Barça vs Espanyol - buildup

Another week passes by, and another update is long overdue. Fear not however, I have no coursework due until January now, so I'll be updating this frequently.

The performance in Kiev was, in my opinion, excellent, and if it wasn't for some really good defending (and a goalkeeper's very sore head) I believe we would have scored more. None the less, Messi's sublime freekick at the end secured the top of the group and gives us an easier passage through the next round (hopefully).

The only other incident of note in that game was the shameful tactics Kiev adopted in trying to deal with Messi. We've seen it a million times before, best exemplified by Madrid at the Camp Nou last year : Systematically foul Messi, changing player each time to avoid a booking, because teams cant deal with his talent in any other manner. Once again, just like Madrid, the result of this was Messi getting his revenge by scoring.

Unfortunately however, unlike Madrid, this time Messi was injured, and will thus miss the derby game today. The refereeing in Kiev was nothing short of shambolic, with Xavi being booked for his first foul (a weak one at that), whilst Kiev players got away with no repercussions for kicking Messi up and down the park.

Anyway, I could go on about this forever, but I'll move on to the task at hand.

Espanyol are on a particularly poor run of form lately, but they always up their game for these matches, so I don't expect this to be a walk in the park at all. That being said, I don't believe Espanyol will offer much going forward (their goal scoring record this season is particularly poor) and will opt to get as many bodies in their own half as possible. Let's not forget that last season this fixture was a banana skin for us, though Keita being sent off early on certainly didn't help matters.

I'm confident we can get a win this time however, with the added physical presence of Zlatan up front and his inability to stop scoring in the league being taken into account. I do think it will be a tight affair, but I don't think we're likely to concede (barring any crazy mistakes from Valdes, but that's another story.....)

I expect the team to lineup as follows:

---------------Valdes-----------------

Alves---Puyol----Pique-----Abidal

---------------Toure-----------------

------Xavi---------------Iniesta-----

--Pedro-----Zlatan------Henry----

I'll explain my choices:

With Abidal's recent emergence as, in my opinion, one of the most prominent left backs in the world this season, I see no reason to drop him for the lesser Maxwell. Abidal's performances in recent games, starting with Madrid, have saw a notable improvement in his ability going forward : in particular, two pinpoint-accurate crosses from the left flank have led to two goals in his last two games. I would also suggest Pique and Puyol are our best central pairing and, in a derby game, are the obvious choice. Alves is a shoe-in as always.

Toure Yaya may be more likely to get a game with the knowledge that he is more powerfulphysically than Busquets. In a game which is likely to feature a congested midfield through Espanyol's tactics, Iniesta and Xavi are by far the best option to unlock them due to their ability to function in a tight space. As a consequence of this, with Iniesta not moving out wide, the natural choice to replace Messi is of course Pedro. Henry didn't play much in midweek, so he should have plenty of energy for this game and it's physicality. Zlatan is picked for my reasons previously mentioned - he adds something new which Espanyol have not yet had a chance to try and deal with.

Finally- Gabby Millito is on the bench, and it would be a joy to see him make a cameo at some point, but I'm not sure this is the kind of game to start bedding in a player who has just came back from a horrible injury. We'll see.

I'll settle for 2-0, if everything goes to plan.

Until then-

Visca el Barça i visca Catalunya!