Saturday, October 26, 2013

First El Clasico of the Season is it Messy v Ronaldo or Bale v Neymar


Barcelona will host Real Madrid in the Nou Camp for the eagerly anticipated latest installment of the El CLassico. Both teams have had a change of manager during the summer as Barcelona led by Tarto Martino has led the team to the summit of the table while Madrid led by former Chelsea and Milan coach Carlo Ancellotti are just three points behind the league leaders.

Barcelona vs Real Madrid

Date/Time:26 October 2013 16:00 GMT
Competition:Spain La Liga
Live/Repeat:Live
Venue:Camp Nou (Barcelona)

After dropping their first points of the season last week, Barcelona will be hoping to re-open the gap to six ahead of their rivals from the Bernabeu. Conversely, a win for Real could send Ancelotti's side to the top. Quite a feat considering the indifferent nature of their start to the season.

In recent years, this clash has been billed as Lionel Messi v Cristiano Ronaldo, and while the duo are likely to play huge roles, most of the pre-match talk will centre on two new faces, Neymar and Gareth Bale. Both Bale and Neymar are ready for the debut in the clash. Coach Carlo Ancelotti said "It is important to get match time, his fitness is better and he is ready to play a match now," When Neymar says "It's the match every player wants to play in. It's the game where each player wants to play his best football." He added: "This will be my first Clasico and I hope to have a great debut, preferably with a victory."

None of the team has got big injury crisis as Barcelona defender Gerard Pique has recovered from his injury and is available for selection but Jordi Alba and Ibrahim Afellay remain ruled out. Real Madrid will be without long-term injury victim Xabi Alonso, but Carlo Ancelotti has the rest of the squad available.

Goals, fights, red cards and controversy usually dominate El Clasicos. Saturday is expected to be no different. Now it is to see that is Barca’s winless streak in El Clasico is going to finish or Real can win the clash and goes equal in point table with Barca.

Friday, October 25, 2013

Will Manchester United go a third home league game without a win.


Manchester United go in search of their second home Barclays Premier League victory of the season when they entertain Stoke City on Saturday. David Mosey' side have won just one from four Premier League matches at Old Trafford this season, and struggled to a 1-0 victory against Real Sociedad in the Champions League on Wednesday. David Moyes' men could go three matches without a home victory in the Premier League for the first time since October 2005 should Stoke deny them three points this weekend.


Manager David Moyes has confirmed Robin van Persie should be fit to return for Manchester United for the match against Stoke. Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic could return but Danny Welbeck and Tom Cleverley are unlikely to figure.

Rooney is great form and Wayne Rooney shone against Real Sociedad, and his statement afterwards about having "a new lease of life" under Moyes was something else to make the manager smile. Rooney's past history with his first mentor was meant to be a problem but it's working out as quite the opposite.

Meanwhile Michael Carrick feels Manchester United need to be more ruthless in attack as they look to turn around a below-par start to the season. He told reporters: "We're creating chances and opportunities and the attacking lads are looking dangerous. It's just not falling for them at certain times."You're concerned more when you're not creating chances and the lads aren't getting opportunities, but with the quality that we have I think they'll start going in a lot more."

Manchester Supporter may feel happy to know that Getting anything away to Manchester United has been difficult for even longer, with Stoke beaten in every one of their last 10 visits and winless since 1976.

Given all that, United surely won't go a third home league game without a win, will they? No book has the answer to that. So watch the match and know it on 26 Oct 2013.