And when the French Magazine, France Football decided to release the names of the 30 players shortlisted to be finally nominated the Ballon d’Or, or the European Footballer of the Year, Barcelona leads the way with 5 of its starting eleven from the last terms Triplete winning side featuring in it. And we have Zlatan too on the list whereas Samuel Eto’o features in it as an Inter player after being an instrumental player last year in our triumphs before his services were snapped with the majestic, lanky magician from Sweden.

So the buck stopped, Barca could not continue their winning march in La Liga, and should probably feel lucky not having lost the game at the Mestalla. Real Madrid won their game at home against Real Valladolid and have now come up to a point within us. Zlatan and King Henry did not start the game still nursing knocks they picked up on International duty with Swedenand France respectively, leaving the very tired looking Messiah, Iniesta and Pedro to do the work of scoring the goals. However that was never meant to be and Valencia threatned from time to time but were only able to secure a 0-0 draw.

The Defending Champions of the King’s Cup or the Copa Del Rey, Barcelona have drawn minnows Cultural Leonesa in the last 32 of the competition. It will be a 2 leg affair with the first game away in Leon on October 28th and the return leg on November 10 in the Camp Nou.

One of the most awaited La Liga fixtures till date this season between Barcelona and Valencia has been shifted to Saturday now with the kick off scheduled at 22:00 CET at the Mestalla.

The most successful Barca Manager to date, Johan Cruyff, has talked at length to the Barca Official Website on the new show called ‘Recorda Míster’ (Remember Boss), and discussed at length everything related to his time as a player and coach at Barcelona and about football in general. The inaugural programme is the first of a three-part series on Johan Cruyff, who holds the record for consecutive seasons in charge of the first team. This first episode is entitled “Put the pieces in their position and don’t let them leave it”. He admits: “The result’s not everything, only a part” and while he recognises the importance of the result, he focuses on “good football”.

Johan Cruyff has come out in the open after all the dust has settled on the Big and Shiny new contract of our Messi(ah) and in characteristic fashion criticised the Length of the New Contract till 2016. According to the Dutch Legend who masterminded our famous Dream Team in the 90’s, Barcelona were wrong in extending the deal till 2016 and did so in fear of Florentino’s second inning at Madrid and their Big Spending capability. Lets look into Messi’s new contract, his growth at the club and Cryuff’s opinion:

Playing Almeria at the Camp Nou was not expected to be the toughest game Barca was going to play this season up till now but that it what it turned out to be. No one was expecting a scrappy game at home and we were supposed to have repeated our last year’s performance when we thrashed them 5-0 at home. We had to rely on one moment of magic from our latest Cantera product, Pedro to seal the game. This win also puts the current team in the record books as they equalled the best ever start to La Liga with 6 wins out of 6.

Dynamo Kiev was not expected to provide the kind of resistance they showed last night at Nou Camp in the Champions League encounter with the regining Champions but the Holders came through with a goal in both halves thanks to Messi and the Newcomer Pedro. Dynamo played a typical game against Barca by having as many men as possible behind the ball when Barca were in possession and then trying to hit us on the counter from time to time. Led by the Legendry but at the end of an illustrious career, Sheva, Dynamo had more than their fair share of chances in this game and Barca kept their noses ahead thanks only to the precision shown on 2 occasions by Messi and Pedro.