Puyol: “We need to pick ourselves up"

The Barça captain was disappointed with the defeat to Madrid, but appealed to the fans to get behind the team

Puyol explained the players want to “get the Chelsea game started, so that we can put this defeat behind us and get on with things”
Carles Puyol spoke on the Barça TV programme “El Marcador” following the defeat to Real Madrid and explained: “we are all a bit down, like all the Barça fans- it’s a big blow for us because we really thought we were in with a chance to take the league title. We’ll not let our heads drop though – we’ll keep fighting till the end and do our best for the fans, even though we know that it’s pretty much impossible now”.
Despite the result, Puyol insisted: “this has been a very good season and now we have two competitions left to win – the Cup and the Champions League”.

Focus on Europe
Turning to Europe, Puyol believes: “we now have to focus on Tuesday – it’s a competition we are keen to win and we are close to another final.” Explaining the tactics the team need to employ against Chelsea, Puyol went on: “we have to be very aware of their counter attacks - I can see it being a similar game tactically to the Madrid match”. There’s still the chance that the two Spanish giants could meet in the Champions League final and for Puyol: “that would be a very attractive final, we’d have to see what would happen then, but for now we are centered on Tuesday”.
Finally, the Club captain sent the fans an upbeat message: “we have had some great seasons and we’ve all really enjoyed them. Sometimes you need to slip up in order to pick yourself up and I am sure that this team will be up there again. You have to judge all that we have achieved so far”.

The Barça players trained at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper this lunchtime with the focus very much on the visit of Chelsea to the Camp Nou on Tuesday night
The players who figured against Real Madrid last night did some light training, whilst the rest of the squad – together with Bartra and Montoya from Barça B and Bañuz, from the Youth team- had a more intense session.
With just two days to prepare for Tuesday’s Champions League semi final second leg, Guardiola put those players who played on Saturday night through a gentle warm down session, with the rest of the players, plus B team players Bartra and Montoya and Miguel Bañuz from the Youth team, having a more intense session.
The squad trained behind closed doors at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper, using the special Champions League ball and during the session the players and coaching staff congratulated the keepers coach Juan Carlos Unzué, whose birthday it is today.

Guardiola’s Barça have always reacted to setbacks with pride and a strong fightback – below we look at the three most difficult moments the team have overcome since 2008 With 13 trophies won out of the 16 they have contested, it’s clear that Guardiola’s team haven’t given the fans too many disappointments. The defeat against Madrid will of course be one, but if we look back at the way the team have reacted to bad results in the past, the omens are positive for this week’s game against Chelsea.

10/11:  defeat in the Cup Final and reaction at the BernabéuSaturday night’s was just the second defeat to Madrid under Guardiola- the first came in the 2010/11 Spanish Cup final, after which the team reacted positively with a 2-0 win over Osasuna and a 0-2 win in Madrid in the Champions League semi final that paved the way to last year’s historic European and domestic double.

09/10: defeat in Europe, then key win at VillarrealBarça’s defeat in the 2009/10 Champions League semifinal was followed by a run of four league wins that sealed the title, with the first one perhaps the most significant – a 1-4 win at Villarreal. That win was followed by victories over Tenerife (4-1), Seville (2-3) and Valladolid (4-0) and another League title, won with an amazing 99 points.

09/10: Cup knock out then four straight wins
After taking the six cups in 2009, Guardiola’s team first tasted disappointment when they were knocked out of the 2009/10 Spanish Cup by Seville in the last 16 round. The response from the team was impressive, beating Seville 4-0 in the league and then running up three more wins that went a long way to ensuring the league title.

16-match scoring streak in home Champions League games

Barça have not failed to score in a Champions League match played at home since April 28, 2009 Since then, they have scored an average of 2.93 goals in home fixtures Against AC Milan it is not only important to prevent the Italians from getting an away goal. Barça will also be required to produce goals. But in European fixtures at the Camp Nou, it is a rare occasion for the Catalans to fail to find the net. In fact, they have scored at least once in all 16 of their last European fixtures played at home. The last time they failed to find the target was way back on April 28, 2009, when they drew 0-0 with Chelsea in the Champions League semi finals. Since then, they have scored at least once in every home game played in two a half editions of the competition. In those last 16 games, Barça have scored 47 times, an average of 2.93 goals a game. The highest goalscorer in that time has been Leo Messi with 18 goals: 5 in 2011/12, 6 in 2010/11 and 7 in 2009/10.

Another very busy week

April is going to get off to an intense start for Barça, with their Champions League future at stake on Tuesday and the first of the last eight games of the league season coming up at La Romareda on Saturday.. The month gets off to a lively start for Josep Guardiola’s team with the second leg of their Champions League semi final against AC Milan on Tuesday evening at the Camp Nou. And there is another high-profile fixture at the weekend, with a trip to Zaragoza as Barça continue to work at reducing Real Madrid’s lead in the league, which they have already managed to cut down to six points. With just eight league games to go, Barça can’t afford to make any mistakes between now and the end of the season.

Iniesta: "We'll have our chance in La Liga"

The Barça midfielder, who scored the opener against Athletic, highlighted the competitive spirit of Bielsa’s team and Barça’s ability to combat the Basque’s play After the victory in La Liga, the Barça team is focusing on the return match of the Champions League quarterfinal against AC Milan Andrés Iniesta, who said it was difficult to beat the Basque team at the Camp Nou, said, “the game was very demanding, I think the team played a very good match. Athletic forced all of our players, from the keeper to the last player, to play well. We played a fantastic match.” The midfielder praised Barça’s rival: “they didn’t create a lot of goalscoring chances, but they demanded a lot of us. We have to give value to this victory, because if you lower the intensity at any moment against Athletic, they roll right over you.”

Tribute to Leo Messi

FC Barcelona paid tribute to Leo Messi with a giant banner in the Camp Nou before the match against Athletic Club Before the match, the Camp Nou showed the best goals from the best strikers in the history of the Club on the stadium’s giant video screens The Club is promoting the hashtags #etsunic and #sosgrande on Twitter to congratulate the footballer Lionel Messi received a tribute from FC Barcelona for beating César Rodríguez’ all-time historic top goal scoring record of 232 goals. Messi broke the legendary mark with a hat-trick against Granada, which took his tally to 234 goals in official matches. The Club organized the tribute for the Argentine to coincide with tonight’s match against Athletic Club. First, an event was scheduled for the family of César to hand over the honour to Messi’s family. The symbolic transfer of the historic record was made with a Barça jersey and President Sandro Rosell gave signed boots from both the goal scorers to the families of both footballers.