Racing vs Barcelona Preview: La Liga 2007-2008

Spanish La Liga 2007-2008 season is now a few days away. From 26 August the new season of La Liga will be started. In the first day 10 matches will be held. Barcelona will play their first match against Racing. Barcelona lost their La Liga title to Real Madrid in the last season. However, Barcelona has recruited a few more star players in the team to get back their La Liga title. Spanish giants now seem very strong for their La Liga opponents. On the other hand, Racing is not so high profile team but their last season performance in La Liga was excellent as they finished 10^th in the league table.

Barcelona vs Racing match can not be considered as a big match in terms of the comparative strength of these two teams. Barcelona is one of the most successful clubs in Spanish league. Barcelona has already won La Liga title for second highest 18 times. Moreover, they won UEFA Champions league twice in the club’s history. In contrast, Racing does not have any such record or success in Spanish La Liga or Champions League.

I know that statistics can not provide any idea regarding the team’s strength. However, if you look at the players of Barcelona and Racing, you will easily understand that Barcelona is far more ahead of Racing. First, let’s begin with Barcelona. In striking position they have some best footballers of present time. Brazilian forward, Ronaldinho is the two times winner of the Fifa World Player of the Year award. His speed, dribbling is something special in his skill. Then Argentina forward Lionel Messi is one of the best strikers at this moment in the world and he is thought to be the future Maradona. Cameroonian striker Samuel Eto'o is another star footballer of Barcelona. You can easily understand that these three are enough to destroy any defense of the world. However, for the forthcoming season Barcelona signed another star striker Thierry Henry. This French has joined Barcelona from his long time club Arsenal.

In the mid field, they have Xavi Hernández who plays for Spanish national team. Portuguese Deco is another skilled performer in the midfield. Barcelona has recently recruited midfielder Yaya Touré from Monaco. In defense, they have lots of star footballers including Mexican defender Rafael Márquez, captain Carles Puyol, Brazilian Edmílson, two French Lilian Thuram and Éric Abidal. Ahead of the La Liga 2007-2008 season, Barcelona included Gabriel Milito who plays in the national team of Argentina.

However, Racing has not so many star footballers in their club. Rather their highest scorer of last season Nikola Žigić has left the club to join Valencia. Former Real Madrid striker Pedro Munitis is most probably their best striker. Argentine defender Ezequiel Garay is a promising defender of Racing. Ezequiel Garay has recently played his first international match in Copa America 2007. Racing recruited Argentine defender Aldo Duscher for the upcoming season.

Football is a game of 90 minutes where you have to perform in the field throughout 90 minutes. No matter, how many star footballers you have in your team or how many trophies you won in the past. So, by no means you can say that Barcelona will destroy the defense of Racing. Yes, I know that Barcelona is favorite in match against Racing but to tell the truth, Racing seems to be a balanced team. Last season, they finished the season at 10^th position in the table. It is really good performance for a team who does not have any star or high profile footballer.

I am not going to predict anything about the result of the match. What I want to say is that Barcelona will definitely try to have a crushing victory against Racing. On the other hand, Racing players must be inspired by their last season performance and they will try to give 100 percent to repeat the performance of last season. If the things happen in this way then, for sure, Barcelona is going to face strong challenge in their first match of Spanish La Liga 2007-2008 season.

You can enjoy the online live score of Racing vs Barcelona match in the following websites: