No Time To Stop

After dispatching Almeria in the Copa del Rey earlier this week, Barcelona host Atletico Madrid, hoping to break the record for consecutive Primera Division games won. Presently, Barca have 15 wins in succession under their belt, and victory at Camp Nou on Saturday night would set a new mark of 16.

Defeat against Betis around two weeks ago was a shock to Barcelona’s system, but they have digested the problems arising from that reverse and brushed off these problems impressively. A squad of largely fringe players was good enough to overcome Almeria 3-0 away from home in midweek, with the goals arriving from Adriano, Thiago and Ibrahim Affelay.

“We must try to recover in time for Saturday, as we face one of the strongest teams in the league,” Guardiola explained to the media in the aftermath of Wednesday’s win. “This is our hardest month, as we have had little rest.”

Saturday provides something of a grudge match for la Blaugrana. Though they defeated Atleti 2-1 at the Vicente Calderon earlier this season, that game will be most remembered for Tomas Ujafalusi’s crude foul on Lionel Messi, which kept the diminutive Argentine away from the pitch for a couple of weeks, and in truth the South American was lucky it was such a short period of time.

There will, therefore, be a little more edge to this game than usual, especially as Barca would go 10 points clear of Real Madrid with a win.

Should Be Doing Better
Atletico Madrid’s hopes of Champions League football next season have all but vanished as they have been unable to maintain the hot pace maintained by Villarreal and Valencia, who have opened up a gap to the main peloton of teams as they attempt to nail down a top four spot. Los Colchoneros lie a distant seventh, 11 points off the pace.

Recent results have not eased the growing pressure on coach Quique Sanchez Flores, who saw his side lose consecutive Liga matches for the first time this season when they went down against Sporting de Gijon and then Athletic Bilbao. When these opponents were dispatched in the opening two games of the campaign, los Rojiblancos were being talked optimistically of as potential title contenders. Not so now.

“We are seventh. We should be third or fourth, but we'll see what happens,” the coach lamented after last weekend’s home defeat to los Leones, in which Luis Perea did his side no favours in earning a first half red card. “It takes courage and commitment for the team to succeed. I trust my players.”

While Atleti have a miserable record against city-rivals Real Madrid, they have historically fared better against Barcelona, though they will not make Saturday’s trip with any great optimism, especially having been outplayed by the Catalans when they met in the capital earlier this term.

Moreover, recent trips to Camp Nou have ended in complete despair, losing 11 goals over the course of their last two visits to the venue.


TEAM NEWS

Barcelona
Andres Iniesta has returned to training after a back sprain kept him out of the midweek encounter against Almeria. Carles Puyol and Jeffren Suarez remain on the sidelines.

Atletico
Mario Suarez has an injury question mark hanging over his head prior to the trip to Barcelona. Luis Perea is definitely out after being dismissed last weekend. On the other hand, Raul Garcia will return to action.

Match

Tricky tie. . . With Atletico, you never know what to expect. One minute they seem like genuine title contenders that they should be, next day, they lose 2 - 0 to Bilbao at home. Atletico are consistently inconsistent. Atletico have lost four of their last 5 games and Quique Sanchez Flores is under tremendous pressure.
Last season, this tie ended 1 - 0 in favour of Atleti; Barca's only loss.

I expect a tough game but as usual, Barca will prevail. My smart money and unsmart money is on Barca recording a record 16th straight La Liga win.

With Simao Sabrosa having departed for Turkey, Francisco Merida has been getting a decent run of matches and scoring as well.
This weekend will be an opportunity for him to face his old club.

medjai:

Last season, this tie ended 1 - 0 in favour of Atleti; Barca's only loss.

Nope.
At home we beat Athletico 5-2.
We lost away 2-1 away to them. That was when we lost all our defenders, and Jeffren/Milito had to pair at centre back.

another el classico hope R M win dis time

@Aj: My bad

Barca line up:
Valdes, Alves, Maxwell, Pique, Abidal, Sergio, Xavi, Iniesta, Villa, Messi, Pedro

Messiiiiiiii. . . Well hit, Alves with the assist.

Oleeeeeeee!!!! This is the Messi show! Barca 2 - 0

any working link please, atdhe is showing another match.

^^ aww! don't know of any.

Alves sees Yellow for a nasty tackle

Barca in cruise control here. HT: 2 - 0.
Both goals from Messi

2nd half begins. . . Diego Forlan replaces Fran Merida. His dream return to the Camp Nou ends on a sour note.

Messsssiiiii. . . hatrick. simply unstoppable. His 4th hatrick of the season.

Pedro replaced by Bojan
Xavi replaced by Afellay

FT @ The Camp Nou:
Barcelona 3 vs Atletico Madrid 0.

Messi 79' 28' 17'

Barcelona have now set a record of 16 consecutive league wins. . . Third straight league defeat for Atletico Madrid.

Forlan looked really good. Pique and Abidal were outstanding at centre back to stop him and Aguero. I think good work has been done on the back line this year.
Why did Flores play Merida in the first half and leave Forlan on the bench? Against a team like Barca, you need experience to supplement Aguero's skills. I think the match was lost in the first half.
Good show from Messi. It's around this time last year that he started his multiple hat-trick shows, against Zaragoza, Valencia, Stuttgart, and Arsenal. Expect to see a great gulf opened up between him and Christina going forward. All those peeps who thought he didn't deserve the Ballon d'Or must be popping their eyes now. I hear Cristina's seeing a shrink now to boost his confidence

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