Ramai peminat Real Madrid yang sedang dilamun kecewa hari ini disebabkan kekalahan besar kepada Barcelona. Apa nak kisah. Ini liga. Anytime boleh kejar. Contohi MU. Dia ikut Chelsea dah lama pastu skang dia sudah potong.

Perlawanan petang ni confirm jadi. Transit akan bergerak dari utp jam 4.15 petang. Ramai yang akan naik transit. Ketua rombongan kali ini ialah faiz dan pemandunya ialah wan Jaafar. Doa-doa le hari tak hujan. Dianggarkan seramai 25000 warga ipoh akan lalu depan padang ipoh petang ni. Main elok-elok.

Diminta player jangan lupa mandi hadas juga kerana kita akan solat maghrib di masjid negeri. Selepas itu minum di vanggey.(tertakluk keizinan driver).

Akhir kata, sham lebam cuti 2 hari. Tujuan dia cuti sebab nak focus pada game petang ni dan berharap dapat score lagi.

Meeting taktikal pukul 9.15 di Moon Bistro…………jumpa anda disana. Dogek nak kena amik depan kuil benggali ke???

It was said that Monday night's game at Camp Nou - hyped like few other domestic league ties in the history of the game - would settle two raging debates: who are the best team in the world, and who is the best player in the world? If this solitary match could be said to be decisive in that regard, then the judgement was emphatic. It left no room whatsoever for argument.

Barcelona, conducted magisterially by Xavi and Andres Iniesta - the Lennon and McCartney of midfield double acts - and led on the frontline by the clinical talents of Lionel Messi and David Villa, ran riot against Real, inflicting a career-worst defeat on Jose Mourinho - the man recruited by Real this summer to break down Barca's domestic hegemony after he ended their European supremacy at Inter Milan.

And, while there was no goal from Messi, his first failure to score in 11 games for his club, the Barca star still produced a masterclass in incisive possession football, supplying two wonderful assists for both of Villa's second-half goals. As his erstwhile competitor for the title of the world's most best player, Cristiano Ronaldo, postured pointlessly, indulged in stepovers and became embroiled in a spat with Pep Guardiola, Messi, in his usual understated style, did what he does best: tear teams apart.

In fact, on this evidence, Ronaldo is not the best player on the globe. Nor is he the second or third. In Messi, Iniesta and Xavi, Barcelona possess three players who will be among the all-time greats when the history books are written. Watching them combine in such intuitive and mesmeric style is a treat.

But prior to kick-off, comparisons between the two sides were legitimate. Just one point separated leaders Real from Barca in the table prior to kick-off, and only three separated them at the end of last season when Real secured 96 points, only to be surpassed by Barca with 99. However, these are two clubs divided by geography, politics and culture. Hatred festers in this corner of Iberia for the Madridistas, and the feeling is mutual.

A divide is also evident in the way the two teams have been constructed. Notable exceptions such as David Villa aside, Barca have turned inwards to the academy graduates supplied by La Masia, while Real have instead relied on the chequebook of Florentino Perez. The fact that the final coup de grace was a cross from Bojan, converted by Jeffren - two more acolytes of a finely-honed youth system and philosophy - will only have further underlined that at this juncture in the story of one of football's great rivalries, Barca are on the right side of history. The school defeated the bank.

Real played their part, but not in the way they had intended. Mourinho had said in the build-up to Monday's much-anticipated encounter that "we have to give the world a super game", and his team selection certainly contributed to a spectacle. Picking Karim Benzema ahead of Lass Diarra in place of the injured Gonzalo Higuain was a positive move - discarding suggestions that, as he had done at Inter, Mourinho's intent, in his own vernacular, would be to park the bus - but it left Sami Khedira and Xabi Alonso exposed and utterly dominated by Sergio Busquets, Xavi and Iniesta.

This was a rout of embarrassing proportions, giving Barcelona extra reason to celebrate their 111th anniversary. Remarkably, it is arguably not even the side's most emphatic victory over Real during Guardiola's time at the club - that honour falls to a 6-2 hammering at the Bernabeu en route to the Treble in 2009.

But the appointment of Mourinho was supposed to safeguard against a repetition. Secured at some cost from Inter over the summer, having succeeded Guardiola in winning the Treble, Mourinho was the tormentor of Barca, the man who asphyxiated them in the Champions League semi-final last season.

But in the face of a Barcelona side that plays some of the finest football ever seen, and that possesses technicians of the ability of Messi, Iniesta and Xavi, even he is rendered impotent it seems.

Of course, Mourinho has never been known as the Special One in Catalunya - instead his nickname is El Traductor (The Translator) - a derogatory title designed to denigrate his role at the club when acting as an assistant to Bobby Robson and Louis van Gaal. On Monday night, as Real were submerged by a Blaugrana flood, Mourinho, Ronaldo and his team looked very ordinary indeed.

Article Source: ESPN Soccernet

Chelsea makin merosot prestasinya. Asyik kalah dan seri saja. MU masih belum kalah lagi. Liverpool pula terumbang-ambing macam yo-yo.

Petang ni kita training dengan gigih untuk persiapan game esok di padang ipoh. Beberapa pemain telah mengesahkan nak naik transit iaitu faiz, Yusri, Fatimie.
Sape lagi nak join naik transit? Surat pelepasan balik awal sedang diuruskan oleh CEO Zaaba. Faiz akan call Azad ajak naik transit.

Wartawan sedang mendapatkan info dari dogek tentang game dia di singapura dan di bangi.

Selamat kembali kepada fuad yang menghadiri kongres PKR. Menunggu gambarnya dengan Nurul izzah.

What can I say? I admire this team since I know World Cup in 1994. However this is the miserable performance for the Azzuri.

By Stephen Darwin

Kick-off Wednesday, February 10, 2010 – 19:45 GMT
Villa Park, Birmingham

In what is becoming an all too familiar scenario this season, Manchester United take on Aston Villa with the chance of regaining top spot in the Premier League - if only for 15 minutes.

With Chelsea travelling to Goodison Park to tackle Everton in one of the two late kick-off's on Wednesday evening, United can leapfrog Carlo Ancelotti's Blues with a win at Villa Park - a ground that has proved a happy hunting ground for the Red Devils in the past.

Sir Alex Ferguson's charges have won nine of their last 13 Premier League games away to the Villans, although Martin O'Neill's current Villa side are arguably stronger than they have ever been in seasons gone by.

Having picked up the notable scalp of beating the champions at Old Trafford back in December, Villa have only lost two games in all competitions since then and are currently on an eight-match unbeaten run.

United haven't lost in the league since their capitulation at the hands of Fulham in the middle of December and, with an attack spearheaded by the superlative Wayne Rooney, have been in scintillating form of late.

Villa certainly have as good a chance as ever of claiming a Champions League spot this season and victory over United would undoubtedly provide a decent springboard for O'Neill's side to go on and mount an assault on fourth place.

FORM GUIDE

Aston Villa

6 Feb: Tottenham Hotspur 0-0 Aston Villa (Premier League)
30 Jan: Fulham 0-2 Aston Villa (Premier League)
27 Jan: Aston Villa 0-0 Arsenal (Premier League)
23 Jan: Aston Villa 3-2 Brighton (FA Cup)
20 Jan: Aston Villa 6-4 Blackburn Rovers (League Cup)

Manchester United

6 Feb: Manchester United 5-0 Portsmouth (Premier League)
31 Jan: Arsenal 1-3 Manchester United (Premier League)
27 Jan: Manchester United 3-1 Manchester City (League Cup)
23 Jan: Manchester United 4-0 Hull City (Premier League)
19 Jan: Manchester City 2-1 Manchester United (League Cup)

TEAM NEWS

Aston Villa

England front man Emile Heskey is a doubt with a groin injury after he limped out of Saturday's 0-0 draw with Tottenham Hotspur.

John Carew is likely to step in to replace the former Liverpool man but left-back Stephen Warnock remains sidelined with a shin problem.

Possible starting XI: Friedel; L.Young, Collins, Dunne, Cuellar; Downing, Petrov, Milner, A.Young; Agbonlahor, Carew.

Manchester United

United continue to have problems at centre-back with Wes Brown and Jonny Evans likely to start at the heart of defence with Rio Ferdinand still banned and Nemanja Vidic doubtful with a leg injury.

Ferguson could call upon experienced duo Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes having rested the pair during Saturday's 5-0 demolition of Portsmouth.

Possible starting XI: Van der Sar; Evra, Brown, Evans, Rafael; Giggs, Scholes, Fletcher, Carrick, Valencia; Rooney.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Aston Villa - Gabriel Agbonlahor

Agbonlahor seems to enjoy playing against Manchester United far more than most having netted in four consecutive seasons against the Red Devils and he'll be desperate to build on the winning goal he notched at Old Trafford at the back end of last year on Wednesday night.

The 23-year-old's hopes of gaining a place in Fabio Capello's England squad for this summer's World Cup are surely fading although a flurry of goals before the season's end may just see him sneak on the plane jetting to South Africa.

Manchester United - Wayne Rooney

Having admitted that he's in the form of his life at present after scoring seven goals in his last four games, Rooney will once again take centre stage at Villa Park on Wednesday.

England's hopes of World Cup glory may just be resting squarely on his shoulders come June but with United pressing for honours both domestically and in Europe, the ex-Everton star's immediate attention will be focused on improving an impressive record that has seen him score five Premier League goals in his last six starts against the Villans.

PREDICTION

Villa's recent record of having lost just once in five Premier League games against the so-called 'Big Four' and given that they have the best defensive record in the league to boot, makes this a really difficult encounter to call.

That said, given that O'Neill's side have failed to score in their last three home games in the league and with Rooney's current form thrown into the mix, United should just come out on top.

Aston Villa 1–2 Manchester United