Spanish League Preview Week 5

The Spanish La Liga teams face their third game in a week this weekend, with Real Madrid playing Tenerife at the Bernabeu on Saturday evening and third and fourth placed Seville and Bilbao fighting it out in San Mames at the same time.


Pepe and Xabi Alonso back for Madrid

Madrid boss Mauricio Pellegrini accepts that his team isn't playing brilliant football yet, but insists: “people thought we'd have a tougher start to the season, but we are keeping up with Barca and we've conceded fewer goals.”. Pellegrini should be able to welcome back Pepe, who has been banned since last season and Xabi Alonso who's been injured. Tenerife captain, the Catalan Marc Beltran, was adamant that his team were going to Madrid with a positive attitude, claiming:”we'll go out without fear and get right in their faces”. Bilbao lost their 100% record against Tenerife in midweek and this Saturday they face Seville, who have won their last three league matches and are ahead of them in third place on goal difference.

Valencia and Atletico both in need of a win

Laporta: "For me, the issue is closed"

President Joan Laporta has spoken for the first time since a story was published in "el Periódico de Catalunya" about a security audit commissioned by the club some months ago in relation to four vice presidents.


Before the dinner for the Malaga and FC Barcelona directors, the Barça president said he feels the matter of the security audit of vice presidents Joan Boix, Rafael Yuste, Joan Franquesa y Jaume Ferrer is a ‘closed case’.

Explanations to affected parties

The issue went public this week when an article was published in "el Periódico de Catalunya'. Said Joan Laporta “this happened five months ago. Certain events happened and when I found out about them, the corresponding explanations were given. These explanations were understood and accepted.” He added that “it was understood that the risk reports that were asked for were within the limits of legality and were to protect the affected parties and the club. Therefore, the page was turned and the case was closed.”

Ratification of Joan Oliver

The president of Barça also defended director general Joan Oliver. "In a season in which there was major social convulsion, and a world economic crisis, Joan Oliver has helped make Barça an admired institution, which is still generating a profit and has passed the biggest budgets in club history … I have no intention of losing the services of Joan Oliver. I want him to be with me".

"Used to living under pressure"

Joan Laporta also said that "we are better than we have ever been in our entire history, and now, because they want to destabilise us, people drag up issues like these. We will continue the same way. We are used to living under pressure and people trying to destabilise us … Barça is united and united we are unbeatable ".

Guardiola: “The team’s spirit comforts me”

Highly satisfied with the win at La Rosaleda, Josep Guardiola pointed out that Barça have never found it easy to win at grounds like these.


From the day Josep Guardiola took charge of the Barça first team, he has only shown respect for any team they have faced. He knew that Malaga would not be easy, and was glad his men got the job done. “The team’s spirit comforts me. That is what brings wins”.

The Barça coach said that “it was a very aggressive game and we had to work very hard.” As usual, Guardiola had no intention of speaking about the referee, but did admit that there were one or two ‘buts’.

Demanding Malaga

Guardiola observed that Malaga came out in the first few minutes “much stronger than we did. But after 15-20 minutes we started winning control”. Having studied Juan Ramon López Muñiz’s side, he knew “they deal with pressure well. They are very physical and very well organised. We found it hard, but it all worked out in the end”.

Qualifying squad named

UEFA European U19 Championship
First Qualifying Round
9-14 October 2009
Slovenia

England U19s Head Coach Noel Blake has named his squad for the first qualifying stage of the European Championship next month, just over a week after after seeing his team beat Russia in their first game of the new season.

Many of the players involved in that 2-1 victory are included again, as Blake readies the squad for matches against Slovenia, Finland and Slovakia in a bid to go one further than last season's U19 team, who went all the way to the Final where they were unfortunate to lose against Ukraine.

The likes of Nathan Delfouneso, Nile Ranger and Declan Rudd were part of that group, whilst players such as Nathan Baker and Dean Parrett also won U19 caps last season and they will provide experience in squad.

There are also a couple of new names in the squad, with Stoke City's Nathaniel Wedderburn, Spurs trio Ryan Mason, Steven Caulker and Adam Smith and West Ham's Frank Nouble all receiving their first call-ups

Ancelotti acknowledges bad performance

Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti acknowledged that his side under-achieved at Wigan Athletic, where their 100 per cent record came to an unexpected end. The home side chalked up their first victory against one of the top four at the 35th time of asking in a Premier League match.

Goals from Titus Bramble, Hugo Rodallega and Paul Scharner stunned Chelsea, who have been overtaken by Manchester United at the top of the table. Didier Drogba cancelled out Bramble's opener, but goalkeeper Petr Cech's red card, for tripping Rodallega which led to a spot-kick in the 53rd minute, changed the face of the game at the DW Stadium.

Ancelotti, however, refused to look for excuses after suffering his first defeat since taking the reins at Stamford Bridge. He said: "We did not play a good game; it was a bad performance. I do not know why we did not play well.

"But these things can happen after a lot of victories. We have to accept this loss and fix things for our next match. Wigan played better than us. They were well organised and played good football. I was surprised. This was the right result.

Five in five for Barça and Ibra

Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Gerard Pique came off the bench to inspire Barcelona to a fifth straight league win over a hard-working Malaga side. Ibrahimovic was left out of the starting line-up after picking up an ankle injury in Tuesday night's 4-1 win at Racing Santander. But the Sweden striker has been making good progress in his recovery and was called upon after Thierry Henry was forced off through injury just short of the half-hour mark.

And Ibrahimovic was on the scoresheet ten minutes later to bag his fifth goal in as many league games since joining from Inter Milan in the summer. But Pique took even less time to make an impact, bagging a second for the Catalans only three minutes after replacing Dmytro Chygrynskiy just short of an hour, before Malaga had Duda sent off late on.

Those two strikes gave Barcelona a fifth win in five league matches this season, but meant that the Catalans dropped to second place after rivals Real Madrid defeated Tenerife 3-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu to go top of the table on goal difference.

Barça coach Pep Guardiola decided to leave Ibrahimovic on the bench and, with Bojan Krkic out injured, Henry moved into the centre of the side's three-pronged attack. Lionel Messi began on the left as Pedro came in for a rare start on the right.

Barça had won all four of their previous league matches and came into this match on top of the table. But the first chance of the night fell to Malaga. Nigerian striker Victor Obinna latched onto Duda's pass, but shot into the side netting from close range and the visitors survived.

Malaga began the season with an impressive 3-0 victory over Atletico Madrid at La Rosaleda, but the Andalusians have struggled since then and came into this match on the back of three straight defeats.

With Ibrahimovic out, Henry had the chance to impress. The former Arsenal striker has not scored this season for Barça and had a seemingly golden chance to shine. But the Frenchman was forced off though injury after 29 minutes and replaced by Ibrahimovic. And the Swede was on the scoresheet ten minutes later, when he latched onto Messi's through-ball and slotted home.

Barça were stroking the ball in customary fashion, but Malaga were working hard and restricting the Catalans to very few real attempts on goal. The second goal finally came just short of the hour mark.

Pique, who netted against Atletico earlier this season and in the famous 6-2 victory at the Bernabeu last term, replaced Chygrynskiy and poked past Gustavo Munua to put Barça two up three minutes after stepping off the bench.

Messi missed two good chances to make it three and return the Catalans to the top of the league, but in the end Guardiola's side had to be content with a two-goal victory which preserved their 100 per cent record after five rounds in the championship. They also finished the game a man up after Duda was dismissed for Malaga.

Jose in Press Conference: Gilberto is Back

In a press conference held yesterday following the end of the game with Sundowns in the qualifying round of the 16 of the African Champions League, which ended in victory for Ahly with two goals to nil, a question was asked to Jose about Gilberto and his injury status.


There was a question among the questions addressed to Jose by journalists. The question of Gilberto, when a journalist asked about the player and his return to Cairo and the completion of its therapeutic or rehabilitative. The veracity of the rumors about the player refusing to answer Ahly’s communications and so on.


Jose response was that he was on the phone with Gilberto at the end of last week. Gilberto assured him that he will fully finish the therapeutic program on Thursday evening. He will return to Cairo to El-Ahly Club


Jose added that upon the arrival of the player, according to medical reports carried with him from the Portuguese doctor treating him and after consultations with "Jose" and the qualification of the medical team, will develop a training program "exercises different ball" dedicated to the player for almost a month .. Until then, the player should be ready to participate in games normally.


Gilberto will participate in more than one game( unofficial exhibition ones or with the youth team) to check on his safety fully recovering from his injury and non-recurring to him again, and then a decision will be taken if the player is capable of joining the team’s list next season or will El-Ahly recruit another foreign player?