Three days after winning the La Liga title Barcelona have snapped up Valencia striker David Villa for €40 million.
After a board meeting at Valencia in the morning, their president Manuel Llorente said they had accepted Barca’s offer for the striker who scored 21 league goals last season to finish his fifth consecutive campaign as the club’s top scorer.
“We have sold David Villa to Barcelona for 40 million euros,” he told a news conference at the Mestalla.
On the international stage, Villa is Spain’s second highest scorer with 36 goals from 55 matches, eight short of Raul’s record, and he will be spearheading Spain’s World Cup campaign in South Africa next month.
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Inter Milan reached the Champions League final last night by beating Barcelona 3 – 2 on aggregate after having to play with only 10 men for more than an hour.
After losing last week’s semi-final first leg in Milan 3-1, Barca’s hopes of meeting Bayern Munich in Madrid on May 22 were lifted when Inter defender Thiago Motta clashed with Sergio Busquets in the 28th minute and was sent off.
The home fans filled the vast Nou Camp arena with noise and Barca dominated possession but struggled to create clear chances.
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Inter Milan made a brilliant comeback from 0 – 1 down to to beat title holders Barcelona 3-1 in the Champions League semifinal first leg at the San Siro on Tuesday.
Goals from Wesley Sneijder, Maicon and Diego Milito extinguished Pedro’s opener for Barca and sent the nerazzuri faithful into raptures ahead of next week’s second leg at Camp Nou.
It was a tactical masterclass from Jose Mourinho as his team wiped out memories of the footballing lessons Barca gave them in the group stages back in September and November.
Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola was magnanimous in defeat and refused to blame the team’s 14-hour coach journey for the loss.
“This can happen, especially when you’re playing in the semifinal of the Champions League and against Inter Milan,” he said.
“Of course it’s not ideal losing like this but we can still do it.
“The result is not good, we gave away too many balls, we can do better. This wasn’t our best game and Inter don’t make it easy for you to play.
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Log co-leaders Barcelona and Real Madrid will both be missing key players in their Spanish La Liga match tonight.
Madrid will be without Brazil playmaker Kaka, and Barcelona will be missing striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Kaka is still hampered by a groin injury while Ibrahimovic has failed to recover from a calf problem.
Both clubs have 77 points with eight games left to play.
Real Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini has called on his team to show no fear as it looks to overturn a three-game losing streak against the defending champions.
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Lionel Messi was on top form again at the Nou Camp on Tuesday night when Barcelona crushed Arsenal 4 – 1 in their Champions League encounter.
You know a player is very good when the opposition’s manager hits world headline praising him. Arsene Wenger, Arsenal’s manger is singing Lionel Messi’s praises at the top of his voice this morning in spite of the fact that the Argentinian national wiped his team out of the Champions league single handedly with a crushing 4 -1 victory.
The night started off OK for Arsenal when Nicklas Bendtner fired the Gunners into a shock lead on 18 minutes. But their joy was short-lived as Messi struck a brilliant 21-minute hat-trick, before compounding Arsenal’s misery with a fourth late on.
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Arsenal’s European dream alive by Cesc Fabregas after the Gunners came from 2-0 down to draw the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Barcelona at Emirates Stadium last night.
The Spaniards had lived up to their billing as favourites following a blistering start and a second-half double from Zlatan Ibrahimovic looked to have all but killed off the tie.
However, Theo Walcott came off the bench to pull a goal back before Fabregas – who will miss the second leg at his old club after being booked – smashed in a late penalty after Carles Puyol was sent off for fouling the midfielder in the box.
While Barcelona will still be favourites to progress, Arsene Wenger’s young side again showed great character and could yet prove their doubters wrong once more with a similarly courageous display in the Nou Camp.
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Barcelona beat Stuttgart 4 – 0 to cruise into the Champions League last eight with Lionel Messi scoring two magic goals.
Messi struck a brilliant opener after just 12 minutes to put Barca 2-1 ahead in the last-16 tie, and he played a key role soon after as Pedro Rodriguez made it 2-0 on the night in the Nou Camp.
Messi, who was a constant menace, added a third on the hour mark to take his tally to eight goals in the last four games before Bojan Krkic completed the romp late on as Barca became Spain’s only representative to make it into the last eight.
Real Madrid, whose Bernabeu stadium will stage this year’s final, and Sevilla were both dumped out in the last week while Atletico Madrid bade farewell to the competition in the group stages.
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According to Cadena Ser Radio in Spain Cesc Fabregas, Arsenal captain and star midfielder, has struck a verbal agreement with Barcelona to join the Champions League Champions next season.
“There is a firm agreement between Barca and Cesc Fabregas even if it is only verbal,” the Spanish station reported without citing its sources.
“Several meetings have taken place and, following those meetings, Cesc told Barca that he wanted to rejoin them from next season,” it added.
Cadena Ser said the deal would be subject to agreeing a fee with Arsenal.
The reigning Spanish champions have neither confirmed nor denied the report.
Fabregas, a 22-year-old Spanish international, is Arsenal’s top scorer with 14 goals in all competitions this season and is under contract with the Gunners until 2014.
But his future has once again been the subject of much speculation this season and media reports have consistently linked him with a return to La Liga.
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Barcelona have started talks with their star striker Lionel Messi to upgrade his current contract. “Relations between the two sides are very good,” club president Joan Laporta said.
Messi’s entourage “knows that Barca want the player to feel good here… We are proud to have him in the team because he is the best player in the world.”
The negotiations are continuing “at a good pace,” he said.
The 22-year-old is under contract with Barca until 2010. His salary is estimated at eight million euros per year.
Coach Pep Guardiola said meanwhile said that the arrival of Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic will help keep Messi on his toes, and that’s what he needs.
“If Leo isn’t under pressure, he gets bored,” he said.
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Barcelona outclassed Manchester United last night by beating them 2 – 0 in the UEFA Champions League final played in Rome, Italy.
Goals from star forwards Samuel Eto’o and Lionel Messi gave the Catalans a deserved victory and denied United from becoming the first team to retain the title since the European Cup became the Champions League in 1993.
It gave the Spaniards a unique treble having already won their domestic league and cup and meant they repeated a feat United achieved in 1999, which Red Devils boss Sir Alex Ferguson had then claimed would never be matched.
It crowned a marvellous debut season for his Barcelona counterpart Pep Guardiola, who at 38 becomes the youngest coach to take European club football’s greatest prize.
For Thierry Henry it ended years of frustration especially when his then team Arsenal lost to Barcelona in the 2006 final.
“Finally I have won it! I have been waiting for so long for this moment,” said the France great, whose daughter celebrated her birthday as well on Wednesday.
“The last five minutes were the longest of my life. Even if we were 2-0 up we were playing the best team in the world (referring to the world club championship title United won earlier this year).”
Barca overcame early jitters to dominate large parts of the game as the English club never managed to get their usual high tempo game into gear.
In a clash billed as the match of the century pitting the best two teams in the world – with each one boasting one of the best two players in the world – only one played to their full potential.
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