Barcelona coach Tata Martino can now be said to be in crisis after seeing his side crash to two defeats in five days and while everyone knows that defeat is
something that can and will happen in football, it is the way Barca were beaten
by Ajax in Champions League on Tuesday and Athletic Club Bilbao on Sunday that
is the most worrying thing.
Barca looked as if they were jaded in Ajax and if absences to key players can be put down as an excuse in Holland Air Max 2017 Sale Online , they were quite simply blown off the pitch by a talented, swift and energetic Athletic and never looked like getting back on level terms
after falling behind to a 70th minute Iker Muniain goal.
Barca were still without Leo Messi and will continue to be without him and goalkeeper, Victor Valdes until the New Year and they missed the injured Jordi
Alba, but that doesn't explain why footballers such as Xavi Hernandez and Andres
Iniesta failed to appear in the second half and both were substituted by the
Barca coach.
The defeat sees Barca's lead at the top of the BBVA Primera Liga table cut to just three points over Real Madrid and just goal difference against Atletico
Madrid after both won their weekend games.
When questioned about the defeat Air Max 90 Sale Online , Martino preferred to put a positive spin on the result, highlighting his side's
good first half display, although the fact is that on Sunday, Athletic Club
goalkeeper Air Max Sale Online , Gorka Iraizoz had to make one early save from Neymar, but had relatively little
work to do for the rest of the night.
"Maybe the Athletic goalkeeper was not their star, but we had chances and we had continuity in our football. I am used to auto-criticism, but I can't find
any failures from my team in the first half Nike Air Max 2018 Sale Clearance ," said Martino.
The pro-Madrid newspaper Marca comments that "Barca switch off", while the Barca newspaper Sport ran the Monday headline "This is not our Barca," in
reaction to the result, but Martino would not agree with that catastrophic view
of events.
"We were the best team until the 70th minute Nike Air Max 2017 Sale Clearance , when they scored, not just in the first half, but also in the first 20 minutes of the second half. We had moments when we had a lot of
control and we made some deep attacking moves, although maybe we didn't have the
exact pass to define those moves Nike Air Max 90 Sale Clearance ," added the coach, who nevertheless was forced to admit that two defeats in a week was not something the club was used to.
"We came here with the aim of resolving the defeat in Amsterdam and it is shame we didn't do so. I think we deserved to take something back to Barcelona,"
he said.
With Barca playing in the Copa del Rey next weekend against third tier side Cartagena, it is going to be tough to measure the depth of their
crisis Nike Air Max Sale Clearance , but one thing is certain, despite Martino's optimism and attempts to brush away talk of crisis, Barca have spent several weeks
looking flat and in their last two games they have played sides who were able to
come close to matching them for skill and who were able to defeat them
physically.
LAGOS, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria on Wednesday announced a team of 36 athletes to represent the country at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in Brazil.
The athletes, made up of 25 females and 11 males, will represent the country at the Games scheduled on Aug. 5-21.
Navy Commodore Omatseye Nesiama, the technical director for the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) disclosed this in a statement reaching Xinhua in
Lagos, the country's economic hub.
Blessing Okagbare will lead the women's track-and-field team by competing in 100m, 200m 4x100m relay races.
The AFN director asked the team to be good ambassadors, adding that he was optimistic that the athletes would make the country proud at the championships.
Enditem
BEIJING, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- Following is a list of major world sports events for the year of 2017 (tabulated under date, event and venue):
Jan. 1-7, Shenzhen WTA Open, Shenzhen, China
Jan. 2, Xiamen International Marathon, Xiamen, China
Jan. 2-14, Dakar Rally, BoliviaArgentinaParaguay
Jan. 10-15, China Cup International Soccer Championship, Nanning, China
Jan. 14-Feb. 5, Africa Nations' Cup, Gabon
Jan. 16-29, Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia
Jan. 29-Feb. 8, 28th Winter Universiade, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Feb. 14-19, Four Continents Figure Skating Championships, Gangneung, South Korea
Feb. 19-26, Asian Winter Games, Sapporo, Japan
Feb. 25-26, World Sprint Speed Skating Championships, Calgary, Canada
Mar. 4-5, World Allround Speed Skating Championships, Hamar, Norway
Mar. 10-12, World Short Track Speed Skating Championships, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Mar. 17-19, ISU Shanghai Trophy, Shanghai, China
Mar. 27-Apr. 2, China Snooker Open, Beijing, China
Mar. 29-Apr. 2, World Figure Skating Championships, Helsinki, Finland
Apr. 9, F1 Shanghai Grand Prix, Shanghai, China
Apr. 15-May 1, World Snooker Championship, Sheffield, Britain
Apr. 27-May 7, FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, Bahamas
May 20-Jun. 11, FIFA U20 World Cup, South Korea
May 21-28, BWF Sudirman Cup, Gold Coast, Australia
May 28-Jun. 11, French Open, Paris, France
May 29-Jun. 5, ITTF World Championships, Dusseldorf, Germany
Jun. 17-July 2, FIFA Confederations Cup, Russia
July 1-23, Tour de France, France
July 3-16, Wimbledon, London, Britain
July 14-30, FINA World Championships, Budapest, Hungary
Aug. 4-13, IAAF World Championships, London, Britain
Aug. 21-27, BWF World Championships, Glasgow, Britain
Aug. 28-Sept. 10, US Open, New York, United States
September, Chinese National Games, Tianjin, China
Sept. 13-17, 130th IOC Sessio. Cheap Jerseys China Cheap Wholesale Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys China Free Shipping Cheap NFL Jerseys Online Cheap NFL Jerseys From China Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale Wholesale Jerseys From China Wholesale Jerseys From China Cheap Jerseys Wholesale
