Messi to stay with Barcelona

In an interview, this season’s Barcelona coach Luis Enrique has commented that he expects team star Lionel Messi to remain with Barcelon for many years ending reports of a rift between the two.

According to the repports, Messi was unhappy with the current management, tactics and style of the coach and it was said that he was looking for an exit and sparking interest from Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City.

But in the last week, Messi said that he has no plans to exit the club that he joined when he was 13-year-old but hasn’t denied the rumors about the lack of understanding with Luis Enrique, who took over from Gerardo Martino this season.

Given that Messi, four times world player of the year has a great influence at Barcelona it was expected that Luis Enrique was the one who could leave, a possibility increased after sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta was sacked a couple of weeks ago.

Luis Enrique expressed that “Leo is going to stay at Barça for many years, that is what everybody wants”, also he commented that all the Barcelona dressing room is united.

He said that the team is united in the same from and they discuss ways to improve the performance o how hey can damage the opponent, a normal dynamic for any football team.

Barcelona’s president, Josep Bartomeu also talked about Messi and he said to Catalunya Radio that Messi told him that he wants to stay and finish his career at Barcelona. The commitment and willingness are at his peak, said the president.

President’s words came after Lionel Messi said at the Ballon d’Or galla that he doesn’t know where he will be next year.

This last month was one of the most difficult for Barcelona in recent years after they lost the appeal of the transfer ban, called for early elections this summer and sacked its sports director Zubizarreta.

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Elche 0, Barcelona 4

Barcelona ended hi quarter-final Copa del Rey with a victory over Elche 4-0 and an aggregate of 9-0 for the Catalans.

Barcelona sealed his presence in the last eight thanks to the goals of Mathieu, Sergi Roberto and Pedro in the first half of the game and they will met Atletico Madrid again.

Barcelona had met Atletico Madrid just once in last Sunday’s La Liga clash at Camp Nou with a final result of 3-1 for the Catalans Giants.

Luis Enrique and the rest of the team knows that a victory in the next two matches of Copa del Rey will put them in a good spot to lift Copa del Rey for a record 27th time after Real Madrid was knocked out on Thursday.

Mathieu was the first to score with a fenomenal 25-year free-kick followed by Sergi who fired a long-distance effort and finally the first half ended with Pedro scoring a 43rd-minute penalty and continuing his love affair with the Copa del Rey.

In the second half Halilovic hit the post when Barcelona was pressing for a fourth goal, a feat that arrived thanks to Adriano in the 91st minute.

Both teams made a lot of changes and Luis Enrique brought six players from Barcelona B team, the front three was formed by Munir El Haddadi, Adama Traore and Pedro. Elche made nine alterations themselves.

Elche also had their opportunities in the match in the boots of Cristian Herrera, but a perfect Mathieu gave Barcelona the lead.

But with a 3-0 result at the end of the first half, the second half was a bit dull with the match petering out significantly in the larger stages with Barcelona thinking already in his next rival Atletico Madrid. The presence of the croatian Halilovic was the only highlight in the last half and he was nearly able to make his debut for Barcelona with a goal.

In the last minutes of this last half, Adriano scored the forth and final goal for Barcelona and the visitors ending a perfect Copa del Rey round.

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Barcelona rumors

During the last weeks crisis, the spanish media has been speculating if Luis Enrique will finish this season, and, of course, questions where raised about the possible return of Pep Guardiola to replace Enrique while he is in Doha.

But Pep quickly responded to this questions and said that he is not the solution to the problem, and also that they are a lot of other great options and he is sure that the right decisions will be made to maintain Barcelona as one of the greatest in the world.

The possible return of Laporta and run for Barcelona’s presidency in 2016 came with rumors about Pep and making him the sporting director. Pep didn’t deny the rumors, but he also said that Laporta never said that, it never came out of his mouth.

Bayern already told to Guardiola that they are willing to discuss the contract extension when he is prepared, but there’s still enough time for him to make a decission.

Also, Messi has finally spoken about last weeks rumors of him leaving Barcelona. But Messi insisted that he doesn’t want to leave The Catalans and the reports saying that he is asking for Luis Enrique to be sacked are lies.

This comments is what all the fans around the world want to hear and they also hope for all the parties to put all of this behind and focus on football.

Messi also responded to all this talk with what he does best, scoring, and after the 5-0 demolition of Elche in Copa del Rey he helped his team with the 3-1 victory against Atlético Madrid with the typical Messi master class.

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Copa del Rey: FC Barcelona vs Elche CF

With just one week into this new year, FC Barcelona is now in the first crisis of the year, and a big one; in just a few days, they have managed to loose at Anoeta, sack their sporting director Zubizarreta, watched the departure of Carles Pujol and now in early presidential elections.

And all of this not mentioning the possibility of a growing feud between star Lionel Messi and coach Luis Enrique.

It’s a had way to start a year, but we all hope to change today when Barcelona will return to Copa del Rey hosting a match against Elche at Camp Nou.

Last month a match against such a low opposition will not be a threat to the Catalans Giants, but after the past days, this could be the match that Barcelona needs to end it all. A defeat will most likely bring the end of Luis Enrique’s reign as head coach and might also end the Barcelona dreams for this season.

However a good performance tonight might bring down the tension and pressure at the club, if you are on the bottom, the only way is to go up.

Luis Enrique’s rotations has opened a debate whether this constant tinkering has affected player morale and results. Resting players after an international break is good, but benching players after a long vacation is not.

A common misconception is that football must be won in the pitch with only a physical battle of 22 players, but in reality is also the mental state, tactics and motivation the key cornerstones; and Luis Enrique is not able to deliver in this respect.

But, in spite of everything, not only Luis Enrique or the players have to be the only contributing factors for this fall from grace. Yes, Luis Enrique tactical blunders and non existing man management skills are to be blamed, but also Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu for their boardroom level mistakes and sacked Andoni Zubizarreta for his as Sporting Director.

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