INJURIES TAKE TOLL

Barcelona’s list of injured players has been increasing in the past month with Puyol, Jordi Alba and Daniel Alves being some of the more recent additions and this is taking a toll to the Catalan team that lost their 1st La Liga match against Athletic Bilbao.

Martino responded after losing his first La Liga match with Barcelona by saying "it was only one game. If I could, I would sign off to win the next 20 and lose one."

The sensational form of C.Ronaldo is keeping the pressure on Barcelona as Real Madrid is closing the gap between themselves in La Liga standings but with the Ballon d’Or around the block, Daniel Alves said that the Portuguese winger has been in better form than everybody else in this season.

"Cristiano is in a very, very rich vein of form. This year, I think he's slightly ahead of the rest.He's playing very well and he's scoring goals and that increases his chances. It's true that he hasn't won any trophies, but he has been in very good form’’.

"My bets are Messi and Ribery. If it isn't Messi, I'd give it to Ribery simply because he has won everything and he has led Bayern Munich to success on all fronts. To be in for the Ballon d'Or I think that you have to win some sort of team silverware." the Brazilian defender was quoted as saying by AS.

The Ballon d’Or has been receiving a lot of critiscm lately calling it a popularity trophy more than anything else and this happened noticeably after Sneijder achieved the treble with Inter Milan becoming the best player of the Italian club and even though he claimed the Champions League, Serie A and Coppa Italia in 2009, the Ballon d’Or was still won by Messi.