And the hits just keep on coming for Barcelona. This season has been pretty much a disaster for the Catalan giants, and president Juan Laporta will have to seriously consider creating a new team from scratch for the next season.
They go into this game with very little to play for. Knocked out of the Champions league semi final by Manchester United (even if they did put on a good show at Old Trafford), third in the domestic league without any possibility of winning the title (and worse, having to play Real Madrid next week at the Bernabeu stadium with Madrid almost certain to be league champions), without a win in the last five matches, and most alarmingly of all without scoring a goal in the last four games. For a team like Barcelona to fail to score in four consecutive games is practically unheard of, and I don’t know how many years you would have to go back to find a similar occurrence. Ronaldinho won’t play for Barca again, that much is certain, and it looks like French striker Thierry Henry will be sold off on the cheap, too. With four league games still to play Barca are four points behind second placed Villarreal, and it is looking more and more likely that they will have to play the preliminary elimination round of the Champions league too. Not a good prospect when Euro 08 is just around the corner.
As for Valencia, things have made a dramatic turnaround in a very short space of time. Ronald Koeman has at last been given the boot after that humiliating five goal to one defeat to Athletic Bilbao, and even winning the King’s cup couldn’t save his job. New coach Salvador González ‘Voro’, is well known in the club and now has a chance to make a name for himself. Last weekend was his first game in charge and he made some drastic changes, most notably playing Cañizares in goal from the start, bringing on Angulo in the second half, and having Albelda on the bench. All three players had previously (and mysteriously) been removed from the squad by Koeman in November for no apparent reason, and the Valencia crowd took the chance to give all three a standing ovation during the three nil win over Ossasuna.
I’m going for a Valencia win here. Barcelona are a broken team, lacking in spirit and just about everything else. Valencia meanwhile have made a complete turnaround after the appointment of the good coach and I can see them having a great time at the Nou Camp, where they haven’t lost since 2001.
Prediction: Away win (1-2)