Barcelona players rarely speak about having affection towards Real Madrid and this is the case once again with goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
After proving to be a hit in his first season with the Catalan club, the German goalkeeper is looking forward to more first-team opportunities at the Camp Nou. He helped the club win the Champions League, while he was the second choice goalkeeper in the league matches. The young age of the German is likely to convince Luis Enrique that he will be the permanent replacement for Victor Valdes.
Chelsea was knocked out of the Champions League after losing against PSG in the round of 16 stages of the European competition.
It was thrilling match from start till the very end and even though it was the French team that managed to come out on top with the victory as they secured their ticket into the quarter-finals of the Champions League, this triumph came at a cost as Zlatan Ibrahimovic received a red card and he will not be able to perform in the upcoming quarter-finals match of PSG against Barcelona.
Yesterday’s Champions League game versus Manchester City was big for every Barcelona player. Well, whenever you play in the Europe, it’s big. No matter which team you play for and which team you are playing against.
But, there was one player who had many things to prove in that game and that was none other than Luis Suarez. He is absolutely hated in England, that guy. More so after what he said to the English media after scoring two glorious goals against the Three Lions in the World Cup played not so long ago.
Even with the arrival of Suarez and a few other players that were signed to Barcelona a few months ago, it made no difference towards the final outcome of the Spanish club during the previous underwhelming season where they lost against Copa del Rey in a finals match when playing against Real Madrid as well as failing to win La Liga title which was won by Athletic Madrid, it truly was a disappointing season compared to other seasons when Barcelona seemed to be unstoppable with more and more trophies being added to their collection.
Top clubs from around the world are getting ready for the January transfer window by preparing their financial power in order to start signing some of their respective winter targets but Barcelona will have to settle with the players that they already have at their disposal as they are not allowed to sign any new performers in 2015.
The Barcelona centre-back Gerard Pique has started to think about leaving Camp Nou after being overlooked by the club management for the previous three games.
The sources say that the Spaniard is not too amused by the way the man in charge, Luis Enrique, has dealt with him.
The last time that Pique had played for Barcelona was versus Espanyol towards the end of October.
He had found the net playing in the first half of that game, but, he had been taken off during the break and later on, on the television, he was shown using cell phone while being on bench.
Atletico Madrid star Koke has praised Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi by saying that he is a step above Cristiano Ronaldo, who he thinks is one of the best athletes around. The competition between Ronaldo and Messi is seen as one of the greatest rivalries since the days of Pele and Maradona. The duo have been competing consistently for major titles including individual accolades for several years. Messi has consistently come out on top with four FIFA Ballon d’Or awards to his name. This is considerably better than Ronaldo’s two Ballon d’Or titles.
Former Barcelona manager Gerardo Martino has hit out at his critics after a poor season with the Spanish club by saying that it was largely due to the faith in him and his methods. Martino became the manager of Barcelona, one of the best clubs in the world, despite having no introduction to European football. He has been the manager of several top clubs in America, but this was his big jump with the European club. He fared very poorly after failing to win any major trophy in the single campaigns he lasted at the club.
Wes Brown is going to be out of contract at Sunderland next summer, but, he has not started thinking about his future as yet. He wants to have a successful 2014-15 Season first and then, he would take things from there.
