Barca target win sans Messi

Sep 22, 2010 |

Madrid, Sept. 21: Champions Barcelona go in search of their first league home win of the season on Wednesday when they host Sporting Gijon at Camp Nou.

Pep Guardiola’s side lost 2-0 to promoted Hercules in their first home match in the league but have bounced back with a 5-1 routing of Panathinaikos in the Champions League and a fine 2-1 win at rivals Atletico Madrid on Sunday.

Barca sit sixth, one point behind Real Madrid and three points behind leaders Valencia, but must do without star man Lionel Messi for the next 10 days after the Argentine damaged ligaments in his right ankle in the final minute of the Atletico win.

Messi was the subject of a robust challenge from Czech defender Tomasz Ujfalusi who was sent off for the challenge which left Guardiola seething.

“We are happy with the Atletico win and it could have finished 5-1 with the number of chances we had,” said Guardiola. “However, we are sad about the Messi incident. It is not only Cristiano Ronaldo (of Real Madrid) who needs protecting. The referees should protect all the players.”

With Messi out the goals burden falls more on the shoulders of Spanish striker David Villa, who hopes to add to the solitary league goal he scored on his debut.

It will be a special game for Villa who started his career at hometown club Sporting Gijon before becoming a world star with Valencia, Spain and now Barcelona.

Villa’s old club Valencia were expected to struggle without his goals but the 2004 league champions top the table on a perfect nine points two ahead of Sevilla and Real Madrid. Valencia host Atletico Madrid on Wednesday looking to maintain their flawless start to the campaign.

Fixtures
On Wednesday: Osasuna vs Real Sociedad
Athletic Bilbao vs Real Mallorca
Real Madrid vs Espanyol (12.30 am)
On Thursday: Barcelona vs Sporting Gijon
Valencia vs Atletico Madrid (12.30 am)
On Friday: Getafe vs Malaga
Villarreal vs Deportivo La Coruna
Sevilla vs Racing Santander (12.30 am) — all times IST

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/33967" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-234ceb550747135940ada0f2fd3e9c6e" value="form-234ceb550747135940ada0f2fd3e9c6e" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="89090880" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>