What's wrong with Barca?

2-3 with Real Sociedad, 1-1 with Real Madrid and Valencia, 0-2 with AC Milan and 1-3 with Real Madrid. It's February and within a month FC Barcelona has started to lose everything they have worked so hard for this season.

Last season it started to show that the spark Barca used to have wasn't there anymore. It wasn't dramatic, and maybe not even visible to everyone, but if you looked closely you could see that something was missing. They lost La liga to their biggest enemy Real Madrid by 9 points. They were also eliminated from the Champions League in a nasty game with Chelsea. Despite all this, the biggest loss of the season was the announcement of Josep Guardiola's departure. Guardiola said that he left, because he didn't feel like he had anything to give to the team anymore, that he was tired and incapable of dealing with the pressure of being the manager of Barca. And I'm sure that at least partly it was true. But now that we've seen Barca starting to crumble more and more, I can't help but wonder if Pep noticed something a year ago that is only now starting to become visible for the rest of us.

Granada - FC Barcelona 1 - 2

Lionel Messi was once again a savior for FC Barcelona in yesterday's game against Granada. The first goal of the night was scored by Odion Jude Ighalo of Granada on the 26th minute. The equalizer had to be waited until the second half, when Lionel Messi scored FC Barcelona's first goal. That goal was also his 300th goal for Barca. Messi was responsible for the second goal on the 73rd minute as well. The second goal not only was his 301st goal for FC Barcelona, but 35th in the La Liga this season. He now leads main rival Cristiano Ronaldo by 11 goals on the top scorer-list.

Neymar Fever

For a long time the super talented Neymar has been linked with pretty much every big team in Europe. One of those teams has been FC Barcelona. I can't understand why. I mean, yes he is very good, even great at best, but in my opinion totally unsuitable for Barca. A young, very hyped player, who already thinks he is the best player in the world. I think that he sounds a looot more like Real Madrid or Chelsea's player than Barca's.

Barca's Next Goalkeeper?

After Victor Valdes announced that he wouldn't renew his contract with FC Barcelona there has been constant speculation about who would replace him. Goalkeepers like Pepe Reina, David de Gea and Thibaut Courtois have all been linked with a transfer to Camp Nou. This week, however, a new and very interesting young talent Marc-Andre ter Stegen has become the center of goalkeeper speculation.

It's Champions League Time!

After a long long wait Champions League finally returns today! With the best 16 teams left we can expect some pretty exciting games. Champions League returns with 2 games tonight. Celtic FC faces Juventus at Celtic Park and Valencia clashes with PSG at Mestalla.

Tomorrow the much expected Real Madrid - Manchester United will be played at Santiago Bernabeu. There's a lot at stake in that game, even Jose Mourinho's job according to the wildest rumors. Also the sensational Robin van Persie will face ManU's former star player Cristiano Ronaldo. That should be a very interesting game... The game between Shakhtar Donetsk and Borussia Dortmund will also be played tomorrow.

FC Barcelona - Getafe 6 - 1

FC Barcelona crushed Getafe at Camp Nou on last Sunday. There seemed to be no end for the scoring and final numbers were 6-1. Alexis Sanchez scored the first goal on the 6th minute. A few minutes later it was 2-0, thanks to Lionel Messi's goal. Those were the numbers until David Villa scored the 3rd goal on the 58th minute. Ten minutes later it was Cristian Tello's turn to score. A couple of minutes later Getafe narrowed the game to 4-1, but at that point it was already too late. Andres Iniesta and Gerard Pique scored yet another 2 goals in the final minutes. Thanks to Atletico's loss to Rayo Vallecano Barca now leads La Liga by 12 points.

Valencia - FC Barcelona 1 - 1

The game against Valencia at Mestalla proved to be quite a challenge for FC Barcelona. Valencia's Ever Banega scored the opening goal on the 33th minute. Nine minutes later Barca tied with Lionel Messi's beautiful penalty goal. However, without the penalty I'm afraid Barca just might've returned from Valencia with zero points. The first half was not good. I think that Barca's game was quite a mess. There were never players when you would've needed them. Valencia on the other hand played very well. They were aggressive and didn't allow Barca to do their usual passing, at least not as much as usually.

And Barca Takes the Blame

Yesterday Real Madrid lost to Granada. Cristiano Ronaldo scored the only goal of the evening...behind Real's new goalkeeper Diego Lopez. Jose Mourinho, as always, was disappointed and unwilling to take the blame. So according to him who's fault was it? FC Barcelona's. How? This time the explanation was that the Blancos were so tired from their game against the Catalans on Wednesday that they didn't have the energy to play as well as they should've. Apparently Barca was favored, because they got one more day to rest. And apparently this was some kind of proof of the existence of the "conspiracy" against Real Madrid. In my opinion this was another proof of the lunacy of Mr. Mourinho.

Transfers, transfers...

With the transfer window closed it's time to look at a few of the biggest transfers.

Mario Balotelli from Manchester City to AC Milan. This was definitely a dramatic move. Silvio Berlusconi, the president of the club for example called Mario a rotten apple, but in the end wanted to buy him. And naturally many of the Internazionale's fans weren't so happy with their former player's smooth move to their biggest rival.

El Clasico 1 - 1

So the thursday's El Clasico didn't go as well as hoped... A 1-1 tie was not the dream result, but a good starting point for the second leg match at Camp Nou on the 27th of February. The goalscorers were Cesc Fabregas for Barca and Raphael Varane for Madrid. Hopefully the result will be better at Camp Nou!