FCBarcelona will be facing Atletico Madrid tonight at 8:45 PM IST in the Camp Nou as they look to steal the 4th position in the currently unexpectedly stacked La Liga table.
The Blaugrana currently stand at 5th with 35 points just 1 behind the second Madrid club at 4th with 36. With Barcelona making massive signings this January, we look forward to seeing the likes of Aubemayeng, Dani Alves, Traore and Torres all in one squad.
The biggest question remains which position and who will Xavi play in the forward as he stands with a tonne of choices currently. Possible combinations include Jutgla-Depay-Torres, Fatti-Aubemayeng-Dembele, Abde-Luuk-Traore or Fati-Braithwaite-Torres.
With Atletico playing the aggressive attacking game, Barcelona will need to find a way to use the likes of Araujo and Pique properly in the back with wingers like Torres and Traore making the runs ahead.
If Barcelona win the match, they will stand a chance to make it to the UEFA Champions League group stage next year, but more importantly, Barcelona will prove that they can still play with the big teams and win. Meanwhile Atletico warms up with a couple of matches before they meet Manchester United in the Round of 16 of Champions League.
The young Austrian Tennis Star Dominic Thiem has been out of action since late last year after suffering a couple of minor injuries and a big injury in his wrists and knuckles.
The 2020 US Open Champion hasn’t played professionally since June last year citing his injuries and recovery. Now the Austrian has extended his recovery period by another month as he has withdrawn from various tournaments in countries like Brazil, Argentina and Chile missing out on the early South American leg of the tour.
Dominic Thiem now expects to return to the Indian Wells in March as he continues to try to get back to his old form. This exercise might be tougher than it sounds considering players like Andy Murray who was so good his name was put together with Nadal, Federer and Djokovic as the Big Four. However, Scott faced so many injuries and issues he failed to get back to that Grand Slam winning level.
“Training was going well in Vienna and I am so happy that I’ve made a full recovery regarding my wrist. Unfortunately, I have suffered this minor setback in Santiago, which has forced me to temporarily stop training,” Thiem said in a statement.
“It’s never easy to come back after being away from competition for seven months. I will follow my doctor’s advice and after resting a couple of days, I will start training again next week.
I need some consistent time on-court before making my comeback.”
Thiem will be in Miami practicing for the Indian wells, which he won in 2019 after defeating the legendary Roger Federer.
Lionel Messi, the greatest player in football currently, has had a great international career and hopes to play his last world cup this year with the expectations of winning it. However, Argentina’s recent few matches were played without him as he had tested positive for Covid after the New Year and was resting and practicing for his club Paris Saint Germain.
The Argentinian has had a bad season so far at PSG but that can be accounted for by citing the adjustment period and the poor management at the club with too many stars in Di Maria, Neymar, Mbappe, Ramos, Veratti and now Messi.
Argentina’s track record with Messi started improving significantly in the recent decade and resulted in a Copa America, Messi’s first trophy with his country. However without Messi, Argentina have been an easy team to gamble against.
Since the debut of the left footed GOAT, Argentina have won 115 of their 158 matches boasting a 72.78% win percentage. However, without Messi, they’ve managed to win only 30 matches out of 50+ matches played. The record isn’t that bad, but when you consider the fact that most of those wins came earlier on when there were other great forwards available in Kun Aguero it seems like a point of worry.
With Angel di Maria not in the same form he used to be, it remains to be seen who will take over when Messi retires from international football. However the young generation in Martinez and Ocampos seem to be getting ready to play more games for Argentina than ever before.
The biggest sneaker conglomerate, Nike, released an advertisement video just hours after Rafael Nadal won his 21st record shattering and setting Grand Slam in Australia last week. The ad didn’t feature much visual content but focused on the best commentary or umpire calls throughout Rafa’s career ending with the line, “Advantage, Nadal”.
The sports company is known for making amazingly good marketing campaigns featuring some of the best stars in sports like Ronaldo, Federer, Nadal, Serena Williams, Tiger Woods and more.
The advertisement didn’t stop at the video as Nike spread a Black hoarding with the text ‘Advantage, Nadal’ all over the North American continent at places like the Times Square, Crypto.com Arena and more.
However the big story behind the scenes was the fact that Nike kept their chips intact by trusting Rafa and continuing his deal. Recently, Roger Federer left Nike as they refused to increase his deal to $10 Million exact. Federer left Nike and went out in the market shopping for sponsors. The 20 time grand slam winner didn’t take much time to announce his new deal with Uniqlo the Japanese clothing brand.
The deal was worth about $300 Million dollars with Federer also getting a 3% stake in the company worth another $300 Million. The Swiss Maestro now partially owns the Japanese giants and is also sponsored by them in terms of shoes and clothes. Meanwhile, Nike continued their partnership with Rafael Nadal and with Nadal winning the 21st slam before Federer and Djokovic, Nike seemingly have the upperhand when it comes to a collection of athletes on contracts.
Cameroon faced Egypt last night in Olembe as the two African giants tied the score by the end of the first 90 minutes. With extra time played post that, a successful result was still to be reached. The two teams finally faced off in penalties with Mohammad Salah’s Egypt taking the match and the finals spot with a 3-1 score line.
During the match, the Egyptian coach Carlos Queiroz was sent off by the head referee after continuously protesting his side of the story in the second half. The head referee, Bakary Gassama sent off the Egyptian after he had heard enough.
The Egyptian coach, in the post match interviews had this to say, “”Again, unfortunately, they send this type of referee to a game of this level, referees with no experience, no level, wanting to put on a show… It started right in the dressing room,”
“We hadn’t started the game yet and he came to the locker room to intimidate our staff. But even against this, against all the decisions, which were always against Egypt, we were the best team in the second half and on penalties.”
“CAF doesn’t respect Egypt, from the timings to the quality of the pitches – we had the worst pitches! We are Egypt!
“How can this referee, after what he has done in the past, be in the African Cup of Nations? Who understands this? Nobody!”
“I want to state to all CAF authorities that Senegal have one extra day to train and therefore maybe we should play the final on Monday,” he told the media.
The legendary Roger Federer left the 2021 season abruptly with multiple minor injuries and one massive injury to deal with. The Swiss star got surgeries done on his knee in late 2021 and has been recovering since then in order to be back on the court for at least one last time before he calls it a day.
His former tour mate, friend and tennis rival Rafael Nadal after overtaking both Federer and Djokovic in the race for the most grand slams talked about Federer’s recovery and how touched he was when Federer congratulated him through social media.
“I’m gonna tell Roger Federer in private, no? I wasn’t able yet to answer but yeah it means a lot to me, no? We have an amazing relationship. We did amazing things together, for me it’s a huge honor to be part of his era,” the World No.
“Together I think we lived amazing moments of the history of our sport. And you know, receiving this message from him means a lot to me, no?” The Spaniard then extended his best wishes to Federer, who is himself battling a serious knee injury at the moment.
“I wish him well, he knows, I really hope we will be able to play again in important stages.” Towards the end of the interview, Rafael Nadal insisted that he was uncertain about whether he could win the title prior to arriving in Melbourne.
“I never thought I’m gonna have a chance again to enjoy like this… have been impossible to imagine a day like this a few years ago, so. I think I worked hard, all my team and family were next to me supporting me during these hard times.
I was not ready for a match like this, at all. Was a big surprise, the most unexpected of my tennis career. But yeah, very very special,”
Meanwhile Federer gave an update to Credit Suisse regarding his recovery saying, “I have very interesting and important few months ahead of me. I feel like I will know a whole lot more this coming April where my body is going to be like. Up until now I wasn’t really allowed to run yet, doing the heavy workload with jumps and stop-and-go’s. So, I hope that’s all going to start, hopefully in a couple of weeks, and then we will see how the body will react to that.”
“The drive is there, I’m really motivated to do my work and what I’m allowed to do,” Federer continued. “I did it all again this morning and I’m back in the gym tomorrow.
“It’s still good times even though it’s a little bit slow because I would love to do way more, but the doctors and everybody is holding me back a little bit.”
FCBarcelona made big signings this January transfer window considering their limited budgets and ability to adjust the wage bill accordingly.
The first signing came in the form of Ferran Torres from Manchester City. The young Spanish Sensation, used to playing for Pep GUardiola over in the Premier League and under Luis Enrique in the National side can pick up Barcelona’s style within a game if played right.
The second signing was the Spanish winger Adama Traore, who departed the club back in 2017 for better pastures at Wolverton Hampton over in the Premier League. Now he returns under the Xavi Era and hopes to bring back the glory of old as Barcelona sit 5th in the La Liga looking to qualify for next year’s champions league.
The third and final signing of the month came at the last hour as in a Hail Mary, Barcelona struck a deal with Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal and got the former Arsenal captain Pierre Emerick Aubemayang on a free transfer. The french man follows in the legendary footsteps of former Arsenal captains moving to Barcelona like Thierry Henry and Cesc Fabregas both of whom won trophies with the Blaugrana.
Now with the likes of Torres, Aubameyang, Traore signed and the likes of Pedri, Frankie de Jong, Luuk De Jong, Ansu Fatti, Braithwaite and Ousmane Dembele it remains a confusing point as to how Xavi will line up his team and what formations will he prefer now with so many options available.
However Fatti, Sergio Roberto, Eric Garcia, Umtiti and Alex Balde sit on the shelf with their own respective injuries and expected returns ranging from Mid February to Mid April.
FC Barcelona as a club have gone through a lot in the past couple of years. Their former president was kicked out and replaced after it was made public that he was messing with the financials of the club and had put the club in a position of debt of $1.52 Billion.
On Tuesday, Barcelona and lawyers appointed to research the Bartomeu activities revealed in the forensic report that “payments without cause, payments with a false cause or disproportionate payments were found”.
Laporta added that “it could not be ruled out that there was unfair reward for those people responsible for these payments”.
“It’s not about pointing fingers or describing the management of the previous board as better or worse, that’s not it.“It is about transferring information to the authorities that investigate crimes and clamp down on this sort of behaviour, which is very serious criminal behaviour. If I had to define it all in one word, it would be: disloyalty. Because it is money from the members of FC Barcelona. That money cannot be abused or given away as if it was yours.”
The report also revealed irregularities such as lawyers being paid €7 Million for “supposed signings”, agents being paid not 5% but 33% in fees and €15 Million for refusal of young players which wasn’t even needed.
The club’s new management has done some changes and has even reduced the wage bill by €159 Million post the new Presidential elections. Barcelona have also managed to reduce their €1.5 Billion debt to almost something near €700 Million trying to get back to the Barcelona of old undr the Laporta and Xavi era.
On Sunday in the Rod Laver Arena, Rafael Nadal shook the world with his insane comeback after being 2 sets down to the world no. 2 Daniil Medvedev.
The match featured Nadal in a tremendous form that got the crowd chanting for him and booing Medvedev. This played a vital role in Medvedev’s head as he was continuously booed throughout the match. Medvedev post his match even talked about this saying, “From now on, I play for myself, for my family…for all Russians, because I feel a lot of support there,” he said. “I will say this: if there is a tournament in Moscow before Roland Garros or Wimbledon, I will go there even if I miss Wimbledon or Roland Garros or something else.”
“The kid stopped dreaming. The kid is going to play for himself.”
Medvedev was also being booed during and after his second round match against crowd favourite Nick Kyrgios and made it a point to tell the crowd how disrespectful they were being.
On the other side, Nadal said he understood the frustration but Medvedev will understand the role you have to let the crowd play in your head as he advances in his career.
“Nowadays, people tend to surrender to frustration and complain too much. Rafa, though, being down 2 sets to zero had no bad face, nothing. He knew, all the time, how to overcome difficulty, which I think is the most outstanding thing from yesterday’s match,” said Toni Nadal, Rafael’s father.
The now 21 time Grand Slam winner spoke yesterday about his incredible performance at the Australian Open Finals on Sunday night against the World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev.
The Spaniard now stands atop the likes of Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic who both came out to acknowledge and congratulate Rafa after he pulled off one of the best comebacks in Sports History.
“A few months ago we were joking about both being on crutches. Amazing, never underestimate a great champion.. Your incredible work ethic, fighting skill and dedication are an inspiration to me and countless others around the world. I am proud to share this era with you and honoured to play a role in pushing you to achieve more. As you have done for me for the past 18 years. I am sure you have more achievements ahead but for now, enjoy this one,” said Federer on his Instagram.
Meanwhile Djokovic said on twitter, “Congratulations to @RafaelNadal for 21st GS,” Djokovic said. “Amazing achievement. Always an impressive fighting spirit that prevailed another time.”
“Enhorabuena @Medwed33 gave it his all out there and played with the passion and determination we have come to expect from him.”
Nadal in his post match interview had this to say, “”First of all I know it’s a tough moment, Daniil, you are an amazing champion. I’ve been in this position a couple of times in this tournament, having chances to have the trophy with me, but I don’t have any doubt that you have had this trophy a couple of times in your career, because you’re amazing, so I want to congratulate you,” said the 35-year old. “It was one of the most emotional matches of my tennis career and to share a court with you is just an honour, so all the best in the future. I even don’t know what to say, guys. For me, it’s just amazing, being honest, one month and a half ago, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to be back on the tour playing tennis again. And today I’m here in front of all you with this trophy with me, and you don’t know how much I’ve fought to be here. I can’t thank you enough for all the support I’ve had since I arrived here, you are just amazing.”
