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Eto´o and Barca back to their best

SoccerNews in La Liga 27 Oct 2008

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For the entire summer Samuel Eto'o's Barcelona future was up in the air as new coach Pep Guardiola set about getting rid of under-peforming stars and installing a new mentality within the club.

Tottenham Hotspur were strongly linked with Cameroon international Eto'o but he made peace with Guardiola and it has paid dividends with the striker back to his best, scoring nine goals in his first eight matches.

Eto'o scored the fastest league hat-trick in Barcelona history with a treble inside the first 23 minutes as Barca crushed Almeria 5-0 on Saturday and they are now second in La Liga, a point behind leaders Valencia.

“Xavi and Leo (Messi) gave me passes that made it easy for me to score,” said Eto'o.

“We (strikers) live to score goals but I am only thinking of working hard and helping the team win more matches. If you want to win the league it is not enough just to beat the big teams and we know that.”

Eto'o sits top of the goalscoring charts alongside Valencia's David Villa and after their worst start for 35 years Barca are on a roll.

The Catalan giants have won nine games in a row, six in the league, and are starting to look like the Barcelona of a few years ago rather than the inconsistent side that failed to secure silverware for the previous two seasons under Frank Rijkaard.

The goals have been flowing under Guardiola with a 6-1 drubbing of Atletico Madrid, a 5-0 thrashing of FC Basel and a 5-0 destruction of Almeria have all come in the space of three weeks.

“We are doing well because of the players not because the coach is performing miracles,” said Barcelona manager Guardiola.

“The most important thing is to continue winning matches and towards the end of the season we will find out where we are. When you are winning everything seems so simple.”

Brazilian wing back Dani Alves, a summer recruit from Sevilla, scored his first Barca league goal in the Almeria win and Guardiola admitted he had been a major player this season.

“Alves helps us with his work ethic and his intensity,” explained Guardiola. “We are really happy with him.”

Some scintillating football, a rush of goals and a perfect nine points in the Champions League have prompted some people to compare Barca with Johan Cruyff's “Dream Team” that won four consecutive league titles (1991-1994) and the 1992 European Cup but Xavi called for calm.

“You can't make comparisons to the “Dream Team” at the moment,” explained Xavi.

President Joan Laporta also urged the team to keep their feet on the ground. “We're working hard, taking our chances and showing how good we are game after game,” said Laporta.

“There's a lot of hard work that's gone into this and lots of people are doing their utmost but we haven't won anything yet to we shouldn't be excessively confident.”

Barca's next league match is against high-flying Malaga who have won their last four matches.

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  • arewa

    0 0

    wel, we tank GOD dat we av 2 down and by GOD grace we wil av d 3rd one on may 27th. Up barca

  • lenin clement

    0 0

    i’m one of the barce watching the team when
    playing with any club
    i enjoying the when eto’o is play it made me
    2 play the football but i can’t play and i say that
    i may entern my leg 2 the a very very very
    hot water so that i can play like that of henri ,
    eto’o and missa.

    i don’t wannar say bye but with cont of love 2
    all the players of barce keep going 4wards.

  • lenin clement

    0 0

    i’m one of the barce watching the team when
    playing with any club
    i enjoying the when eto’o is play it made me
    2 play the football but i can’t play and i say that
    i may entern my leg 2 the a very very very
    hot water so that i can play like that of henri ,
    eto’o and missa.

    i don’t wannar say bye but with cont of love 2
    all the players of barce keep going 4wards.

  • arewa

    0 0

    wel, we tank GOD dat we av 2 down and by GOD grace we wil av d 3rd one on may 27th. Up barca

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