Thursday 7 August 2008

The Champions League qualifying team (part 2)

Catalan sports paper Sport claims that Barcelona manager Guardiola has almost the team in place that will play the qualifying round for this season's Champions League.

You find the team below. Iniesta and Keita will certainly play, but where they will play will depend on Yaya Touré playing or not. If Touré plays, then Keita and Iiniesta move one line up and the only doubt would then be between Pedro or Hleb to replace Messi at the right, with Pedro being the favourite.



Valdés

Alves
Márquez
Puyol
Abidal

Xavi
Keita (or Touré)
Iniesta (or Keita)

Pedro (or Hleb)
Henry
Hleb (or Iniesta)


Compare with the team put forward by Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo here

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Xavi
Touré
Keita

Hleb
Henry
Iniesta

I think experience is important, still early for pedro to take this responsibility, but i wonder Y eto is not an alternative, as it seems he is staying and he was much better than henry in friendlies, could it mean that eto is not 100% staying so they dont want him to be cup tied?
Guardiola...u made a big mess man...i believe in u but at the moment...hm...i'm scratching my head...

Anonymous said...

ETO'O??? I think :
valdes
alves - marquez- puyol- abidal
keita/toure
xavi hleb
iniesta

eto'o henry

I guess Eto'o is not playing just to be sold for more money if he not playing in qualifying round.

Louis said...

well it seems like they want to make a decision before the qualifiers star t and at the moment it looks like eto'o's staying so actually he should be the first attacker to be guaranteed a place as he has played the most convincing preseason... i'm also kinda scratching my head... i hope we'll have no problems with eto'o this season but i doubt that as he's a very sensitive person with a lot of pride... i still think it was wrong from the very beginning to announce officially that deco, ron and eto'o were not in our plans... the result was that their market price decreased heavily and that the players' pride and loyalty to the club was scratched which could lead to problems now with eto'o staying... well but i'm still optimistic that we will once again be one of our most important players!

Louis said...

that he(eto'o) will be..

Anonymous said...

I agree with Anonymous that would be the best team to field
"valdes
alves - marquez- puyol- abidal
keita/toure
xavi hleb
iniesta

eto'o henry"

Anonymous said...

Ppl, Barsa is playing against Wisla/ Beitar after all: this can be done without Eto'o, Messi etc.
I want to see Pedr(it)o in action again; judging by the press and a lot of reviews here, he's been quite a player. It'd be nice to c how he'd fare in official matches.

So the following triangle should do the job:

Keita
Xavi - Iniesta
Hleb - Henry - Per(it)o

Anonymous said...

i wouldn't be so confident. bigger upsets have happened. if valdes played like he did yesterday, and, say, give up an early away goal, we could be in trouble.

i think we need both henry and eto'o. wheres bojan btw?

Anonymous said...

Alves-Marquez-Puyol-Abidal
Xavi-Toure-Keita
Hleb-Eto'o-Bojan

thats a for sure winning team right there

Anonymous said...

im sure eto'o will play!

Unknown said...

As long as they keep winning i dont care who plays if they deliver the results that is all it matters guys

cojonudo said...

If Eto'o is staying why wouldn't Guardioloa play him? He's clearly the best striker on the team, regardless if they "need" him or not.

I also wonder if Hleb playing as a winger is a temporary move due to Messi's absence or if this is going to be his "spot" under Guardiola's system? Although I have to say I feel a lot better about Hleb playing on the wing than Iniesta.

Seeing that their first leg is at home I imagine Barcelona may opt for a more "offensive" minded look, which would mean Keita probably sits and Iniesta takes his place. Unless of course Pep changes his mind and decides to flank Iniesta off the wing.

I also wouldn't be surprised to see Eto'o or Henry sub for eachother. Something tells me they both won't be on the pitch at the same time.

Anonymous said...

Messi

Messi
Messi
Messi
Messi

Messi
Messi
Messi

Messi
Messi
Messi

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