News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
IMAGES from the La Liga matches played on Tuesday
Barcelona coach Luis Enrique is leaving the Spanish La Liga champions at the end of the season when his contract expires after three trophy-laden seasons at the club.
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Barcelona's preparations for next season were thrown off course on Friday when the Spanish champions unexpectedly announced coach Tito Vilanova was stepping down due to ill health.
Barca coach, Luis Enrique says that all is well at Camp Nou and the team is united.
Barcelona defender Gerard Pique has decried the fans who booed manager Luis Enrique and the players in Sunday's laboured 2-1 home win over Leganes in La Liga as having a short-term memory.
'Barcelona are super favourites for this game and tomorrow everyone is already convinced that we have to be totally focused as a whole squad'
Luis Suarez has received a second European Golden Shoe of his career after becoming the leading scorer in Europe's top domestic leagues last season.
La Liga has been on hold since March 10 although president Javier Tebas said last week that the league could start up again on either May 29, June 7 or June 28, adding that the games were likely to be held without spectators. But Barcelona coach Quique Setien does not think it is so simple.
When Barcelona host local rivals Espanyol on Saturday hoping to edge closer to the La Liga title, many may be haunted by Raul Tamudo's 89th minute equaliser which wrecked their title bid in 2006/07.
Barca are also planning to offer new deals to forwards Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, and midfielder Ivan Rakitic before the end of the year.
Real Madrid got their LaLiga title defence off to a limp start as they were held to a 1-1 draw at Mallorca.
Coach Ernesto Valverde and midfielder Sergio Busquets were due to give a news conference before the training session but spoke to the media after training due to their late arrival.
Luis Suarez has progressed from his impressive debut La Liga campaign to produce the most prolific season of his career and fire Barcelona to a second straight title, free of the stigma of his ban for biting which accompanied him to Spain in 2014. It was fitting that the Uruguayan should score a hat-trick in the comfortable 3-0 victory at Granada on Saturday to clinch the title, taking his tally to 40 goals in 35 games. He is the first player other than Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi to finish as La Liga top scorer since 2009 but his contribution to Barca's title triumph goes beyond his goals and 16 assists. For Suarez is the hardest working of the feted 'MSN' partnership he forms with Messi and Neymar, a trio who have delivered 90 of Barcelona's 112 league goals. He is also the most willing to close down opponents and run into space and, naturally, he has shown himself to be the player who is keenest to throw himself into any physical battle.
It is a scenario few could have foreseen after Real won a Liga and Champions League double last term and began this season so convincingly.
Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez scored twice each as La Liga champions Barcelona turned on the style to hammer Huesca 8-2 on Sunday and join Real Madrid as the only teams in the league to win their opening three games.
Barcelona leapfrogged Atletico Madrid to go top of La Liga after Lionel Messi's acrobatic volley secured a hard-fought 2-1 victory against tenacious Malaga on Saturday.
Champions Barcelona suffered their second defeat in three matches in La Liga on Saturday, with Michael Krohn-Dehli scoring and setting up another goal in a 2-1 victory for Sevilla.
Real Madrid's unbeaten start to the La Liga season came to an abrupt and surprising end as Real Mallorca claimed a stunning 1-0 victory at a rocking Son Moix on Saturday to climb out of the relegation zone.
The resumption of the German Bundesliga next weekend amid the COVID-19 crisis will give hope to other European leagues that they can also successfully return, according to Schalke 04 coach David Wagner.
Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu believes FIFA regulations concerning under-age player transfers needs to be revised and that current rules would have prevented Lionel Messi from joining the club.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
A round-up of Tuesday's action in the UEFA Champions League.
An early own goal by Luke Shaw, who deflected in a header from Luis Suarez, decided a tight first leg and gave Barca their first victory at Old Trafford in five attempts in European competition.
Andres Iniesta will always be a hero to Barcelona.
Lionel Messi created a goal and scored another as Barcelona came from behind to beat struggling Rayo Vallecano 3-1 at home on Saturday and stay seven points clear at the top of La Liga.
Barcelona failed again to put pressure on leaders Real Madrid after being held to a 0-0 draw at home by city rivals Espanyol in the Primera Liga on Saturday. The Champions League semi-finalists have only managed one win in their last eight league matches. They stay second with 61 points, eight short of Real who can extend their lead at the top to 11 with a win at fifth-placed Racing Santander on Sunday.
Eldense provisionally suspended all sporting activities on Sunday, the day after a 12-0 thrashing by Barcelona B which was a joint-record defeat in the third tier of Spanish soccer.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Atletico Madrid will have centre backs Diego Godin and Stefan Savic available again for Tuesday's Champions League quarter-final first leg at Barcelona.
Luis Enrique is set to leave a mixed legacy when he departs Barcelona but the coach can go out on a high by lifting a third consecutive King's Cup when his side meet Alaves in Saturday's final in Madrid.
Messi agreed the new contract with Barcelona in July but the club did not release the usual photo of the player putting pen to paper, fuelling speculation he could depart in June 2018, when his previous deal ran out, for free.
Barcelona have promised that their women's team will travel first class for the remainder of their tour of the United States after sending them economy on their outward journey, while the men's team enjoyed business class on the same flight.
'We will need to have a good day to get past a rival of this magnitude'
Barcelona coach Luis Enrique defended his team's integrity on Friday after a week in which his players were criticised by the highest powers in Spanish soccer following last week's dramatic 3-2 win at Valencia.
Pep Guardiola's formidable managerial skills will be put to the test again when his stuttering ManchesterCity side visit his former club Barcelona in a top-of-the-bill Champions League clash on Wednesday.
Piotr Zielinski converted two penalties for Inter Milan as they played out a thrilling 4-4 draw with Juventus.
Athletic Bilbao have proudly resisted pressure to abandon their policy of only recruiting players of Basque origin, making it all the more impressive that they are the club standing between Barcelona and a record-extending 27th King's Cup.
Barcelona need to avoid getting sucked into the Spanish obsession with El Clasico when they face Ajax Amsterdam in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Xavi's agent has declined to comment on reports the Barcelona midfielder is set to leave the La Liga leaders at the end of the season and sign a lucrative contract with Qatari side Al Sadd.
