Crisis? What Crisis?

The lions of Bilbao are in Barcelona this evening amid mumbles from the dreamers amongst the Men in White followers of a possible crisis in the FCB camp. Wait a minute are we talking about the team who have lost 1 match in the league while scoring 71 goals in 23 games, the team who are in the Spanish Cup final and the team a goal away from the last 16 of the Champions?

It is their own fault you know. Having treated us to several months' of some of the sexiest football ever seen we have come to see a Barça win as normal as the sun rising every day. All that has happened over the last week is that Sporting Gijon played out of their skins and Arsenal had a magic 5 minutes in the Emirates. All this talk of a possible crisis may just come from having to fill 4 national sports newspapers every day. Of course the referee is normally at fault as pointed out in one of the Catalan sports papers on Thursday when a journalist complained about an involuntary handball that could have been a penalty. Excuse me?

Tonight FCB will field their strongest team minus the injured Carles Puyol (vital that he is back for Arsenal's visit on 8th March with Piqué out) and maybe resting one player. I would bet on Mascherano coming in for Sergio Busquets. Leo Messi will play his 250th game in FCB colours and look for goal number 168 which would be his 41st of the season. David Villa has scored in both of the last games and will look for a kind of hat-trick whilst Xavi and Iniesta are expected to be on top form with Andres recovered from a recent knock. I think you will be able to smell the hunger of Pep's gladiators form the off.

Joaquin Caparrós, now in his 4th season in the Basque country, will be without San José and Pablo Orbaiz, but back come Atheltic's tough guys Gurpegi and Amorebieta (subtle wine, but not so subtle tackler). Athletic Club will be buoyed by the 0-0 draw here in the cup this season, but as Joaquin said they will need a combination of hard work and luck to repeat that success. Doubtful that both Llorente and Toquero will start the game for a team currently 5th in the league, but who were pretty short of ideas when losing 1-0 in Mallorca last Monday.

So buy your popcorn and coke, sit back and enjoy as the Dream Machine slips back into gear at the Camp Nou tonight.

Prediction: FCB 3-1 Athletic Club