Stuttgart director of sport, Horst Heldt, insists that only a "perfect game" will see his side advance to the Quarter Finals of the Champions League. Not even a repeat of their inspired performance weeks ago is enough against a Barcelona side that are near unbeatable in the mighty fortress that is the Camp Nou.

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Fresh from a brilliant display in the league on Sunday night against Valencia, Barcelona welcome Stuttgart to the Nou Camp tonight for the return fixture of their knockout stage tie. After drawing 1-1 in Germany, Barcelona have the advantage of progressing to the quarter final in virtue of the away goal rule.

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Carles Puyol makes his return to starting lineup following back injury and both Keita and Fontás are included in 20 man roster. read more...
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Brazil left back Michel Bastos (Wikipedia)

Some questions were answered, some answers were questioned, and gut instincts were confirmed as we are 99 days away from the beginning of the World Cup.
Based on the performances in this FIFA date we can tell that.

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Vicente Del Bosque put his squad list for Spain's big friendly game against France: Goalkeepers: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), Pepe Reina (Liverpool), Diego Lopez (Villarreal). Defenders: Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Alvaro Arbeloa (Real Madrid), Joan Capdevila (Villarreal), Carlos Marchena (Valencia), Raul Albiol (Real Madrid), Gerard Pique (Barcelona), Carles Puyol (Barcelona). Click to continue reading...

We're entering sad times, I fear. As the clock ticks down to the excitement of title conclusions and the commencement of South Africa 2010, football may lose more than it gains: Jens Lehamnn. May 7th, not two and a half months from now, will see Jens call time on his career. A career full of some [.. Click to continue reading...

There are no easy games in the Round of 16 of the Champions League. However Pep Guardiola and his staff had to be happy with how the draw turned out for Barcelona.

If the group stage was any indication this matchup may be harder than it appears. VfB Stuttgart has won six of their last seven matches in the Bundesliga and are a very confident side at the moment.

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So in a week of mourning, the yin-yang repeats itself, with the 0-3 win at Xerez preceding Barcelona's much-predicted (and eventual) defeat at Atletico Madrid in the late Sunday game at the Calderon. The leaders had lost Alves, Abidal, Pique. Marquez, Yaya and Chigrinski before the game, only to lose Seydou Keita in the second minute. Click to continue reading...

photo credit: chaosinjune

1) Carles Puyol- Barcelona

Puyol is the heart of Barca's defense which doesn't get they type of attention that Messi and Ibrahimovic bring to the offense, but this is a defensive unit that is just as impressive all together.� In fact on the entire first half of the year the Barca defense has only allowed ten goals.

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Uefa's team of the year, chosen by fans, has been announced. Inevitably, its majority is made up of Barcelona players, six in total, with three others also playing in Spain (namely, of course, Real Madrid. The goalkeeper is Spain and Real's first keeper Iker Cassilas, while Carles Puyol captains the team in centre-back alongside England's John Terry. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas has revealed that the most memorable match which he has ever watched as a football fan was Liverpool's epic Champions League final victory against AC Milan in 2005.
The 22-year-old Gunner recalled how Rafael Benitez's side battled back from a 3-0 deficit at half-time to take the match to extra time before eventually sealing the game in a dramatic penalty shootout. Click to continue reading...

Barcelona� have yet to suffer a defeat in la Liga and will complete half of their season's fixtures this weekend. In 18 matches played, the Catalans have won a remarkable 14 matches and drawn the remaining four games. Barca have the best defensive record with a mere 10 goals conceded and have scored a league high 46 goals.

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Este día se ha publicado el "Once Ideal" de la UEFA del 2009 en donde predominan jugadores que participan actualmente en la liga española y en especial que militan en el FC Barcelona.

A continuación les dejo la alineación de UEFA para el año que� recién� acaba de culminar.

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Este día se ha publicado el "Once Ideal" de la UEFA del 2009 en donde predominan jugadores que participan actualmente en la liga española y en especial que militan en el FC Barcelona.

A continuación les dejo la alineación de UEFA para el año que� recién� acaba de culminar.

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UEFA has announced their team of the year for 2009, as voted by the fans, and as expected it looks an awful lot like Barcelona's first team plus a couple of stragglers they invited to the Nou Camp. (Good stragglers, mind you.) And even more than that, the team was dominated by Spain, as only [...]

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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. Click to continue reading...

Every defence has its deputy. While it takes four to construct and coordinate a back line, there is inevitably a linchpin, a player who directs his team's defensive formation and ensures that the door to goal is kept well and truly shut.

For Barcelona, that skipper is Carles Puyol, the aging but foot-perfect rock called upon to extinguish danger when all other remedies have failed.

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This might not be your first read on this topic but I just felt like giving an input on this very badly. There are rumors of Manchester City to go after Carlos Puyol and Eric Abidal of Barcelona. I don't see this happening clearly. In my view, Abidal is pretty settled in Barca and Barca are pretty settled with Abidal.

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Johan Cruyff made his first callup for the Catalunya select side and it is a team that would be a World Cup contender in South Africa.

The former Dream Team boss called up 20 players from various teams in Spain and Europe to take part in the international friendly that will take place at the Nou Camp on December 22th against Argentina.

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This could lead to a heated debate as the implications transcend beyond choosing the best club to include the competitive nature of some of Europe's top leagues (namely the English Premier League, the Spanish la Liga and Italian Serie A). English and Italian fans may disagree but Barcelona's players have clearly staked a claim to the title of the best club in 2009 considering they have won the treble- la Liga, Copa del Rey and Champions League of course.

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Catalonia head coach Johan Cruyff has included Arsenal star Cesc Fabregas in his squad for the friendly against Argentina later this month against the wishes of Arsene Wenger.

However, the Arse are under no obligation to release their skipper as Catalonia are not recognised by FIFA.

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2010 is on the horizon and it's safe to say that it's been a wonderful decade for football. We here at� Footy Factor� have taken the opportunity to celebrate the greatest teams, players, and matches of the past 10 years. � Our next award is...

Team of the Decade

Winner:� Barcelona 2008-09.

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FIFA has announced the final five nominees for FIFA World Player of the Year. It's a match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. FC Barcelona has three players nominated for the prestigous award. Balon d'Or winner Lionel Messi is nominated along with his team mates Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta. Click to continue reading...

España en Sudáfrica 2010 Calendario x Fecha y hora lugar contra Primer juego Segundo juego Tercer juego Las últimas tres participaciones de España en mundiales Mundial Posición final Avanzo hasta Eliminado por Compartió fase de grupos con: Francia 1998 17 Primera ronda puntos Nigeria, Paraguay Bulgaria Japón corea 2002 8 Cuartos de final corea Paraguay, Sudáfrica, Eslovenia Alemania 2006 10 Octavos de final Francia Ucrania, Túnez, arabia saudita Su mejor participación fue en:

Brasil 1950, quedaron en cuarto lugar

Se le recuerda especialmente por:

tienen la mejor liga del mundo, pero a nivel selección han sido incapaces de mantener el mismo nivel

Jugadores sobresalientes Nombre posición Club Iker casillas portero Real Madrid Carles Puyol defensa Barcelona Andrés iniesta medio Barcelona Xavi medio Barcelona David villa delantero Valencia

Series: españa, Sudafrica 2010 a fondo

© hefebreo for Fútbol México, 2009.

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The hype, the pomp, the circumstance.� All of these rose to a higher level for this episode of El Clásico at the Camp Nou on Sunday evening.� Coming into this match, FC Barcelona turned their fortunes around in the UEFA Champions League with a 2-0 victory over Inter Milan.� The scoreline hardly gave any justice to both teams as Barcelona played as well as Inter played poorly.

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AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano

The latest installment of El Clasico did not disappoint as FC Barcelona and Real Madrid battled for tops in La Liga.

Going into the match the question on everyone's mind was if Lionel Messi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic were going to be available for Barcelona.

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The matches to watch after you realize that Carles Puyol and Raul Albiol pretending to box neither pumps you up for El Clasico nor does it help the image of footballers as pansies.

Saturday

Aston Villa v Tottenham Hotspur at Villa Park Prediction: Spurs won't win 9-1 like they did last week against Wigan and Jermain Defoe won't score five goals all by himself.

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- Here's Pep looking amazing at his press conference, as always (well, almost always) as he explains that Barca without Leo and Zla is like the LA Lakers without Kobe Bryant. We thought Geri and Bo were the B-ball fans on Barca? Ah well, hot minds think alike.
- Samuel Eto'o isn't Penelope Cruz. Click to continue reading...

Barcelona defender Carles Puyol added more controversy over the future of Cesc Fabregas, declaring the Arsenal captain would have the same opportunities he has in London if he moves to Spain. The 31-year old Spanish International ... Click to continue reading...

Barcelona defender Carles Puyol added more controversy over the future of Cesc Fabregas, declaring the Arsenal captain would have the same opportunities he has in London if he moves to Spain. The 31-year old Spanish International ...

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You can tell it is International fortnight can't you, Cesc goes off to join his fellow Spaniards and the gutter press get themselves all excited. They know they can fire silly questions at our captain and Barca players, then add whatever answer they want to the question and then print it, in fact worse than that they ad a few " " either side of the rubbish they write!

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A number of players can stake a claim for being part of the best team in the world at this early period of the European domestic leagues. However, very few players standout the way those listed below have in terms of their contribution to their team, their role as leaders, and certainly their crucial involvement in their respective clubs.

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�
� �
by FRANCO PANIZO

With the World Cup in sight, most of this weekend's attention will be towards the remaining qualifiers, but there are a few high-profile friendlies on tap� today that might be just as exciting.

England-Brazil is one of those matches, as the Three Lions will took to topple Brazil for the first time since 1990, a stretch of seven games� that includes a� 2-1� loss in the� quarterfinals of the 2002� World Cup.

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�
� �
by FRANCO PANIZO

With the World Cup in sight, most of this weekend's attention will be towards the remaining qualifiers, but there are a few high-profile friendlies on tap� today that might be just as exciting.

England-Brazil is one of those matches, as the Three Lions will took to topple Brazil for the first time since 1990, a stretch of seven games� that includes a� 2-1� loss in the� quarterfinals of the 2002� World Cup.

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In football attacking players often get most of the praise when their team is achieving results while players in other positions are often overlooked. Defenders are typically ignored when accolades and awards are given out, yet it would be wrong to underestimate the contribution and influence� of key defensive players such as� Italy's Paolo Maldini or France's Lilian Thuram, just to name a couple of outstanding talents.

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AP Photo/Manu Fernandez

Pep Guardiola fielded a different looking lineup this evening at the Camp Nou against Cultural Leonesa in the second leg of the Copa del Rey. Barcelona was going into the match already up by two goals after routinely pushing aside Leonesa on their home pitch.

The starting front three of Pedro, Bojan and Jeffren put on display the teams younger talent.

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As a fan of Barcelona I was thinking the other day about the club's rich history as well as their successes in the UEFA Champions League. Barcelona have won the UEFA Champions League three times in their history with two coming in the last four years which is extremely impressive.

It got me thinking; which Champions League winning side was better?

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The cutest photo we've ever seen of Leo Messi and his girlfriend, Antonella. Can this couple be any more adorable? They're at Disney World so we're guessing it was taken when Leo was there promoting the youth soccer tournament, during his United Sates vacation which he mainly spent between California and Florida with his family. Click to continue reading...

It was a hard ending to swallow for FC Barcelona as they battled Osasuna to a scoreless draw late into the second half of the match. Early in the first half the Barcelona defense looked a little off as they were not clearing the ball out of the back field and giving the Osasuna offense too much space to move the ball around.

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FIFA has announced its shortlist of 23 players for the Men's World Player of the Year award, and 10 players for the Women's World Player of the Year Award. National team captains and coaches will now vote (but not for players from their own country) and this final five will be revealed in early December, with the winners announced at FIFA's World Player bash in Zurich on December 21st.

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