Andrés Iniesta suffered an injury relapse in training today and will be out for a month and miss both legs of Barca’s semi-final with a torn thigh muscle.
Zlatan Ibrahimovich is making slow progress and will be touch and go for the first leg due to his recent calf injury.
I guess most of the focus will be on the Barca v Inter game but the other match should be a decent contest too.
Interesting to see where the various contenders are standing in their leagues:
Barca are 6 points ahead of Real (who play against Almeria tonight I think) with 6 games to go (Real have 7). They have a tricky run-in so are by no means home and dry but they’re in great form domestically and have the head-to-head edge over Real too so are likely league winners. No prospect of resting players though for the semi-final anyway. None of the contenders do.
Inter are in second place, a point behind Roma. They have 5 games to go. They’re in mixed form domestically and are showing signs of running out of steam. Not a great background to playing the competition favourites.
Lyon are in third place a full 7 behind Marseille. With Auxerre in the mix as well it’s unlikely they’ll be mounting a title challenge. They’re only ahead of Montpellier on goal difference and Bordeaux are 2 points behind (and in bad form) with Lille within touching distance too. So with only 3 Champions League places up for grabs for French sides they’re in no position to rotate players.
And Bayern. They drew at the weekend with Schalke winning so their lead is down to 2 points with 4 games to go. Again no opportunity for them to rest players. This looked like being a brutal season for Bayern at one stage. They’re not a million miles away from a Bundesliga and a CL final though.
Bayern Munich defeated Hannover 7-0 earlier; Robben with a hat-trick and doubles for Olic and Muller.
It was mentioned on the La Liga coverage earlier that the volcanic ash issues may cause the games to be postponed. That wouldn’t do, it wouldn’t do at all.
i havet seen anythig from barca to fear tonight- without zlatan they wont beat us
Barca left for Milan by bus after training this afternoon. They’re overnighting in Cannes and going onto Milan from there on Monday morning. It’s around a 15 hour journey apparently.
Just as well Ronaldinho is not there anymore with the Cannes stopover. Could they not have chartered a TGV with luxury sleeper carriages or something?
I hope they’re fucking proud of themselves in Iceland, subjecting the greatest team in the world to this inconvenience. They couldn’t wait until after the soccer season starts could they? Oh no, bloody Iceland, just because they can’t pay their IOU’s and its cold there.
There’s no doubt in my mind that this is a deliberate disruptive action by the Icelanders against Barca for not picking Eidur Gudjohnsen more.
In other news, Thierry Henry used Barca’s overnight stopover in Cannes to pick up the famous Palm d’Or (Golden Hand) award for Best Handball of the Year. Well deserved.
I can’t wait for the two games this week and the two games next week.
They should be tactically fascinating affairs and I’m particularly eager to see how Barcelona line out. It’s telling that with Zlatan injured recently, Henry hasn’t just found himself behind the likes of Pedro and Bojan in the pecking order; he’s also lost out to Dani Alves and Maxwell in a couple of Pep’s recent unexpected line-outs. That cunt shouldn’t be involved any more - he’s done.
I anticipate that Inter will adopt a similar style to that so impressively put into practice by Espanyol the other night in the Catalan capital derby. Rocko is the nerd with all the stats on ground covered and pass completion rates but I’ve rarely seen Xavi as flustered as he was the other night. Thiago Motta generally covers huge amounts of ground for Inter and I predict that he will be haring around the midfield and staying very close to Xavi to try to disrupt Barca’s passing game.
One of the best ways of negating Messi’s influence (in so far as that is possible) is cutting the supply from Xavi - even the high profile example of the recent Clásico showed Messi scoring twice from four clear chances and Xavi playing the killer assist for each.
But the most crucial aspect for Barca in potentially overcoming Inter’s likely high octane, spoiling tactics will be if Zlatan is available from the start. Anybody who watched the game on Saturday night and a handful of others this season when Xavi and/or Messi have been held would have noted that, when the short passing game was breaking down and lighter players like Pedro were getting physically dominated, Barca really needed Zlatan as an out ball. We all know he can take the ball in under severe pressure, control it instantly with his chest or either foot and allow the likes of Messi to play off him. That in turn allows the whole team to push up the park in unison and gives them a footprint in the opposition half.
As usual, this game is all about Zlatan. If he plays, and is fully fit, Barca will win.
Barca bus stops for sweets on the way to Milan:
http://img361.imageshack.us/img361/8519/26814851.jpg
The excellent Sid Lowe making the same points about Zlatan on Off The Ball now that I made above earlier.
I bought a Lionel Messi lollipop in Lanzarote once.
A mere 5 hours to go to what promises to be a spectacular encounter. 
Yeah-can’t wait.
The Milito brothers should be marking each other too I’d say-interesting battle there.
A 1-0 at least please.
Any word on Zlatan?
I haven’t been speaking to him but I read that he’s starting, Pikeman.
Jose is an alright sort and my godson is Milanese so " Forza Inter "
Inernazionale 0 FC Barcelona 1 (Busquets 59)
Sid, please post official results in spoiler code if you’re posting them ahead of kick-off.
Pretty sure Jose’s main tactics will be to frustrate Barcelona tonight and hope to knick a goal or two. Xavi’s supply will probably be restricted and Inter probably try to crowd midfield. Hope its a belter.