Barca extend unbeaten run to 36

By Football4eva10@wordpress.com.    Football4eva@blogspot.com

T.Kusena

Barcelona extended their unbeaten run to 36 games which consists

Of 30 wins and 6 draws.Eibar was the latest victim to suffer the onslaught

That Barca is unleashing on the footballing fraternity at present.

They opened the scoring the  through Munir in the 8th minute.

A Lionel Messi orchestration as he dinked in the ball to Suarez in the 18 who cut it across

Goal for Munir to tap in. The second was a typical Leo solo goal, a brilliant run into the 18

side stepping two defenders before tucking it away into the far post.  Messi then won

A penalty which resulted in the Catalans 3rd goal, which completed Messi’s brace.

Luis Suarez rounded off the goal haul with an astonishing show of power, nutmegging one

defender as he managed a tight squeeze through two players before unleashing madness

Into the back of the net. The result has helped the Blaugrana maintain an 8 point advantage

From second placed Athletico while keeping eternal rivals Real Madrid at a very safe distance

Away 12 points behind. Ultimately, the run has also facilitated and secured their qualification

Into the copa del Rey finals and one foot into the Champions league quarter final after having

Handed Arsenal an Emirates defeat.

However, as to his usual demeanor, Luis Enrique would rather maintain calm and concentrate

On how to overcome future challenges than bask in the glory of the present, he had this to

say after the match.

“We are where we want to be thanks to the work we have

done. The decisive stretch of the season is now being played,”

said Luis Enrique.

“In La Liga we are very well placed, but there are many points

to play for against direct rivals.

“No one has assurances that we will be at this level in the

next game. We are not going to be distracted by being called

champions ahead of time.

“It is won when mathematically there are no more points. Until

this day, the Liga is not finished.”

The victory at Ipurua followed a 5-1 thumping of Rayo

Vallecano on Thursday, but Luis Enrique enjoyed Sunday’s

performance more.

“I think we were even better than in Vallecas. We are not

afraid to be doing so well. These players do what they enjoy:

to compete and to win,” he added.

“Everything went well in general. We have been good

throughout the match, I have no complaints. If we had been at

a lower level, we would have suffered.”

 

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ALL IN A DAY’S WORK: BARCELONA THE UNSTOPPABLES

By Football4eva10@wordpress, Football4eva10@blogspot

T.Kusena

 

Lionel Messi scored exceptionally

unstoppable free kick to help Barcelona come from behind

to beat Sevilla 2-1 on Sunday for a  record-equalling 34th game

without loss that kept the champions on track to retain their

Spanish league title.

Sevilla’s Victor “Vitolo” Machin struck first for the visitors in

the 20th minute, but Messi curled home his free kick 11

minutes later before Gerard Pique put Barcelona ahead just

after halftime.

Barcelona’s 10th consecutive Liga win maintained its eight-

point lead over second-place Atletico Madrid. Third-place

Real Madrid, which lost 1-0 to Atletico on Saturday, fell 12

points behind the pacesetters with 12 rounds to go.

Barcelona equaled Madrid’s record unbeaten streak in all

competitions from 1988-89. Barcelona’s last loss in any

competition was at Sevilla on Oct. 3.

Coach Luis Enrique as in his usual manner downplayed any praise

That is not accompanied by a trophy. Here are a few things that he particularly

Pointed out on……..

“For me, Sevilla are the best team who have come to Camp

Nou this season, so I’m happy with the 2-1 because we also

showed we knew how to suffer,” the Coach said after the

game.

“Sevilla are a very strong and hardworking team, who won’t be

worn down [after the game].

“The three points put us in an excellent position as we now

have eight points more than our nearest rivals.

“I don’t know whether to believe what has been said(by Zidane) or not, but

we’re clear on what our objectives are and we’re well on our

way towards achieving them.

“[On coming back from behind for the seventh time], it

undoubtedly strengthens the team’s potential.

“[On matching Madrid’s record 34-game unbeaten run], I give

it zero weight right now.

“I’ll only give it importance if it contributes to us winning

trophies.

“We’re a squad, in which there are players who play more and

others who play less, but everyone’s involved.”

The 34 ubeaten game run is distributed in a ratio of 27wins:  7 draws

And the more the season wears on, the more likely it looks like they will be

Celebrating another ligament trophy in Catalunya this year again, with Barca

Already in the final of the Copa, they can fully put their concentration into their

Number one priority this year,…… To be the first to retain the champions league.

Judging from current form, its not a far stretch.

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UNDERPERFORMERS VS OVERACHIEVERS (CITY VS SPURS)

BY Football4eva10(T.Kusena)

 

With the largest investment of any other side poured into Manchester blue to

Acquire the best talent money can buy, one would expect that City would be at this

point strolling towards the title especially with arguably their main rivals in Chelsea

In diastrates. Such is not the case however considering the turbulence that has hit the

Premiership this season bring with it an unpredictability in expected results. Spurs on

the other hand has been one of the more consistent sides and that has catapulted

them into real contenders instead of a team that is there simply to make the

numbers.

MATCH FACTS:

°Last 9 games between Spurs and City have produced 41 goals

°Man City have won 8 and lost 2 of the last 10 league meetings with Spurs

Including victories in the last 5 consecutive matches at the Etihad.

°City have not beaten any side currently in the top 6 of the table(W0; E3; L4)

°Aguero has  10 goals in the last 8 games against Spurs

°Aguero scored mist of his goals outside the box thus season(4), despite only getting

7 shots on target from similar positions

°Aguero’s minutes/goal ratio is the highest in the league of any other player with

5goals in premiership history(1goal/108.2minutes)

°City have the highest proportion of goals scored from outside the box in this

Campaign(23%)

°Spurs have conceded only 1 goal from outside the box

°Pochettino has defeated Pellegrini once in 12 meetings either in Laliga or

Premiership (W1; D2;L9)

°Dele Alli has had a hand in all 11 goals in his last 14 appearances in the league

6 goals and 5assists.

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THE FIANCE AND THE MISTRESS (GUNNERS VS FOXES)

BY football4eva10(T.Kusena)

Arsenal has long since been in courtship and flirting with the title

About the idea of eventually taking the relationship to the next level

Unfortunately that eventuality has been somewhat delayed by the sudden

Occurence of a mistress in the midst. That mistress comes in the form of

Leicester. With more than one lady to catch his eye, even the Title cannot decide

, the ladies must fight it out.

 

Here are the MATCH FACTS:

 

°Alexis Sanchez has scored 4 goals in his 3 Premiership matches against Leicester.

°Theo Walcott has scored in both of his league matches versus Leicester.

°Arsenal have won 12 and lost none of the last 18 premier league matches against the Foxes.

°The Gunners have won their last 8 home premier league meetings with Leicester.

°3 of the 4 players to have a hand in +20 goals in the present campaign will feature in this potential classic-Riyad Mahrez(24), Jamie Vardy(21)  and Mesuit Ozil(20).

°Only Barcelona have won more penalties (10) in the top 5Euro leagues with Leicester in second with (9)

°Only West Brom(21.7%)  have played a higher percentage of long passes than Leicester(20.9%), while Arsenal remains rooted to it short passing philosophy it is not a surprise that they play the lowest proportion of Long passes in the division with(9.3%)

°The Gunners also score a league low (32.1%) of their clear cut chances in 2015-16

°Leicester have named an unchanged starting XI in their last 5 premiership matches; the last remaining to do that is Arsenal ironically, in May of 2015.

°On the last 11 occasions Arsenal has faced a team that was top of the premier league, they have won just once(D4-L6), scoring 4 goals and conceive 18 in the process

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LUIS ENRIQUE BREAKS RECORD

BY Football4eva10(T.Kusena)

We look at some of the facts and figures surrounding

those 29 games without defeat:

With the game against Valencia, Barça have put

together 23 wins and six draws in their 29 game

unbeaten run

During the games without losing the blaugranes have

scored 87 goals and conceded just 15

Luis Enrique has used 28 players during the run, Luis

Suárez has most minutes with 2070

Luis Suárez is the top scorer in those 29 games with

30 goals, then comes Messi with 18 and Neymar with

16

Neymar is the man with most assists, 16

Claudio Bravo and Ter Stegen have bene the two

keepers used in the 29 games with the Chilean

conceding eight goals, Ter Stegen seven in his games

In the 29 games, Luis Enrique has used five players

from Barça B – Sergi Samper (324 minutes), Gumbau

(208), Kaptoum (137), Cantalapiedra (116) and Cámara

(33)

The blaugranes have only failed to score in two

games: Espanyol in the league and Villanovense in the

Copa del Rey

Their biggest win came in the 7-0 victory in the first

leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final against Valencia

At home Barça have won 16 and drawn once – away

they have won seven and drawn five.

The Barca manager had a few thoughts

to share after the match pertaining to

the record, his assistant Unzue taking

the helm for last nights match and

allowing the youngsters to get some

much needed first team minutes.

ON ENZUE AS COACH:

“It was because of the state of my voice,” the 45-year-old

revealed.

“I don’t have a voice every three days.

“However, Juan Carlos and I have the same idea and

whenever he can help out, I like to let him do so.”

ON PLAYING RESERVES:

“What interested me was to give the majority of the minutes

to the reserve players, and that’s why we played with that

system,” he said.

“We played without a number nine too, with [Ivan] Rakitic as a

playmaker.

“I’m happy with the way my players competed.”

ON THE RECORD:

“The record is just numbers. So let’s see if those numbers are

good enough to bring us TITLES.”

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TITLE CONTENTION : ARSENAL VS LEICESTER

By Football4eva(T.Kusena)

Arsene Wenger admitted Arsenal needed to win at

Bournemouth to prevent Barclays Premier League

leaders Leicester “running away” from them in the

table.

Unlike the in-form Foxes, Wenger’s side have been

stuttering of late and a 2-0 win at the Vitality Stadium

on Sunday was their first in the league since January

2, arun which has seen the Gunners drop from the

summit to five points adrift of Leicester.

Arsenal had also gone almost five and a half hours(330minutes)

without a Premier League goal before Mesut Ozil

struck at the midway point of the first-half with a sly volley past the Bournemouth goal – and then Alex

Oxlade-Chamberlain doubled the  visitors

advantage just moments  later with a sublime carpet finish.

Wenger, whose side welcome Claudio Ranieri’s

table-toppers to the Emirates Stadium next Sunday,

said three points on the south coast were crucial as

they look to keep a motivated Leicester within their sights.

“Yes, of course,” the Frenchman replied when asked if

the result was more important than the performance

against the Cherries.

“For two reasons, one we haven’t won for a while, we

had four games without a win. When you play at the

top, that’s a long period, confidence drops a little bit.

“Also Leicester running away and us playing them

next week, to make the game interesting, it was very

important for us to win today.”

The game at Arsenal is the third in a trilogy of tough

tests for their title credentials but, having recorded

wins over Liverpool and Manchester City in the last

week, Wenger is of the opinion that they (Leicester)head to the Emirates as

the favourites for the title.

“Look, in one week, Leicester has beaten Liverpool

and Man City,” he added.

“So that means suddenly they become the favourite in

the league. That makes our game on Sunday a very

big one.

“I think we needed to win the game. I do not want to

be too dramatic with making statements. A football

game away from home in the Premier League for

anybody is difficult to win. We had to win. We won.

“Leicester now is the favourite. We have a big game

at home now against them, and I believe we have

enough quality and nerves to deal with that.”

Thierry Henry has called Arsenal’s mentality into

question and backed Leicester City as favourites to

win the Premier League title

Henry, speaking as part of his punditry role on Sky

Sports, said: “If I had said to you that Chelsea would

struggle, Manchester City would struggle, you would

have thought that it would be a season that Arsenal

would walk away with it easily. And it’s not

happening.

Leicester  on the other hand are sitting pretty on top of the table after their

remarkable win away from home against City with a five-point

buffer from next-best Tottenham.

But Ranieri said his players need to keep their focus well and

truly on the future to avoid stage fright, as the title race enters

the final stretch.

“It is the first time in their lives that these players are doing

something special. It is important not to look down or behind

you,” Ranieri said.

“Like a climber, you need to look up. If you look down, you go:

‘Oooohh, my God, look where we are’.”

Leicester were only promoted to the Premier League in 2014

and narrowly avoided relegation last term and Ranieri, who

arrived at the club following the departure of last season’s

hero Nigel Pearson for the start of this campaign, said the

players know what real pressure is like.

“Last season was a big, big pressure for them,” said Ranieri.

“Now they can remember the pressure they faced last season.

They can smell how it was and stay calm now.

It seems now in retrospect that Ranieri is a coach who is adept at making his players by into

his winning philosophy.There has never been pressure because their target was 40 points to

avoid relegation and even when they were close to it and the media was asking, “what

next?”they never faltered in their unanimous answer,which was the goal of reaching 40

points.They have managed to keep their feet grounded and the fact that they are the

underdogs relieves them of the pressures of trying to keep up appearances,they can simply

attend to playing football with uncontaminated minds unlike the likes of

Arsenal,City,Manchester United who because of the name and money are constantly under a

microscope and therefore under tremendous pressure.

“There is pressure on other teams who have spent a lot of

money to win the Premier League or the Champions League.

Of course, they are nervous but it doesn’t matter to me. It is

not my problem.”

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ENRIQUE MATCHING AND OUT-DOING PEP AT EVERY TURN

By Football4eva10(T.Kusena)

 

Luis Enrique equalled Pep Guardiola’s best unbeaten run as

Barcelona head coach after the Spanish champions won 2-0

at Levante on Sunday.

David Navarro deflected Jordi Alba’s cross into his own net

but La Liga’s bottom club battled bravely against Barca, with

Jose Luis Morales rattling the post after beating Claudio

Bravo.

Lionel Messi had a goal unfairly disallowed for offside after a brilliant team play but Barca

ultimately clinched the win in stoppage time thanks to Luis

Suarez’s fine finish from a Leo Messi assist, ensuring Luis Enrique could celebrate his

100th game in charge with a victory.

Barca have now gone 28 games without defeat, drawing them

level with the record set by Guardiola’s side in the 2010-11

season.

“I am interested in collective

objectives, it’s nice to reach 100

games but there is still a long way

to go,” said Enrique. “We are well

placed in all competitions. These

kinds of statistics are fine and if

they help to win trophies then

perfect.”

“It’s good, it’s better to get to 100 (games) than 50 but figures

say nothing to me – I’m more interested in collective

objectives and winning league titles.

Enrique was of the opinion that his European champions had been put the test by a staunch Levante performance.

“These kind of games can suddenly turn complicated,” he

said.

“Today we were able to continue creating goal opportunities,

and Levante did too. It went against them that they had to

play against the wind in the second half but I thought we put

in a very complete display – if we hadn’t, Levante would have

put us in difficulties.”

Similarities between the two unbeaten runs

Stats LUIS ENRIQUE PEP GUARDIOLA

Wins 23 23

Draws 5 5

Goals for 86 85

Goals against 14 14

Top three

scorers

Suárez (30),

Messi (18),

Neymar Jr (17)

Messi (23), Villa

(15), Pedro (13)

Biggest win 7-0 v Valencia

(Copa del Rey)

8-0 at Almería (La

Liga)

Winning streak 10 10

Last defeat at Sevilla (2-1, La

Liga)

v Hércules (0-2,

La Liga)

Team position Liga leader, last

16 of Champions

League and in

Copa del Rey

semis

Liga leader, last

16 of Champions

League and in

Copa del Rey

semis

At Camp Nou 16 wins, 1 draw 13 wins, 2 draws

Away from

home

7 wins, 4 draws 10 wins, 3 draws

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LUIS ENRIQUE : CENTENARY

Football4eva10(T.Kusena)

Luis Enrique will take charge of Barcelona for the

100th time against Levante on Sunday, and he could

equal a Pep Guardiola club record.

Luis Enrique can equal a record set by Pep Guardiola when he

takes his Barcelona side to face Levante in La Liga on

Sunday, in what will be his 100th game in charge.

The Liga leaders stretched their unbeaten run in all

competitions to 27 matches when they thrashed Valencia 7-0

in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final on Wednesday,

equalling a tally set by Rinus Michel’s side in 1973-74.

Guardiola’s class avoided defeat for 28 consecutive games

between September 2010 and January 2011 before they were

eventually beaten by Real Betis, meaning Luis Enrique can

draw level with his former team-mate this weekend.

What Barça have achieved under Luis Enrique is, simply put,

brutal. In 99 matches they have won 79 times, drawn 11

and lost on just nine occasions. Not Pep Guardiola, not

Frank Rijkaard, not Louis van Gaal, not Johan Cruyff, not

Terry Venables, not Marinus Michels can better those

numbers. In addition, it’s been four months and 27 games

since Lucho’s side lost – the record is 28 matches under

Guardiola.

No-one has won as many games as Luis Enrique (79), no-one

has scored as many goals (280) and no-one has conceded

less (72).If he wins against Levante that will make it 80% wins,11%losses and 9%draws just pit it  into a perception of the quality produced. His Barça side is a  class act setting a new standard in their almost flawless representation of the game, true that he has the

likes of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar helping him

along, but it’s also true that he has known how to get the best

out of his squad. His management is outstanding.

If there’s one thing he’s not leading on, though, it’s the

number of titles won. Guardiola, after 100 games, had won six,

while Luis Enrique has managed five. Still, he is only the

second ever Barça manager to win the treble and it’s just the

Spanish Super Cup which got away from him,considered to be the smallest

Trophy of the sextuple.

He will claim that it’s just another statistic and that

he pays little attention to these details as his humble nature will not permit him to accept accolades before they are bestowed. Despite his team claiming five of the

six available titles last season

his grasp and his team in

tremendous form this season, it was the slow start to

his time at the club that still troubles the Asturian.

There was a point during the 2014/15 season where

many were calling for his dismissal despite the

coach being able to address internal problems and

with that out if the way the  team was virtually  unstoppable from mid-January 2015

onwards.

He had a well-documented falling out with Leo Messi

but was able to resolve the fractured relationship.

“He has a clear vision and always wants to be

successful. He’s on the road to repeating last

season’s haul of titles and he demands the utmost

from his squad”. The words of one of his support

staff at the FC Barcelona ‘ Ciutat Esportiva’ upon

being asked about the first team coach.

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