FC Barcelona in 2016

Barcelona's start of 2016 began with a trip to city rival Espanyol where they were held to a

disappointing goalless draw. Then bang bang they went undefeated in January with victory against Atletico Madrid the stand out.There was a sweet revenge against Celta coming too on the Valentine's day. Champions league round of 16 saw Barca come up with familiar foe in Arsenal and at the end they breezed past the Gunners over two legs. Disappointment was waiting for Barca in quarterfinals as they faced fellow la liga rival Atletico whom they had succumbed to 2 yr back at the same stage. This time too the outcome was similar, yet even more disappointing for Barca given their lacklustre show in 2nd leg despite winning the first 2-1 at Camp Nou. Barca continued their Journey in Copa del rey and la liga. Smashing 7 past Gary Neville's Valencia in Copa del rey . They went on to lift the title beating Sevilla in the final. In la liga they had once a healthy 12 point lead over Real Madrid but a bizzare slump late on in the season including a 1-2 defeat at home in clasico saw Barca surrender their lead and almost the league title at the end. But thanks to timely return of form , the Blaugranas lifted their back to back la liga title on the last day of the season.
 The new season has begun in August and as always Barca have had a good start in the beginning. But a few draws and unexpected defeats have seen them lose some ground at the top of la liga to real Madrid. With re-enforcements in midfield and defense, Barca have got some depth in their squad. They have entered the knockout stage of Champions League topping their group pretty comfortably and have entered round of 16 in Copa del Rey. With the winter break players have got a much needed break and will be all refreshed to march on with their challenge of winning yet another treble to add to their illustrious gallery and as a cule I firmly believe we can and we will do it again.
Visca el Barca.

Barcelona win The Double

After securing a historic treble in the first season in charge Luis Enrique secured the unprecedented domestic double of  la liga and Copa del rey in his second year in charge of the Catalan giants. Capping off a fine 0-3 away win at Granada last weekend to secure la liga title Barcelona this week shrugged off the challenge of 3 times consecutive Europa League winners Sevilla to win the King's cup more widley known as Copa del rey. In a fierce and highly action packed contest at Atletico Madrid's home Vicente Calderon ,the blaugrana came out 2-0 winners after extra time when the regulation time finished goalless with each team reduced to 10 men after 90 mins to similar challenges. Javier Mascherano of Barca saw red towards the end of first half when his last ditch tackle brought down Kevin Gameiro who was otherwise clear through on goal. Luckily for Barca the tackle was just outside the box denying Sevilla the penalty. Similarly Ever Banega saw red during the additional time of normal period when his similar tackle brought down Neymar who was clear on goal after being released beautifully by Leo Messi. With sides locked all square after normal time it was a moment of magic from otherwise peripheral figure in the encounter, Leo Messi who scopped a delightful lob perfectly put on the plate for Jordi Alba who calmly slotted home for his first goal of the season. Messi was again at the heart of second goal when his well controlled through ball set up perfectly for Neymar who calmly slotted home to put the match and the title firmly onto the hands of Barcelona once and for all. Luis Enique ha won 7 titles so far in 2 seasons, an achievement that was doubted after a poor run of form in April. 

Robert Lewandowski signs for Bayern

FC Bayern have confirmed the signing of 25-year-old Poland international Robert Lewandowski. The striker, who will see out the remainder of his contract with Borussia Dortmund until the end of the season, will join Germany’s most successful club on 1 July 2014.

Following the obligatory pre-transfer medical in Munich, Lewandowski signed a five-year contract keeping him at FCB until 30 June 2019. The club was represented by chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and board director for sport Matthias Sammer, with the player represented by his agents Cezary Kucharski and Maik Barthel.

“We’re very pleased about completing this transfer,” commented FC Bayern Munich AG chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. “Robert Lewandowski is one of the best strikers in the world. He will strengthen the Bayern squad and give us another boost. We’re delighted both parties have today signed a five-year contract until 2019.”

Barcelona News

Andres Iniesta has said Lionel Messi's return after two months out is "great news" for Barcelona, predicting that he will soon be "intimidating" opponents again.

Iniesta told Thursday's press conference at the Camp Nou that it remained to be seen whether Messi would be able to slot straight back in at top form.

"Messi has arrived, we will see when he returns to training if he will be as normal or needs to come in bit by bit," he explained. "We all know how important Leo is, on the level of numbers, quality and how he intimidates opponents.
Official: Barcelonagoalkeeper Victor Valdes, who suffered a calf muscle injury in November, has been given the medical green light.

Official: Messi, who has been recovering from a thigh injury in Argentina, has rejoined the group and is training
normally this evening.

“There are laws and rules and someone is responsible for meting out justice. At a certain point it becomes too much. Someone needs to mete out justice. A lot of crap is being levelled at Messi.”
— Gerard Piqué on media smears against Messi

Leo Messi landed in Barcelona this afternoon and went directly to the Ciutat Esportiva to meet up with his teammates and get fitted for new boots ahead of the team’s training session. It’s been a month since the Argentinian player, who picked up an injury on November 29, trained on the pitch of Sant Joan Despí. Messi, who has yet to be declared match fit, took part in the team’s second training session of the day.

Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool

José Mourinho had turned to the East stand as this contest lurched towards its conclusion and, arms aloft, beseeched the home support to whip up one last roar to haul the team over the line. Within seconds his gesture was repeated in celebration. Liverpool, one of the more eye-catching contenders in this season's title race, had been beaten to inject proper conviction into Chelsea's own challenge. The Portuguese's reaction betrayed the significance of the result.

The first chink of light has been spotted between the top three and the chasing pack, a three-point gap chiselled out between Mourinho's team and fourth-placed Everton to suggest a massed scramble towards the summit is thinning out. Liverpool, a point behind their Merseyside neighbours, will hope to come again and can draw real encouragement from their displays even in defeat at the Etihad and Stamford Bridge but those at the top will likewise hope they are shrugging themselves clear. "A big win, a big opponent, a big match," said Mourinho. It was the kind of contest to get the juices flowing.

In the end, perhaps inevitably, it was also laced with controversy. Brendan Rodgers had reason to denounce Samuel Eto'o's first-minute foul on Jordan Henderson, the striker raking his studs down his opponent's right shin and escaping a card of any sort from Howard Webb. Though Liverpool scored from the free-kick that followed, they would have been taking on 10 men for 89 minutes had the offence been properly penalised. Their other gripe centred, inevitably, on Luis Suárez as Eto'o appeared to shoulder barge him off the ball and inside the penalty area seven minutes from time. Rodgers and Mourinho, once apprentice and mentor in these surroundings, could only agree to disagree, though in the circumstances it was perhaps inevitable that Eto'o's contribution would ultimately be remembered for the winner.

Chelsea had their own non-award to bemoan, Lucas Leiva appearing to floor the live-wire Eden Hazard 11 minutes in, yet the revival of the old Mourinho versus Merseyside rivalry should not boil down to perceived oversights by the overworked referee. This was combustible, breathless and blisteringly competitive and therefore enthralling to behold.

While Liverpool seemed stretched by cruel successive away fixtures, Chelsea arguably mustered some of their finest attacking football of the campaign through that ferocious opening period. Their forays forward were slick and conducted at pace, Oscar and Willian rapid in pouring upfield while Hazard, the team's player of the moment, orchestrated it all.

The Belgian, watched here by his brother Thorgan in the stands, has been untouchable in recent weeks. He has learned from the error of his ways after missing a training session following a brief trip back to Lille to watch his former club – it did not help that he had mislaid his passport in France – and has been resurgent since. He started the move which created Chelsea's equaliser, shifting the ball from central midfield to Willian before Oscar took up possession and bolted into enemy territory. Liverpool defenders backed off, uncertain and panicked, with the Brazilian's intended pass for Eto'o rebounding from Mamadou Sakho and back across the edge of the area.

Hazard, his run unchecked, dispatched it first time, all whip and bend, with Simon Mignolet helpless and beaten. "The kid is changing," said Mourinho of the £32m signing he inherited. "Before he was a very talented player but was a bit … not lazy, but a kid enjoying football just in a funny way. Now he understands responsibilities and that football is not just about getting the ball and playing like he did when he was 13 or 14 in the street. There are other ingredients needed at this level."

That was his 10th goal in all competitions this season, a tally that has eased some of the pressure on Chelsea's blunt strikers, though this would eventually be decided by one of their number. David Luiz and César Azpilicueta combined for Oscar to gather, his initial touch appearing to strike Sakho's arm. The crowd's appeals for handball went ignored, the playmaker regathering and turning the centre-half to square for Eto'o, granted too much space by Martin Skrtel, to convert. Mignolet should have done better.

The festive period has been unforgiving for Liverpool. They sat top of the pile on Christmas Day, rightly satisfied by their campaign and with Suárez signed up to a new contract, and yet, after the first successive league defeats of Rodgers' tenure, now languish fifth and outside the Champions League places.

That is sobering enough, even without Sakho (hamstring) and Joe Allen (groin) now injured and surely absent for the foreseeable future. And yet, as Rodgers pointed out, there was still promise to be picked up from each of their defeats over the past week, whether in the bite to the attacks summoned by Suárez, Coutinho and Henderson or the excellence – that second goal aside – of Mignolet in denying Chelsea further reward.

They had led early, Coutinho delivering viciously towards the near post, where Suárez and Branislav Ivanovic – those familiar foes from Anfield in April – tumbled as they wrestled to connect and the ball struck the Serb and wrong-footed Petr Cech in the process. Skrtel, alone in front of a gaping goal, could not believe his luck. Yet that is where their good fortune ran out. Sakho looped a header on to the bar from Henderson's delivery before that late penalty appeal signalled the end. This was not to be their day. It is Chelsea who go tearing into the new year.

Man of the match Eden Hazard (Chelsea)

Michael Schumacher in critical state after injuring head in skiing accident

Formula One legend Michael Schumacher is fighting for his life in hospital after sustaining serious head injuries in an off-piste skiing accident at a resort in the French Alps on Sunday morning.

Schumacher, 44, was airlifted to Grenoble after falling heavily and hitting his head while skiing on the unmarked slope at the Méribel resort with a group of friends and his 14-year-old son.

After hours of silence which raised worldwide concerns about the seven-time former world champion's condition, the Grenoble hospital issued a statement on Sunday night describing his state as "critical". He was in a coma on arrival at the hospital suffering from "severe brain trauma" and had undergone surgery, the statement said. French media reports said that Schumacher, whose family is at his bedside, had also had a brain haemorrhage.

The hospital statement was issued more than three hours after the Grenoble-based newspaper Le Dauphiné Libéré reported that Schumacher's injuries had worsened and were now "life threatening".

A top brain surgeon from Paris, Gérard Saillant, rushed to the hospital to attend to the former grand prix driver. Saillant, an expert in brain and spine injury, is a close friend of Schumacher, having operated on him when he broke his leg at Silverstone in 1999.

Radio Monte Carlo reported that doctors would provide an update on Schumacher's condition at a press conference at the hospital at 10am GMT on Monday.

A skier with Schumacher's group raised the alarm within minutes of the accident which occurred just after 11am in bright and sunny weather. "The skier alerted mountain rescue just a few hundred metres below where he fell," said the director of Méribel Alpina, Olivier Simonin, in charge of security and skilifts at the site. Two rescuers arrived quickly at the scene and called in two others to help evacuate Schumacher who had been wearing a helmet at the time of the accident. Schumacher remained conscious after the fall and was initially helicoptered to the nearest hospital at Moûtiers. But doctors had then him flown to Grenoble, which has a specialised trauma unit.

Simonin said it was not known whether Schumacher hit his head on a rock. "All we know is that he hit his head," he said.

The hospital announcement was the first since a terse statement in the afternoon released by Schumacher's manager, Sabine Kehm. She confirmed the accident and said that nobody else was involved in the fall.

"Michael fell on his head when he was on a private skiing trip in the French Alps. He was taken to hospital and is receiving professional medical attention. We ask for understanding that we cannot give out continuous information about his health," the statement said.

Méribel director Christophe Gernignon-Lecomte had earlier described Schumacher as being "in shock, somewhat shaken, but conscious" when the emergency rescue team reached him. He also said that Schumacher's head injury was "not serious", but a resort spokesman said later that the Méribel officials were waiting for a more comprehensive medical report.

Gernigon-Lecomte said that Schumacher owned a chalet in the valley and knew the resort and the pistes of Méribel well. "It was something habitual for him," he said.

French media said in the afternoon that the sportsman's cranial trauma was not life-threatening. However, by early evening, that prognosis changed, and Formula One champions such as Felipe Massa said they were praying for Schumacher. Some French fans of Schumacher gathered in the afternoon outside the hospital, as they waited in vain for news. Olivier Panis, a former Formula 1 driver from Grenoble, came to the hospital twice during the day but was unable to see the German driver.

When he fell, Schumacher was skiing close to one of the chic resort's most difficult pistes in the Three Valleys enjoyed by the world's most accomplished skiers. Méribel, where the Swiss-based former champion owns a chalet, is one of the top ski resorts in the French Alps.

He was skiing off-piste between the pistes La Biche and the more difficult runs of Mauduit, named after the former French skiing champion George Mauduit. The slope, devoid of trees, where he and his son were skiing, is at an altitude of 2,100 metres, close to the luxury resort of Courchevel. The pair were about 20 metres away from the marked slope when Schumacher tumbled, according to Simonin.

Kallis: The King Retires

Jacques Kallis was never one for displays of emotion or grand speeches. Instead, he preferred to move quietly, even serenely, through an 18-year test career that established him as arguably the greatest allrounder of cricket's modern era.

His expressions were mostly concealed by his helmet while batting or by his sunglasses and trademark wide-brimmed sun hat when South Africa was fielding. On the occasions when he scored one of his 44 test centuries or took one of his nearly-300 wickets before announcing his retirement earlier this week, he would flash his toothy grin in acknowledgement or raise an arm up in celebration.

In interviews, the broad-shouldered allrounder who could dominate bowlers with seemingly effortless cover drives and bounce out the best batsmen with fierce, heavy short balls was surprisingly soft-spoken.

For much of his career, Kallis was strangely never adored in South Africa the way Sachin Tendulkar was in India or Don Bradman was in Australia. And yet his worth to his country's test team over his career has been just as valuable, perhaps more.

South Africa will miss him now.

It was Kallis' introspective approach that probably didn't always win over the supporters, but his teammates and opponents rated his value as a player and a person as priceless. And his achievements spoke volumes.

He scored match-winning hundreds and took partnership-breaking wickets in abundance, and buckets of test catches as one of the most dependable slip fielders in the game.

Only Tendulkar has made more test centuries. And when it came to batting allrounders, no one could touch Kallis for his additional contribution with the ball. His batting average is better than the "Little Master" Tendulkar and his bowling average on a par with front-line quicks such as England's James Anderson and India's Zaheer Khan.

Kallis will retire from test cricket after South Africa's second test against India, which started on Thursday at Durban, and his country will soon doubtless realise how rare a cricketer he was.

"Although we all knew the retirement of a great player like Jacques Kallis was going to happen, his decision still comes as a blow when the reality dawns," Cricket South Africa chief executive Haroon Lorgat said.

South Africa coach Russell Domingo paid tribute, more than anything, to Kallis' influence in the dressing room, revealing a lesser-known side to a player who was sometimes criticised, unfairly, for playing slowly and selfishly.

"Jacques' calmness, maturity and presence in the change room will sorely be missed and hopefully he will still be able to play a role in this team's success in the near future," Domingo said.

For a player who rarely was animated on the field, Kallis' influence on those around him was immense, and he seemingly didn't need many words to exercise it. When he did speak, it was often in a manner that was understated, incisive and, crucially, valuable.

Former South Africa captain Shaun Pollock recently told a story about a Kallis comment in the dressing room after South Africa had conceded a then world-record 434 runs to Australia in a limited-overs international at Johannesburg's famously high-scoring Wanderers ground.

As the South Africans trudged into the dressing room desperately downcast, Kallis said: "Right, the bowlers have done their job, they're 10 runs short," Pollock recalled. The mood was instantly lightened, Pollock said, and South Africa won the game by scoring a new-record 438 in what is widely considered the best ODI game ever.

Kallis' teammates paid glowing tribute on social media following his retirement announcement, praising him as the best cricketer ever, South Africa's best sportsman and a "legend" of the game.

Batsman Faf du Plessis wrote: "What an honour sharing a changeroom with the greatest cricketer of all time." Captain Graeme Smith even expressed his brotherly "love" for Kallis.

In typical fashion, Kallis didn't immediately post any messages about his retirement, happy instead to let his wondrous achievements - and others - do most of the talking.

There was one comment from Kallis in the statement announcing his upcoming retirement after his 166th test that stood out, though: "I feel that I have made my contribution in this format."

Batting and fielding averages
	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct	St
Tests	165	279	40	13174	224	55.12	28587	46.08	44	58	1475	97	199	0
ODIs	325	311	53	11574	139	44.86	15866	72.94	17	86	911	137	129	0
T20Is	25	25	4	666	73	35.05	558	119.35	0	5	56	20	7	0
First-class	256	420	57	19580	224	57.84			61	97			263	0
List A	421	403	65	14840	155*	43.90			23	109			160	0
Twenty20	134	130	21	3517	89*	32.26	3153	111.54	0	26	349	73	42	0
Bowling averages
	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	165	271	20166	9499	292	6/54	9/92	32.53	2.82	69.0	7	5	0
ODIs	325	283	10750	8680	273	5/30	5/30	31.79	4.84	39.3	2	2	0
T20Is	25	19	276	333	12	4/15	4/15	27.75	7.23	23.0	1	0	0
First-class	256		28967	13496	427	6/54		31.60	2.79	67.8		8	0
List A	421		13673	10772	351	5/30	5/30	30.68	4.72	38.9	3	3	0
Twenty20	134	115	2138	2742	87	4/15	4/15	31.51	7.69	24.5	1	0	0

MAKING HIS NAME

* Born on October 16, 1975 in Cape Town.

* Made his international debut as a 20-year-old in December, 1995 in a test match against England in Durban.

ALL-ROUND ACHIEVEMENTS

* Played 165 tests for South Africa, scoring 13 174 runs at an average of 55.12.

* Scored two double centuries in tests with his 224 against Sri Lanka in Cape Town in 2012 being his best score.

* Took 292 wickets with a six-for 54 his best bowling in an innings.

* As a reliable slip fielder, he took 199 catches in tests.

* Kallis is the fourth-highest run-getter in tests behind Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting and Rahul Dravid.

* His 44 test centuries is the second highest in the world behind Tendulkar.

END OF THE ROAD

* The Boxing Day test against India in Durban will be his last match in the longest format of the game.

* He is South Africa's greatest cricketer, having scored the most number of test runs and also being fifth on the wicket-takers' list