Messi receives Goldon Boot award

Barcelona star Lionel Messi on Thursday received the Golden Boot award as last season's top scorer in Europe's domestic leagues at a ceremony here.

The 23-year-old Argentina striker's 34 La Liga goals made him a clear winner ahead of Chelsea's Didier Drogba and Udinese's Antonio Di Natale, who both achieved 29.

Messi is the second player to win the Golden Boot while playing for Barcelona after Brazil's Ronaldo in 1996-97.

He joins Marco van Basten, Ronaldo and Cristiano Ronaldo as the only players to win the three major awards - the Golden Boot, FIFA Player of the Year and the Golden Ball, awarded to Europe's top player.

Rubin Kazan 1-1 FC Barcelona (Matchday 2 Group Stage UEFA Champions League 2010/2011)

FC Barcelona's UEFA Champions League struggles against FC Rubin Kazan continued as David Villa's second-half penalty earned the visitors a Group D point in Russia.

Rubin took the lead on the half-hour mark when Christian Noboa converted a penalty following a challenge by Daniel Alves on Vitali Kaleshin. Barcelona struggled to break through a resolute Rubin defence and despite monopolising possession Josep Guardiola's team were forced to rely on a spot kick of their own, converted by David Villa on 60 minutes.

The Spanish titleholders have not beaten Rubin in three meetings now, and will look to return to winning ways in their double-header against FC København, while Rubin meet Panathinaikos FC.

Rubin coach Kurban Berdyev, like he did in both meetings with Barcelona last season, set his stall out to frustrate the visitors, a tactic which worked from the outset. On the few occasions the Azulgrana managed to breach the wall of maroon, poor finishing let them down. Pedro Rodríguez was culpable on more than one occasion, first firing against the bar before contriving to miss from close range following slick approach play involving Gerard Piqué and Villa.

The home side were content to defend in numbers, but their only foray deep into opposition territory was rewarded as the lively Kaleshin was felled by Alves, allowing captain Noboa to score his first UEFA Champions League goal.

Rubin continued to thwart the visitors after the break, so much so that Guardiola sent on Lionel Messi, fit again after his ankle injury. Just as he was preparing to enter the fray, however, Lasha Salukvadze fouled Andrés Iniesta and Villa struck Barcelona's 400th goal in the European Champion Clubs' Cup.

The introduction of Messi gave the visitors a dynamism they had been lacking as they sought to attack at pace. Yet for all their domination the hosts could so easily have stolen the points with four minutes to go when substitute Obafemi Martins hit the post from close range following Kaleshin's cross.

Match statistics

Rubin		Barcelona
1	Goals scored	1
2	Attempts on target	3
6	Attempts wide	14
3	Yellow cards	2
0	Red cards	0
19	Fouls committed	15
2	Corners	10
0	Offside	1
15' 35''	Possession (time)	45' 17''
25	Possession (%)	75

Athletic Bilbao 1-3 FC Barcelona (Matchday 5 La Liga 2010/2011)

Champions Barcelona leapfrogged rivals Real Madrid to go second in the Spanish first division thanks to a 3-1 win at 10-man Athletic Bilbao on Saturday.

Barca notched their third consecutive league victory with second half goals from Seydou Keita, Xavi and Sergi Busquets after Bilbao had been reduced to 10 men following the dismissal of Fernando Amorebieta on 33 minutes.

Barcelona also had David Villa sent off in the closing stages as Bilbao made it 2-1 but Busquets scored with the last kick of the game to seal the win.

Barcelona capitalised on Real's slip-up but should have put 10-man Bilbao to the sword at San Mames hitting the post twice and missing other opportunities in their 3-1 triumph.

The visitors were sharp early on ignoring the torrential rain to play their passing game and had two golden chances in the opening quarter hour.

Keita latched onto a Xavi pass on 10 minutes but his shot lacked the necessary power and goalkeeper Gorka Iraizoz parried the effort.

Three minutes later Andres Iniesta produced a perfectly-weighted pass for Villa but he crashed his shot against the post.

Barca were on top and were given an extra edge on 33 minutes when Amorebieta was harshly sent off for a late lunge on Iniesta.

Amorebieta was stretching as he caught Iniesta late and his punishment of a straight red card was severe.

With one man more Barcelona failed to make inroads and Mikel San Jose hit the post for 10-man Bilbao four minutes after the interval.

It stung Barca into action with Keita running onto a first time pass from Villa to slot home on 54 minutes.

A deflected shot from Xavi on 73 minutes gave Barcelona some breathing space although they needed a late goal from Busquets to calm their nerves after Bilbao had pulled a late goal back.

Barcelona didn't have Lionel Messi due to an ankle injury but hope to have the Argentine back for the trip to Russia to face Rubin Kazan in the Champions League on Wednesday.

FC Barcelona 1-0 Sporting de Gijon (Matchday 4 La Liga 2010/2011)

Barcelona responded to Lionel Messi’s absence and put the disappointment of the defeat to Hercules in their last home game behind them with a slender 1-0 victory over Sporting Gijon thanks to David Villa.

Barca lacked the usual punch in the first half, but it didn’t take them long to test Ivan Cuellar when Villa ran onto Andres Iniesta’s through ball but from a tight angle, El Guaje’s shot was kept out by the Sporting goalkeeper.

Iniesta then had a golden chance of his own on ten minutes when he brought down Gaby Milito’s long ball, but his half volley not to dissimilar to his World Cup winner was foiled by the sharp reflexes of Cuellar.

It quickly became a case of every men behind the ball for Sporting after that as they tried to emulate Hercules’ strategy. Without Messi in the side, Barca indeed found it difficult to draw out defenders and create clear cut chances, and they never had the same devastating tempo in the attacking third of the pitch.

Bojan had an opportunity to stamp his mark when he ran half the length of the pitch on a counter attack, but failed to apply the finish as he soon became outnumbered.

Villa then spurned another great opening when he was put through by Maxwell on 32 minutes, but despite being given time and space to shoot, the Gijon native dragged his effort wide.

Valdes had to be called into action for the first time after 40 minutes when he dashed well off his line to clear a loose ball before Diego Barral could pounce on it. Barca responded quickly with Iniesta and Seydou Keita trying their luck from distance, but the Catalans’ best chance to break the deadlock came a minute before the break when another sumptuous Iniesta through ball found Villa, who could only smack his shot into the side netting.

With Barcelona still without a goal at the Camp Nou in La Liga after 135 minutes of football, coach Pep Guardiola made a double change at the break, sending in Pedro and Gerard Pique. Within a minute of the restart, Iniesta tested Cuellar with a shot on the edge of the box, but the custodian saved comfortably.

But on 49 minutes, the impasse was finally broken and Barca had their first league goal at home. Villa latched onto Dani Alves’ through ball and pummelled a fierce drive past Cuellar into the far corner, before wheeling away in a subdued celebration against his old club.

Sporting began to come out of their shells after going behind and but they didn’t have the firepower to trouble the Blaugrana rearguard. The Catalan themselves, however, were unable to build on their lead as they struggled to create any further decent scoring chances until five minutes from time.

A typically fluent Barca passing move found Villa on the edge of the box, and the striker turned his marker and dinked a clever chip over the out-of-position Cuellar, but his audacious effort sailed over the bar. Moments later, Iniesta’s shot bobbled just wide after taking a deflection off Botia having left Cuellar stranded again.

The Asturians ensured a nervy finish for the Blaugrana when they poured forward in numbers. But Victor Valdes was hardly troubled as the Catalans held on for the three points to move temporarily up to third in the table.

Messi ruled out for next two Barca matches

Barcelona's Argentine star Lionel Messi will miss at least the next two matches after injuring his ankle at the weekend, the club said on Monday.

Barcelona revealed that tests carried out on Monday confirmed that the forward suffered ligament damage to his right ankle in his side's 2-1 win at Atletico Madrid on Sunday, in which he scored the opening goal.

Messi will now miss the Spanish champions' next two league games, against Sporting Gijon on Wednesday and Athletic Bilbao on Saturday.

Barca did not indicate when the player might return, saying only that it "depends on how the injury evolves".

Messi, 23, was stretchered off in the final minute of the match following a robust tackle from Czech defender Tomasz Ujfalusi, who was sent off for the challenge.

Ujfalusi apologised to Messi on Monday.

"I'm sorry. I would like to publicly apologise, because, honestly, it wasn't my intention," he told a news conference.

"I tried to go for the ball, but naturally, with the speed he had, he also could not stop and I was unlucky as my foot stepped on his ankle."

Atletico Madrid 1-2 FC Barcelona (Matchday 3 La Liga 2010/2011)

Barcelona recorded their first league win at the Vicente Calderon for four seasons as they overcame a physical Atletico Madrid side 2-1 in the capital, however Lionel Messi's late injury takes the shine from what was an efficent victory.

The Blaugrana took the lead early on thanks to a neat finish from Lionel Messi, but Raul Garcia headed the home side back into the match before the half hour mark. However, defender Gerard Pique had the last word, showing the skill of a striker to volley the winner and get the Catalan giants' campaign back on track.

Despite the recent hype surrounding Atletico’s title-challenge aspirations, it was the visitors that flew out of the blocks, barely allowing the home side a touch of the ball. After David Villa struck a post, the opening goal was imminent, and it arrived thanks to the incomparable Lionel Messi.

Pedro slipped a beautiful through pass to the diminutive Argentine, who flawlessly flicked the ball past David de Gea and into the corner.

However, regardless of barely registering an attack of note, Quique Sanchez Flores’ side notched an equaliser, when Raul Garcia outjumped the flailing fist of Victor Valdes and powered his header into the net. The usually assured ‘keeper had gifted the hosts a route back into the match, one that they barely deserved.

Barcelona did not need to wait long to regain their advantage, though, and it was defender Gerard Pique who showed supreme composure to control a Xavi corner on his chest, compose himself, and drill his volley low into the net. On the balance of the half, the Camp Nou club had the lead that their play merited.

The action was breathless, incessant, and half time did not quell Pep Guardiola’s sides’ attacking philosophy. De Gea was called into action three times within the opening five minutes, with Xavi, and Pedro twice denied by the brilliance of the exceptional young shot-stopper.

Soon after Sergio Aguero, who had been a huge fitness doubt beforehand, limped off to have his leg encased in ice, and from that moment on Barcelona looked in control.

Villa blazed over from close range, then stung the fingers of De Gea once again, before attempting to go round him and the goalkeeper winning their personal duel once again. The 19-year-old enjoyed a fantastic evening, and continued to keep his side within touching distance of the champions.

Indeed, El Guaje was replaced by Seydou Keita as Guardiola looked to see out the match, but los Colchoneros enjoyed an intense spell of pressure as the match drew to close, with the boisterous home support driving the players forward.

However their ascendency had came too late, and Tomas Ujfalusi's late red card for a frustrated, poorly-timed lunge on Messi bookended a poor night for the Europa League champions. One of the stars of the show left proceedings on a stretcher and in tears, and it looked ominous for the world's best player as his ankle immediately ballooned.

Atletico Madrid's title challenge may be re-evaluated after this result, while Barcelona have proved that last week's loss to Hercules can be regarded an anomaly, as they return to winning ways.

FC Barcelona 5-1 Panathinaikos (Matchday 1 Group Stage UEFA Champions League 2010/2011)

David Villa celebrates with Lionel Messi after putting Barcelona ahead against Panathinaikos

Match statistics

Barcelona		Panathinaikos
5	Goals scored	1
12	Attempts on target	1
8	Attempts wide	0
0	Yellow cards	1
0	Red cards	0
9	Fouls committed	17
4	Corners	0
3	Offside	2
48' 47''	Possession (time)	17' 5''
74	Possession (%)	26

Barcelona put their weekend humiliation at the hands of Hercules behind them with two-goal Lionel Messi inspiring a 5-1 Champions League rout of Panathinaikos on Tuesday in their Group D opener.

Barcelona fell behind to a Sidney Govou goal on 20 minutes but responded with three goals in 24 minutes with Argentine Messi scoring twice, in the 21st and 45th minutes, and Spanish star David Villa netting his first Champions League goal for Barcelona.

Pedro Rodriguez and Brazilian Dani Alves scored late goals to complete the rout while Messi came agonisingly close to a hat-trick missing a penalty and hitting both posts in the second half.

It was a big win from the 2009 champions as they gave the perfect reply to Saturday's painful 2-0 league defeat to promoted Hercules at Camp Nou.

The double from Messi means he has 27 Champions League goals and is the club's all-time leading scorer in the competition at the age of 23.

"We couldn't win on Saturday (against Hercules) and knew we had to win tonight," said Pedro.

"This victory gives us a lot of confidence and now we have a difficult match at Atletico Madrid who are a tough team especially at home."

Barcelona's next Champions League match is a trip to Russia to face Rubin Kazan on September 29, but the league is now the priority and a tricky trip to league leaders Atletico Madrid awaits on Sunday.

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola made five changes to the team that crashed to the Hercules with Spanish World Cup winning quartet Xavi, Sergi Busquets, Pedro and Carles Puyol coming in.

Barcelona started on the front foot and had two good chances in the first five minutes.

Messi saw a header saved in the second minute and then set up the next move sliding a brilliant pass to Andres Iniesta who laid the ball off for Xavi metres from goal.

Xavi seemed certain to score but his shot with the outside of his right foot was too close to goalkeeper Alexandros Tzorvas who parried well.

The Greek visitors were hanging on but somehow conjured up a goal with their first attack of the match on 20 minutes.

A neat back heel flick from Djibril Cisse released fellow Frenchman Govou who fired past Victor Valdes to stun the home fans who feared another home defeat.

However, Messi allayed those worries 60 seconds later with a smart equaliser as Panathinaikos went to sleep.

Xavi floated a pass behind the Greeks and the unmarked Messi calmly stroked into the corner.

Villa, a 40 million euro capture from Valencia, then put Barca in front on 33 minutes with Busquets flicking on Xavi's corner and Villa was on hand to smash home his first European goal for Barcelona.

Messi hit the crossbar a minute before the interval and then scored a fantastic goal on the stroke of half-time.

On the run the Argentine played a one-two with Xavi then another one-two with Pedro before curling a shot into the corner to wow the home fans.

Messi was brought down in the box 10 minutes into the second half and picked himself up to take the spot-kick.

The Argentine sensed a hat-trick but his tame penalty was saved by Tzorvas.

Panathinaikos introduced Barcelona old boy Luis Garcia, who came through the youth system before a big move to Liverpool in 2004, in the final 20 minutes but there was no chance of a comeback.

On 77 minutes Messi hit both posts with a clever shot from an acute angle and the ball came out to Pedro for an easy tap-in.

Alves scored the fifth in stoppage time with a header to cap off a fine night for the hosts.

FC Barcelona 0-2 Hercules (Matchday 2 La Liga 2010/2011)

Don't restart your computers... you're seeing it right. Barcelona have been roundly shocked at the Camp Nou when they crashed to an astonishing 2-0 defeat to newcomers Hercules. Nelson Valdez netted both goals and it could've been a more damaging defeat had it not been for Victor Valdes.

A Nelson Valdez brace for Hercules propelled the Spanish Primera Division newcomers to a shock 2-0 victory over Barcelona at Camp Nou on Saturday afternoon.

The Paraguay international found the target once in each half to inflict on the Spanish champions their first defeat of the season and gave his side hope and encouragement of surviving the drop to the Segunda Division.

As expected, Barcelona imposed themselves on the game right from the start and could have taken an early lead when Lionel Messi skipped past two defenders down the right flank, then cut into the penalty area and unleashed a ferocious shot; but it was saved by Hercules goalkeeper Juan Calatayud.

Three minutes later in the 11th minute Bojan Krkic could have scored had his attempted backheel from a Maxwell cross not gone narrowly wide.

Barcelona then had two great chances in quick succession. First Seydou Keita’s header from an Adriano cross was cleared for a corner and then David Cortes almost scored an own goal while cutting out a David Villa pass for Messi.

Hercules had certainly looked the second best side in the match but they surged into the lead three minutes before the half hour mark. A Royston Drenthe ball into the Barcelona penalty area was mishandled by Victor Valdes, allowing Nelson Valdez to punish the Spain international goalkeeper with a looping header from close range.

However, Barca showed no nerves in spite of conceding the shock early goal and came close to restoring parity after that. First Gerard Pique’s header from an Adriano cross went narrowly wide on 34 minutes and moments later Boja failed to turn in an Adriano pass from close range.

The second-half started the way the first-half had finished with Barca on the ball. Xavi could have restored parity five minutes into the restart had his first-time effort on goal from a Pedro cross not sailed over the bar.

Minutes later Pedro created a chance for Villa when he crossed the ball intending for the Spain international striker but Calatayud intercepted.

Then much to the aghast of the Camp Nou crowd Hercules scored their second goal of the afternoon. Tiago Gomes marched along the right and provided a low cross to Valdez and the Paraguay international shot past Valdes to accomplish his brace.

It was virtually game over for Barcelona at the time but still they knocked on Hercules’ door. However, Calatayud was strong between the sticks for the visitors as he kept out both Messi and Villa.

However, the Blanquiazules too had their chances as striker Kiko forced Valdes into making a good save with 20 minutes to go. Four minutes later he couldn’t keep his shot on target from a good position.

It could have been 3-0 to Hercules had David Trezeguet not missed an open-goal chance with a couple of minutes remaining in normal time.

This 2-0 win will surely go down in Hercules’ history as one of their most memorable matches. As for Barcelona, coach Pep Guardiola now needs to regroup his side and prepare them for midweek’s Champions League adventure.