La Liga: Zaragoza vs. Barcelona

Posted on | April 6, 2007 | No Comments

Barcelona, the La Liga leaders, travel to Zaragoza this weekend hoping to maintain their top spot. They are not however, going to have an easy time of it. Barcelona never enjoy visiting La Romareda, and now is not a particularly good time as Zaragoza are pushing for a place in next season’s Champions league and haven’t lost in six games. The home side has spent very wisely this season, having taken Argentinean international Pablo Aimar from Valencia, Carlos Diogo from Real Madrid and the young promise Gerrard Pique from Manchester United. They are three points behind Valencia, who are in the fourth spot, and are hungry to enter Europe’s elite competition. And it seems that the league trophy will also pass through Zaragoza, as they still have to play against Sevilla, Real Madrid and Valencia, so this team is going to have a big say on who the new champions will be.

Amazingly, Barcelona has won just one away game in the last nine trips, and that was in their last outing against new comers Recreativo de Huelva. They are also going to be without Samuel Eto’o. The Cameroon striker, who had trained perfectly well all week, is a last minute absentee from the squad. The Spanish press is insinuating that maybe there is more to this than meets the eye, because in last season’s match he famously threatened to leave the pitch if the racist taunts didn’t stop. The fact is that the Barcelona dressing room is having a hard time keeping the illusion of happiness and unity together. The club likes to play their cards very close to its chest, but there have been constant rumors over the last months of fallouts and a couple of players will probably not be in a Barcelona shirt in the next campaign. One of these is surely going to be Ronaldinho, as rumors of his departure to AC Milan are definitely affecting his game.

I am going to put my money on a home win. Zaragoza is a very well organized side and I don’t think Barcelona have the ability to overcome them.  Keep an eye out for the Milito brothers, especially striker Diego. Now that Eto’o isn’t playing he is a good bet on the first goal scorer.

Related posts:

1. La Liga: Barcelona vs. Zaragoza
2. La Liga: Zaragoza vs. Barcelona
3. La Liga: Athletico Madrid vs. Zaragoza
4. La Liga: Sevilla vs. Zaragoza
5. La Liga: Valladolid vs. Zaragoza

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