barcelona's exit from the Champions League has prompted some predictable hand-wringing in certain quarters, Les Murray directing some frankly juvenile vitriol at Jose Mourinho in the wake of Inter's cling-on-for-dear-life success in the semi-final.
Thirteen paragraphs in, we finally get to the nub of the matter: Thiago Motta was (wrongly) sent off, and Inter played most of the second leg with ten men.

The European season came to an end in Italy, Spain and France with the favourites in La Liga, Barcelona and the favourites in the Serie A Inter Milan winning their respective titles amidst stiff challenges from Real Madrid and AS Roma.

Messi once again proved that scoring is his second nature as he grabbed a brace in the Blaugrana's 4-0 thrashing of Real Valladolid at the Nou Camp to take his goal tally to 34.

Spanish international David Villa has completed his move to FC Barcelona after a fee was agreed with Valencia for just over £34m.

The 28 year old has been on the radar for many of Europe's elite for a number of years now due to his prolific goal scoring for both club and country.

He helped Valencia to an automatic place in next year's Champions League has he netted 21 times in the league for Los Che.

FC Barcelona has revealed the Official Jersey for 2010-11 season today coinciding with the presentation of David Villa. The traditional home jersey have the thicker Blaugrana stripes compared to last season. The other change is the introduction of Red shorts compared to the last season's blue ones.

Jose Mourinho, fresh from guiding Inter Milan to Champions League and a historic treble, is likely to sign a four-year deal with Real Madrid after the sacking of coach Manuel Pellegrini.

Notwithstanding Mourinho's remaining two year contract with Inter Milan, Real Madrid President Florentino Perez is certain of his appointment and could make that all-important announcement as early as next Tuesday.

After Sunday's triumph, Spain has returned to a level of relative normalcy. Two of the biggest sharks in the summer transfer waters are starting to show their teeth in Barcelona and Madrid. With Barcelona's record breaking season two years ago and now La Furia Roja's win on the world's biggest stage, the Spanish top flight is a great draw for the world's biggest names.

The news that Barcelona FC graduate Mikel Arteta had signed a long term (five years to be exact) contract with his current club, Everton rippled out to all of the leagues in Europe today. The Spaniard was maybe the most non-talked about major transfer target out there with many of footballs giants eyeing his services.

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how players often hate on their former clubs soon after transferring. It is a trend i see with most players. They normally go on and on about how switching clubs is the best thing that ever happened to their careers and that they are ready for a fresh start when in reality, we know its all a load of rubbish!

Eto'o has always been known as one of the world's deadliest forwards, a player with speed, intelligence, and pinpoint finishing. His statistics are incredible, with great goalscoring records at club and international level. But this past season where he won the treble with Inter Milan was a severe drop for him in goalscoring terms.

With their individual World Cup exploits taken into account, it should come as little surprise that the England as a nation have absolutely no representation on this year's Ballon d'Or shortlist, failing to provide a single player for inclusion on the 23-man list of nominees.

A negligible amount of tenuous pride can be taken from the fact that the Premier League itself has proffered a fairly miserly three players up for consideration (Cesc Fabregas, Didier Drogba and Asamoah Gyan), but when you take into account that 11 of La Liga's most prominent stars have also made the grade, the English-based contingent seems almost moot in comparison.

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola confirmed in a press conference that striker Bojan Krkic has signed a contract extension at the club until 2015.

The young Spanish international has but pen to paper on the improved deal, and when addressing the media ahead of the Blaugrana's Copa del Rey match against Athletic Bilbao on Tuesday evening, the tactician confessed he was pleased with his decision.

A fortnight or so ago, debt-saddled (about €430 million at the last count) giants Barcelona announced that news that, for the first time in their grand 111-year history, the club had been forced to bow to the pervading market forces and sign a shirt sponsorship deal with the Qatar Foundation a move that would see the Arab organisation's logo replace that of children's charity UNICEF atop the famous blaugrana.

Por fin comenzó de nuevo el fútbol en 2010. Creo que lo peor que tienen las vacaciones es que los futbolistas también las tienen. Después de disputada la primera jornada del año, os voy a comentar algunas cosillas que me han llamado la atención.
Los grandes, con resaca
Ni Madrid ni Barça consiguieron ganar en este inicio de año.

Don't let their salmon coloured kit fool you, Barcelona are a deadly outfit, especially when their 'Atomic Flea' Lio Messi is firing... and didn't Tenerife find out the hard way! So the Blaugrana got back to winning ways after a little stumble into the new year, which mind you I'm simply blaming on the few [.

Barcelona are now five points clear as they were able to win by a convincing 4-0 result against Sevilla and tok advantage of Real Madrid's loss in Bilbao. Lio Messi became the 16th player in Barca history to score over 100 goals with the Blaugrana and became the lone Pichichi for at 24 hours.

Después de contar con 6 de sus jugadores en el once ideal de la UEFA, hoy el Barcelona es declarado el mejor equipo del mundo según la federación internacional de historia y estadística de fútbol.
El Barcelona se encuentra en la cima debido a su espectacular temporada del 2009, en la cual obtuvo, la liga, copa del rey , super copa de España, champions league, la super copa de Europa y el mundial de clubes.

Después de contar con 6 de sus jugadores en el once ideal de la UEFA, hoy el Barcelona es declarado el mejor equipo del mundo según la federación internacional de historia y estadística de fútbol.
El Barcelona se encuentra en la cima debido a su espectacular temporada del 2009, en la cual obtuvo, la liga, copa del rey , super copa de España, champions league, la super copa de Europa y el mundial de clubes.

Xavi and Iniesta

In part 1 of this series discussing why Barcelona will be challenging for Champions League glory for many years to come I discussed Barcelona's world class youth academy. Now its time to discuss two players who came through that academy and make up the heart of Barca's success in the past year.

El Técnico de la Selección Argentina, durante su visita al estadio Soccer City en Johannesburgo, dijo que Messi tiene la capacidad de llevar a Argentina a la final del mundial.

Después de superar al Portugués Cristiano Ronaldo como mejor jugador del mundo, Maradona pone toda su confianza en el delantero blaugrana.

El Técnico de la Selección Argentina, durante su visita al estadio Soccer City en Johannesburgo, dijo que Messi tiene la capacidad de llevar a Argentina a la final del mundial.

Después de superar al Portugués Cristiano Ronaldo como mejor jugador del mundo, Maradona pone toda su confianza en el delantero blaugrana.