Ibrahimovic and Messi, two strikers on form

On Wednesday, AC Milan’s Swedish striker will be face to face with Barça’s Argentinian, two of Europe’s most lethal strikers at the moment The Swede has scored 22 goals in 23 league games so far, while the Barça star is the provisional top scorer in the Spanish league with 35 goals in 28 outings

Squad arrives in Milan

Barça landed in Milan at 12.00 and have been taken to their hotel, where they will rest before training this evening at 19.00 The FC Barcelona expedition gathered on Tuesday morning at 9.30 at the Camp Nou and were transferred to El Prat Airport. The charter flight to Milan left at 10.30 and landed around 12.00. Once in Milan, the team made its way to the hotel, where they will rest before going to the San Siro for the final training session before Wednesday night’s match. The session will start at 19.00, before which Guardiola and Piqué will be speaking to the media. President Sandro Rosell leads an expedition that also includes vice presidents Bartomeu, Faus and Cardoner plus directors Moix, Monés, Guinovart, Bordas and Arroyo.

An exciting week of football awaits

FC Barcelona face a busy week with two really attractive games – Wednesday’s Champions League clash in Italy against Milan and then the La Liga game against Athletic Bilbao on Saturday at the Camp Nou There are two big matches for Pep Guardiola’s side as March comes to an end. After Sunday’s day off following their win in Mallorca, the players trained at the Ciutat Esportiva this morning and on Tuesday they will be flying out to Milan, where they will train, at the Giuseppe Meazza at 19.00 on Tuesday evening. On Wednesday at 20.45 Milan and Barça meet in the first leg of the Champions League quarter finals as Barça strive for their tenth win on the run. In Milan till Friday The players will stay in Italy on Thursday and train at midday at the Centro Sportivo Faccheti on the outskirts of Milan, before returning on Friday morning in time for training at the Camp Nou at 13.00. Bilbao game on Saturday On Saturday at 12.30 the players will have a final training session before facing Athletic Bilbao at ten at night at the Camp Nou. The day after that, they will begin preparations for Tuesday’s return leg against Milan at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper.

Friday, ticket application process for the King's Cup final opens

The application process will close on April 4th at 19:00 The tickets, only available for Club members, start at €60 Barça have 20,000 tickets available, 13,600 are reserved for Club members and 3,400 are reserved for Supporters Clubs This Friday at 10:00, March 30th, the Club will open up the ticket petition process for the the King’s Cup final in Madrid against Athletic Bilbao (May 25th at 22:00). The process, which is exclusive to Club members, will be open until 19:00 on April 4th. It’s worth remembering that this process requires Club members to fill out an online application form on the Club’s website (www.fcbarcelona.com) starting this Friday. As usual, each member is allowed to petition for one ticket, however up to four members can be included on one application form, in the event that said members want to travel together. Members under the age of 12 are excluded from this process. Possible draw on the 10th All of the petitions will be handled after the established cutoff date. In the event that there are more petitions than there are tickets available, the Club, with the assistance of a notary, will hold a public draw on April 10th at 10:00. On the 10th, 11th and 12th, the Club will inform members that won a ticket, how and when to collect the ticket and finalise the payment process. You must have a bank card Completing the application process indicates that a member has the intention of buying a ticket. Therefore, after completing the application, members will be asked to input their bank card data. In the event that a ticket is granted the member’s card will automatically be charged the sum of the ticket price (€60). The difference will be paid at the ticket window should the member wish to upgrade their ticket (limited availability). Starting at €60 Prices for tickets for the King’s Cup final in Madrid against Athletic Club start at €60. In the event of applying for multiple tickets (one ticket per person, up to four persons on an application form), only one bank card’s data is required to reserve said tickets. If the charge defaults, the right to reserve a ticket is lost. 85% of the tickets for Club members The Vicente Calderón has a capacity of 50,000, each club will have 20,000 to give out to their fans, while the rest are reserved for the Spanish Football Federation. As usual, 85% of the tickets available for the final (17,000) are allocated to members (13,600) and Supporters Clubs (3,4000). The remaining 15% (3,000) are reserved for the Club for institutional and sponsorship purposes.

Two victories from three visits to Mallorca with Guardiola as manager

Pep Guardiola has lost once and won twice against Mallorca at the Iberostar Mallorca received Barça with an honour guard in the 2008/09 season after the Azulgrana side clinched the title the night before The Barça manager will take his team to Mallorca for the fourth time he took charge of the Barça bench in 2008/09. In total, the team under Josep Guardiola have won twice and lost once in the Balearic Islands. Honour guard from Mallorca The first year as manager, Guardiola lost at the Iberostar by 2-1. Before kickoff, however, Mallorca received Barça, La Liga champions, with an honour guard, due to Madrid’s defeat at the hands of Villarreal the previous day. For this reason, Guardiola sent out reserve-side players like Oier and Xavi Torres, and he reserved first-team players, with the exception of Alves, Abidal and Eto’o, who was fighting for the Pichichi award. After an early goal from Eto’o on 10 minutes, Arango and Santana both netted to give Mallorca the three points. Eto’o had one last chance to level for Barça on 93 minutes, but the penalty that Iturralde González called, but his shot was saved. Two last visits, two wins In the next season, 2009/10, Barça won by 0-1, taking three points that allowed Guardiola’s team to claim the top of the table. The goal, which came in the second half, was scored by Ibrahimovic. Last year the Azulgranas brushed Mallorca aside with a 0-3. In that hame, Barça was very effective, seeing that of their four shots on goal, three of them went in. The protagonists of the night were Messi, Villa and Pedro. It was Guardiola’s second victory at the Iberostar.

Guardiola: “We’ll try to be constant and do our job”

Pep Guardiola is still playing things cautiously despite the reduced distance between Barça and the leaders. “I still think they are a lot of points to win back”, he said He highlighted how 15 of the 19 players picked to go to Mallorca are products of the club itself

Mallorca - FC Barcelona: The chase continues! (0-2)

Goals from Messi and Piqué either side of half time gave Barça a vital win, with Thiago’s sending off the only negative as Guardiola’s men continue to hunt down the leaders
FC Barcelona beat Mallorca 0-2 tonight in a game that is bound to strengthen the group’s morale. Messi opened the scoring directly from a free kick in the first half and Piqué got the second with ten minutes left to play when the team were down to 10 men following Thiago’s second yellow. Despite being a man down, Guardiola’s team – with 9 home grown players on the pitch –never lost control of the game and took the three points to close the gap still further on Real Madrid.
The win was Barça’s ninth on the run and their seventh in La Liga since their defeat in Pamplona and the perfect preparation for Wednesday’s Champions League tie in Milan

Barça arrives in Mallorca

FC Barcelona have arrived to Palma de Mallorca where they will face off against the Balearic side at Iberostar stadium at 18:00 on Saturday. Even though the team usually travels on game day, on this occasion and given kickoff time, the squad and technical staff decided to go a day early and spend the night in the Balearic capital. The plane that carried the Barça expedition left El Prat Airport at 19:00 and landed at Palma de Mallorca Airport 35 minutes later. Josep Guardiola has taken 19 footballers with him to the island to face Mallorca, among the first-team players are two Barça B reservists: Montoya and Bartra. The Club will be represented by vice-presidents Javier Faus and Jordi Cardoner, director Ramon Pont and football director Andoni Zubizarreta.

Alves: “If we keep up this standard until the end, we’ll have plenty to enjoy”

Dani Alves told reporters today that the team will keep on competing right to the end: “Let’s hope we can keep up this standard until the end because I’m sure we’ll have plenty to enjoy” “We’re coming up to the key moments of the season and we're beginning to get the right balance between home games and away games” "We’ll keep on competing. The intensity and concentration we have in the league will help us in the rest of the competitions”

Afellay joins team-mates in training

Ibrahim Afellay, who was injured at the end of September, was able to train alongside his team-mates for part of today’s session Abidal was also on hand this morning to take part in a session primarily designed to recover from last night’s efforts Three of the Club’s rising talents, Gustavo (Barça B), and Jordi Quintillà and goalkeeper Joseph Fabrice Ondoa from the youth squads trained with the first team players

Gaining morale (0-2)

* Gaining morale (0-2) Two amazing goals from Xavi and Messi in the first half are enough to give Barça the victory over Sevilla

Barça to face Milan in Champions League quarter finals

Barça will be playing AC Milan in the last eight of the UEFA Champions league, with the return leg at the Camp Nou. If they reach the semi finals, they’ll play the winners of Benfica v Chelsea Milan will be Barça’s next opponent in the Champions league. The first leg will be played on March Wednesday 28 at the San Siro and the return on Tuesday 3th April at the Camp Nou. Whoever qualifies for the semis will be paired with either Benfica or Chelsea. The return leg of that encounter will be either at the San Siro or the Camp Nou. This means the two teams will be meeting again after already sharing a first round group. The sides drew 2-2 in Barcelona and Barça won 3.2 in Italy. It was thanks to that win that the Catalans topped the group, and the rossoneri ended up second. The full Champions League quarter final draw is as follows: APOEL v R.Madrid Marseille v Bayern Munich Benfica v Chelsea AC Milan v FC Barcelona Barça was represented at the draw in Nyon by the vice president for sport Josep Maria Bartomeu, the director of sport Andoni Zubizarreta and the Barça ambassador to UEFA Amador Bernabéu.

Mascherano: "Guardiola has unanimous support because of his way of doing things"

The Argentinian believes that we must respect the time being taken by Guardiola to decide his future "because he’s managed to get unanimity and support from the fans, the Club, and the players" He agrees with Xavi: "Which club would be ready for the most successful coach in their history to go?" "Everyone is free to make their own decisions. He's an adult and we should respect the time he's taking. Very often we players also take our time to decide whether to renew our contracts, and in this case everyone agrees: President, Board , fans, and players all want him to continue" "his way of doing things. It's not due to the titles, but by how he's achieved them" he added. In this sense, he agreed with what Xavi said on Tuesday: "

Puyol on Éric Abidal: “He’s in good spirits – he’s a strong person”

“He showed strength last season and he’ll do it again now” inisists the Barça captain Puyol explained that the players received the news this morning just before training bega: "just before we went out to start the session, the boss told us the news - it was an unpleasant surprise. Eric was there with us and afterwards we spoke with him, but what we said will be staying amongst ourselves. It's really him who has lifted us – he's so strong as he showed last season and I'm sure he'll show that again now". For Puyol: "things like this bring us all even closer together - the squad is strong and united, as I said, his attitude is an example to us all. It's a heavy blow. We had the same thing last year and we got through – we'll do it again and that will make us stronger"-

Good response after Champions League draw

The FC Barcelona first team have won the last ten games they’ve faced after a draw for the Champions League, whether it be the group stages, last 16, or quarter-finals In the Guardiola era we’ve witnessed 11 Champions League draws, and only after the first one did Pep’s team lose Whenever there is a draw for the Champions League the more immediate first team present goes into the background. The debate is always the same: will the team lose concentration when all the talk is about their future European rival and not the more immediate opponent? The answer is no: after 11 Champions League draws in the Guardiola era, FC Barcelona have won ten games and lost only one. Here are the details. Season 2008/09 August 28th, 2008. Draw for group stages DEFEAT - Numancia-FCB (1-0). League. Matchday 1 December 19th, 2008. Draw for last 16 VICTORY - Villarreal-FCB (1-2). League. Matchday 16 March 20th, 2009. Quarterfinal draw VICTORY - FCB-Malaga (6-0). League. Matchday 28 Season 2009/10 August 27th, 2009. Draw for group stages VICTORY - FCB-Shakhtar (1-0). European Super Cup December 18th, 2009. Draw for last 16 VICTORY - FCB-Estudiantes (2-1). World Club Cup. Final. March 19th, 2010. Quarterfinal draw VICTORY - Zaragoza-FCB (2-4). League. Matchday 27 Season 2010/11 August 26th, 2010. Draw for group stages VICTORY - Racing-FCB (0-3). League. Matchday 1 December 17th, 2010. Draw for last 16 VICTORY - Espanyol-FCB (1-5). League. Matchday 16 March 18th, 2011. Quarterfinal draw VICTORY - FCB-Getafe (2-1). League. Matchday 29 Season 2011/12 August 2th, 2011. Draw for group stages VICTORY - FCB-Porto (2-0). European Super Cup December 16th, 2011. Draw for last 16 VICTORY - Santos-FCB (0-4). World Club Cup. Final.

Eric Abidal to have a liver transplant

The Barça defender will be operated on in the next few weeks Here is the official medical communiqué from the Club medical services concerning Eric Abidal: "during the next few weeks, the player will undergo a liver transplant as a result of the progress of his liver disease. A transplant was considered an option from the start of his treatment a year ago. At the express wishes of the player, the Club asks that the maximum respect for the player's privacy be observed.

A Five Star Stadium

The Camp Nou has been the FC Barcelona stadium since 24th of September 1957, the date of it's inauguration It was still not big enough to cope with the surging interest in the team though, especially after the arrival of Hungarian superstar Ladislau Kubala and the new Barça stadium was built to replace it. The stadium was designed by architects Francesc Mitjans Miró and Josep Soteras Mauri, with the collaboration of Lorenzo García Barbón, and it was constructed between 1955 and 1957, using mainly concrete and iron. The whole project cost a staggering 288 million pesetas, which meant the club would spend the following years in heavy debt.

Barca B

Barça B * Top: Miño, Armando, Sergi Gómez, Ayala, Rafinha, Dos Santos, Rosell, Tello, Bartra, Sergi Roberto, Riverola, Masip. In the middle: Yon Álvarez, Carles Martín, Xavier Yanguas, Alfredo Pérez, José Ramón Callén, Carlos Hugo Garcia, Eusebio Sacristán, Joan Barbarà, Carles Busquets i Toni Alonso. Bottom: Cuenca (first team), Dalmau*, Montoya, Carmona, Lobato, Deulofeu, Femenía, Gustavo, Espinosa, Balliu, Planas, Rodri, Grimaldo.

First Team

 Top: Valdés, Muniesa, Fontàs, Abidal, Piqué, Busquets, Afellay, Keita, Pinto.
 Center: Montoya, Villa, Fàbregas, Unzué, Guardiola, Vilanova, Adriano, Maxwell, Mascherano.
Bottom: Thiago, Pedro, Alves, Iniesta, Puyol, Xavi, Messi, Alexis, Dos Santos.

History

1899 -1909 Foundation and Survival Gamper, the founder, conceived a sports club in Barcelona, with assistance from Catalans and foreigners FC Barcelona, founded in 1899 by a group of young foreigners living in Barcelona, was the result of the increasing popularity of football, and other British sports, across Europe. These origins have conferred upon the Club its intercultural identity, multi-sport focus and its deeply-rooted allegiance to Barcelona and Catalonia.

identity of the club

FC Barcelona is “more than a club” in Catalonia because it is the sports club that most represents the country and is also one of its greatest ambassadors

identity of the club

1. The slogan “more than a club” is open-ended in meaning. It is perhaps this flexibility that makes it so appropriate for defining the complexities of FC Barcelona’s identity, a club that competes in a sporting sense on the field of play, but that also beats, every day, to the rhythm of its people’s concerns. Also, for different reasons, FC Barcelona is “more than a club” for many people living elsewhere in Spain, who see Barça as a staunch defender of democratic rights and freedom.