BARCA MAKE QUARTERS

Barcelona made it into the quarter-finals of the Champions League after a hardfought 2-1 win over Manchester city at the Camp Nou. The match could have easily ended in a defeat for the Catalan club after they were put under much pressure by the Premier league outfit. Cesc Fabregas, who started the match, said that he was delighted to see Barcelona get into the quarter-finals with a comfortable win. As a result of this victory, Barcelona have won 4-1 on aggregate. They won the first leg 2-0 with both goals coming in the second half.

Former Bayern Munich defender Martin Demichelis was sent off in the first leg. In the second leg, defender Pablo Zabaleta was given a second yellow card for remonstrating to the referee. Fabregas, who came close to leaving Barcelona in the summer, says that the club are delighted to win against a world-class team with stars like Yaya Touré and Sergio Aguero. City created a lot of opportunities over the 90 minutes, but they were unable to take them due to some lacklustre finishing. Samir Nasri and Zabaleta were guilty of missing good opportunities.

Lionel Messi once again opened the scoring, but there was good fortune about his goal. Dani Alves was also on the scoresheet for Barcelona just as he did in the first leg.

“It was a very tight game. I think we were playing against a world-class team. We knew it was going to be difficult, but I think it was a great result to win 2-0 over there because it is never easy to go to Manchester and win the way we did it and today was tough. I think we created a lot of chances; apparently there was a penalty not awarded and the goal for Neymar in the first half was onside but we take a lot of positives,” said Fabregas.

RETURN IS POSSIBLE

Fabregas played with Arsenal for 7 years and later decided to make a move to his childhood club Barcelona when the Premier League needed him most and this caused many fans to initiate a wave of hate on the Spanish midfielder who even stated during one of his initial press conferences for Barcelona that he wanted to join a club that can win trophies and so he made his way to Barcelona.

On some of his recent interviews he has stated however that he still watches the matches of Arsenal and he wants them to win the Premier League title in this season but they are going to need consistency if they want to accomplish securing the silverware.

“I watch every game of Arsenal’s. I am very happy how they are playing, they have a strong squad, they are top of the league. I cannot wait to see if they can lift the trophy finally. It would be amazing, they need to be very consistent between now and the end of the season.”

Arsenal has a tough month of February ahead of them with matches against Manchester United, Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Sunderland. The superb season that Arsenal has been enjoying has seen them topping the Premier League and as well as being one of the clubs that has managed to score more goals they also are one of the teams that has conceded fewer goals.

Fabregas keeps on giving hints at his possible return to Arsenal but considering the fact that Barcelona had to offload €35 million for the former Arsenal player, he is going to stay with the Catalan club for a few more years before even being allowed to switch clubs.

MARTINO CRITICISED

Gerardo Daniel or more commonly known as ‘’Tata Martino’’ has been at the receiving end of critism surrounding the changes that he has done to Barcelona ever since he arrived and took charge of the Catalan team.

Josep Guardiola guided Barcelona to 14 trophies during his 4 years as the head coach of the squad with the tiki-taka style of play being predominant in that time. But now with Tata Martino at the head of the team, the playing style has been taking a turn and they aren’t relying on it as much as some years ago.

The changes has made fans and experts around the world question the decisions that Martino is making with the squad and after the recent losses against Ajax and Atletic Bilbao, there is even more pressure on the Argentine tactician.

Fabregas came to the defence of Martino as he spoke in a recent press conference and said:

Fabregas told reporters at a press conference: “Guardiola was a visionary, that Barca was the best team in history, but now we might need to change some things, find alternatives. We’ve had a team chat with the coach. There’s always self-criticism, but this was the season’s first defeat and we have to react. We have to move the ball faster, show more motivation, attack with the ball and be intense, both in defense and attack.”

The former Arsenal star later went on saying that it is no problem playing in a striker position even though his natural and more favored role is in the midfield.

Fabregas continued: “My position is in midfield, two years ago I hadn’t yet played as striker, but if I have to play there, I do the best I can.”

Even though Barcelona suffered from 2 surprising losses against Ajax and Atlhetic Bilbao they are still located in comfortable positions both in La Liga and Champions League as they are at the top of the Spanish league and have already qualified into the last 16 teams remaining in the European tournament.