Barcelona UEFA Champions League Group F

One of the most exciting groups from Champions League draw was Group F, with Barcelona, Paris-Saint Germain, Ajax and an unfortunate fourth cypriot team, APOEL.

Barcelona

Barcelona last season was considered a disappointment, even with a second position finish in La Liga and reaching the quarterfinals of the Champions League. 

The disappointment tells you all about their incredible dominance in European football during the last few years. Old stars like Xavi and Andrés Iniesta are no longer crushing teams like the once were, but in Lionel Messi, Neymar and the new addition of Luis Suárez, they have the strongest and deepest forward in all of world football. 

Paris Saint-Germain

One of the richest clubs in the world, it’s quite remarkable that in their history, they only won two French titles prior to 1994. But they have now assaulted the Ligue 1 title with two consecutive wins, and their outstanding team will make it easy for them to be able to make it three. European success has been a little harder to come by, but they now have all the ingredients to be a genuine challenger. With Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva and Edinson Cavani in the team, it wouldn’t be a surprise if they topped Barcelona in the group

Ajax

One of the clubs with the longest story in European football, with four Champions League wins. However, since 1995, they have not tasted the victory in this competition, and it doesn’t seem that they are a genuine challenger. Nevertheless, under the supervision of bright young coach Frank de Boer, the current winner of the Eredivisie have introduced a group of talented young players, including Jasper Cillessen and Daley Blind, Dutch World Cup stars. It’s less likely for them to progress than Barça and PSG, but they may feel confident of squeezing through.

APOEL

The Group F whipping boys, Cypriot team APOEL, can be considered lucky if the pick up any points at all. Only back in 2012, the were able to reach the Champions League quarterfinals against all odds, loosing against Real Madrid. But since the lost of Ivan Jovanivic and other start players, they have struggled in the continental competition.

Suarez Barcelona reception

Sports newspaper Mundo Deportivo, reports that the Uruguay international Luis Suarez, bought from Liverpool, was thrilled and embarrassed by the reception when he was formally presented as a Barça player; he didn’t expect the ovation that waited him.

In his own words, “I was embarrased. I thought it would be a normal presentation as in any other team,” Suarez said.

“The standing ovation thrilled me so much, it caught my attention. I’ll reward them, the support of people helps me train every day and then I will compensate them on the pitch with hard work and sacrifice.

“I want to bring great things to this club.

“After many years in Europe, first at Ajax and then with Liverpool, my career was always growing to the next stage. And now it’s at the maximum, at the best team in the world.

“I want to obtain the titles that I saw from a distance for years, watching the teammates who are here, and I enjoyed it too.”

Per the terms of his ban for biting, Suarez will not be able to play during four months a game for Barça, until late October, with and interesting first game back against Real Madrid at Santiago Bernabeu.

Suarez also talked about the expectations and what it means to represent Barça during his introduction at Camp Nou.

“It’s challenging, fulfilling a dream,” he said.

“The dream of playing in this stadium, with these people, sharing a place on the pitch with my peers, they are the things I am hoping for.”

Neymar Jr rejoins squad for training

Continuing the preparation of the team for the second game against Villareal of the current league season, the good news on Wednesday was the return of Adriano back to full fitness, and another Brazilian, Neymar Jr, returned for the first time since spraining his ankle on August 21 during a training.

Neymar joined his teammates after a week of been put on a specific fitness routine alone at the Ciutat Esportiva. 

But other players like Rafinha, Vermaelen and Ter Stegen, are still working out separately from the other players, all exercising in different parts of the field as they battle to recover from their injuries.

Team principal Luis Enrique had twenty one team members to work with, awaiting the arrival of the latest singning, Douglas, due to arrive very shortly. On a day were the conversations were the Champions League group stage draw, held later today in Monaco, Luis Enrique also called on the services of Samper, Sandro and Munir from the B team.

On this Sunday, the “game of the week” is for Barcelona vs Villareal at El Madrigal. After an easy win match at home against Elche on the first match, Barça will meet Villareal.

The Yellow Submarine started the season with a good 2-0 win against Levant, and will love to knock off nothing more than the Blaugrana team to open their home schedule. But Villareal was unable to get a victory in either two of the last season league matches.

Read more about FC Barcelona soccer camps in Canada.

Munir Contract Extension

The new young star for Barcelona is Munir El-Haddadi. With an impressive pre-season showing with a total of four goals against HJK Helsinki and Club León, 18 year-old Barcelona youth soccer school “La Masia” prodigy made a fantastic La Liga debut for Barça, scoring one goal against Elche.

Being so young and good catches the interest of other important teams. Real Madrid, Chelsea, Paris Saint-germain and Manchester United are some of the sides that were looking at this player since he was a kid. 

Now with Munir on the first team, it’s important for Barcelona to try to keep the golden boy from leaving, or at least set the transfer amount to the biggest possible. And that is what they are doing.

According to information from spanish sport newspapers Mundo Deportivo, Marca and Sport, Andoni Zubizarreta, Barça sporting director, has informed Munir that the club will draw him an improved contract replacing the current one that ends on 2017. But the new contract will not just be longer, it will also be incredibly valuable. According to the news, Barça will rise the buyout clause from a mere €12 million, to about €55 million; with an even higher amount if Munir meets certain expectations, like number of appearances, number of goals, among other bonuses. Just to put it simple: if he becomes the new Barcelona superstar, it will take a colossal amount of money to make him leave the camp Nou.

With Munir’s agent currently on vacation, the negotiations will start next month, and Barcelona will do everything in his hand to guarantee that the new golden boy stays in the team.

Discover the four FC Barcelona’s captains for the 2014/15 squad

The result of a vote between all of the members of FC Barcelona’s squad to nominate the four captains for the 2014/15 season was announced last week. 

Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta, Leo Messi and Sergio Busquets, in that order, are the chosen players.

Messi and Busquets are both newcomers to the role after Carles Puyol and Víctor Valdés, the first and third captains respectively, left the team at the end of last season. 

Xavi Hernández, meanwhile, has been second captain for the last six seasons, and has now been promoted to the top position as a replacement for Carles Puyol.

Ter Stegen is very happy as FC Barcelona player

Marc-André ter Stegen is absolutely  satisfied wiht his first few weeks as an FC Barcelona player. He told for fcbarcelona.com in Birmingham: “It’s all perfect, much better than I expected. 

What Barça do for us is incredible. It’s all perfectly organised, much more professional than at Mönchengladbach, and I just hope we have a good season.”

The language barrier has caused some difficulties, but the FCB stopper claims that “my team-mates have been very welcoming, they’re supporting me. We all get on well off the pitch, and that’s also important”.    

Ter Stegen has also struck up a close friendship with Marc Bartra and Sergi Roberto, as well as his goalkeeping colleagues Claudio Bravo and Jordi Masip.  

He admitted that “we haven’t had much time to get to know each other but they’re good people and we have fun together in training.”

The coach José Ramón de la Fuente is in charge of Barça’s goalkeepers this season and Ter Stegen commented that “the sessions are very different to what we did in Germany, but we talk a lot and I understand what he wants of us and of me. We’re getting on fine”.

Official FCB Training in Barcelona!

Neymar Jr is almost recovered from his injury

Neymar Jr is in Japan taking part in a series of promotional events. Talking to the Japanese media, he was very optimistic about his physical shape at the start of his preseason and he stated: “I am recovering from the injury day by day and I’ll be coming back to Barcelona 100% fit".

Neymar Jr will return to work with FC Barcelona on the 5th August, and he expects to be fit enough to play in the Joan Gamper Trophy match. The Brazilian can’t wait to get started and he said: "I want to have a really good season and I'm looking forward to helping my teammates to get some good results".

Neymar Jr. suffered a fracture of his third lumbar vertebra after receiving a knee in the back by Zuniga in the quarter-final match against Colombia.

Since then, he’s been following a treatment schedule in accordance with the Club Medical Services and the CBF.

Official FC Barcelona Soccer program in Guelph. Limited Spots!