How many times over the past couple of years have we seen players and officials associated with Barcelona speak about Cesc Fabregas? We now have the manager of Manchester City pretty much begging Samir Nasri to join him in Manchester.

The first few times it is a bit irritating after a while it becomes maddening eventually it's just humiliating.

Apparently there's some sort of match tomorrow. Weird you would have thought you would have heard something about it in the media.

This is, obviously, a match that doesn't need any hype. Barcelona are almost universally acknowledged as the best team in the world at the moment, and frankly, it's hard to argue with that assessment.

Barcelona earned a record 16th straight win in the Spanish league by beating Atletico Madrid 3-0 with a Lionel Messi hat trick on Saturday. The historic win provisionally lifted Barcelona 10 points clear of Real Madrid at the top of the table ahead of its fierce rival's match against Real Sociedad on Sunday.

Barcelona earned a record 16th straight win in the Spanish league by beating Atletico Madrid 3-0 with a Lionel Messi hat trick on Saturday. The historic win provisionally lifted Barcelona 10 points clear of Real Madrid at the top of the table ahead of its fierce rival's match against Real Sociedad on Sunday.

A Cristiano Ronaldo goal was all that Real Madrid needed to beat city rivals Atletico 1-0 to reach the Spanish Cup semi-finals 4-1 on aggregate. Real, who have not won the competition since 1993, will place holders Sevilla in the last four while Barcelona, who saw off Real Betis 6-3 on aggregate, despite losing the second leg of their quarter-final 3-1 on Wednesday, will meet Almeria.