Latest news with #BarcelonaCity
The Sun
5 days ago
- Business
- The Sun
Barcelona reveal first game at renovated Nou Camp as 100,000-seater stadium finally nears completion
BARCELONA president Joan Laporta has revealed when the Nou Camp will officially be reopened. The iconic stadium has been undergoing a period of redevelopment over the last two years. 2 2 As a result, the capacity is expected to increase from 99,000 to around 105,000 when the building work is finished. The ground was initially expected to open at the end of last year, but delays pushed the date back. Now, Barcelona expect to return in August. Club president Laporta has earmarked August 16 - the day of the Gamper Trophy match - as the potential reopening. Speaking on TV3 while reviewing the club's season, the Spaniard said: "We want it to serve as the pilot test for the stadium's reopening. We're working on this idea. "The Gamper is expected to be held at the Spotify Camp Nou. "We want it to be a pilot test in terms of access, operational capacity, etc. "We believe it's the best way to run a full-scale trial." The new stadium is expected to cost Barcelona £1.25billion overall. But, it is also anticipated to earn the club an extra £25million per year in revenue. Since leaving the Nou Camp, Barcelona have been playing their home matches at the nearby Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium. When they return, the ground would have officially been renamed to the Spotify Camp Nou following a £235m deal with the music streaming service. The Spanish giants go into the 2025-26 season as La Liga champions having beat Real Madrid to the title by four points.
New York Times
26-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Barcelona review of 2024-25: Hansi Flick's great entertainers are just getting started
What a season it has been for Barcelona. From the traumatic exit of club legend Xavi as coach to financial problems with registering new signings, few could have anticipated new arrival Hansi Flick experiencing this much success last summer. Instead, the German has led Barca to league, Copa del Rey and Supercopa de Espana titles while taking the Catalans back to the top of Spanish football. They reached the Champions League semi-finals for the first time since Lionel Messi was at the club, narrowly losing a chaotic tie against Inter. Here, our Barcelona correspondent Pol Ballus analyses the campaign. The year we witnessed one of the most entertaining Barcelona sides ever assembled, if not the most entertaining. Many title-winning sides in La Liga have been forgettable, but that will not be true of Flick's team. Their daring approach, a radical high line, a relentless counter-press and an impressive ability to produce 'remontadas' (comebacks) have made this Barca team a treat to watch. Advertisement Barcelona 3-2 Real Madrid after extra time, Copa del Rey final. A rollercoaster of a game that earned Barca their first major title of the season against their arch-rivals. It was far from their best performance — they produced a solid first half but experienced a meltdown after the break. The team's reaction to that is what made this game so remarkable. With a late fightback capped by an unlikely extra-time winner from right-back Jules Kounde, you could not write a better script. Lamine Yamal vs Espanyol — the strike that sealed the title for Barca. Although it was seriously difficult choosing between this one and the effort the 17-year-old scored in the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals against Inter. Both of those were perfect examples of Yamal's trademark move. He received the ball on the right-hand side, created the space he needed by himself with a couple of body feints and cut onto his left before letting fly. Unstoppable. The power and placement Yamal produced to score against Espanyol make this goal the standout. Lamine Yamal's work of art. 🖼️#EspanyolBarça | #LaLigaHighlights — FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) May 16, 2025 Barca's fourth consecutive Clasico win with a 4-3 victory at Montjuic, which represented the culmination of their clear superiority against their rivals over the year — and also put them seven points clear of Madrid in La Liga with nine left to play for. Madrid landed straight after Barca's heartbreak in Milan just five days before. That had an impact as Madrid went ahead by two goals from Kylian Mbappe, but the way the Catalans tore into their rivals after that was impressive. It was especially sweet for fans, given they were witnessing the end of a Madrid era under Carlo Ancelotti and the beginning of a new one for their young team. Advertisement Their 5-4 win against Benfica in the new-look league stage of the Champions League in January. Of the nine comebacks Barca have pulled off this season, this was the craziest. They had been losing by a two-goal margin with 12 minutes to go and their place in the top eight seeds of the competition was at stake. Robert Lewandowski pulled one back from the penalty spot before unexpected hero Eric Garcia equalised with four minutes to go. Benfica had a chance to win in extra time but could not finish. While the Portuguese team claimed a penalty, Ferran Torres set up Raphinha with a long ball on the break for the Brazilian to score a 96th-minute winner. What on earth was that? 'Fear while playing the game? I left all my fears in the park of my neighbourhood, back in Mataro, a while ago.' That was Yamal in his first Barca press conference, when asked whether he was afraid of the huge expectations mounting around him and his rapid rise to stardom. It was a day before the first leg of their Champions League semi-final against Inter and the two performances he went on to produce make this quote even more outrageous. Raphinha and Garcia deserve special mentions but few expected Inigo Martinez to be so influential. Four days before Barca's La Liga opener at Valencia in August, the centre-back was not even registered. Club sources, who asked to remain anonymous to protect relationships, spent the whole summer saying they would be open to the then-33-year-old leaving if he found an appealing project elsewhere. Nine months later, Martinez is firmly established as Barca's defensive general. He acts and behaves like a captain despite not wearing the armband and his adaptation to Flick's high line has been remarkable, building a great relationship with 18-year-old Pau Cubarsi. Advertisement Wojciech Szczesny, the smoker — and his chilled-out attitude in general. When the 35-year-old goalkeeper came out of retirement to join Barca in October after Marc-Andre ter Stegen's serious knee injury, there were questions about his. Szczesny has said in past interviews that he is a regular smoker, but what seemed like a potential flaw has turned the 'keeper into a cult hero. Two months ago, Montjuic celebrated one of Szczesny's saves by chanting 'Szczesny fumador' — Szczesny the smoker. Even Flick finally jumped on the joke this month when he was asked about Szcezsny's personality. 'I've never had a character like him,' Flick said. 'Sometimes he smokes a bit, but that's how he is. He is at the right age and makes him more relaxed!' Szczesny lived up to his managers' words during the title celebrations, smoking a cigar during the open-top bus parade through the streets of Barcelona. My kind of town, Barcelona is. — FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) May 15, 2025 Yann Sommer (Inter). Yamal's performances in that Champions League semi-final will not be forgotten, but neither should Sommer's saves. The Switzerland goalkeeper is the reason Barca did not make the final. His seven saves, five from inside the box, in the return leg will continue to give Barca fans nightmares. His stops registered a 'goals prevented' figure of 0.93 (based on expected shots on target, xGOT). Nine — it cannot be lower than that. The one point left is for the Champions League, the missing piece in a coveted treble, which would have been the club's third. But it is also proof of this team's potential to improve, which is a great thing for the club to aspire to. Flick has brought excitement back to Barca fans, which very few expected when he joined last summer. The long-awaited return to Camp Nou. The club need to get back to their iconic home ground after its extensive renovations to keep improving their finances — and it will help decide who they can sign this summer. Last January, Barca sold a share of their future VIP seating in the stadium to get to what La Liga calls the 1:1 rule — meaning they can register players without restrictions. Advertisement But with the stadium yet to be completed and the VIP seats not built, Barca's audit company Crowe did not allow them to count the money from the sale in this season's accounts. Barca need to have the ground and the seats built so that they can include the income from the VIP seats in their budget and operate as normal in the transfer market. Do Barca really need a classic No 9 to replace Lewandowski? At 36, and with next season being the last on his current deal, the summer of 2026 will be the obvious time to be moving on from the Poland striker, even if he finished this campaign as La Liga's second top scorer with 27 goals. But do Barca really need an old-school striker? Without Lewandowski, the Catalans scored six goals in two games against Inter, as well as seven in their last two Clasicos. Torres operated as a No 9 on all those occasions and scored an impressive 19 goals while providing seven assists in a backup role. Torres might not be a world-class player but his link-up play, relentlessness in the counter-press and off-the-ball movement, which creates spaces team-mates, should be a lesson for any new striker Barca bring in.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Photo: Lamine Yamal recreated an iconic Lionel Messi moment during Espanyol clash
Barcelona youngster Lamine Yamal was on Thursday responsible for recreating an iconic celebration on the part of club legend Lionel Messi. This of course comes fresh off the latest moment of magic conjured up by the 17-year-old. Advertisement Barcelona, as a collective, are fresh off securing their status as Spanish champions for the 2024/25 campaign. This comes owing to a 2-0 La Liga victory over city rivals Espanyol. The aforementioned Lamine for his part featured from the off in the clash, and went on to prove himself decisive once more. Early in the 2nd-half, the Spanish international broke the deadlock at RCDE Stadium, cutting inside from his berth on the right flank to bend a sumptuous effort into the far top corner. And it was in the aftermath of as much that Lamine conjured up memories of the greatest player in Barcelona's storied history. Advertisement Making his way in front of the Espanyol crowd, the winger stood tall, spreading his arms wide, in scenes remeniscent of a memorable night back in 2017, when Lionel Messi celebrated in similar fashion at the Santiago Bernabéu: Conor Laird – GSFN
Reuters
17-05-2025
- Sport
- Reuters
Barcelona will capture elusive Champions League, Araujo says
May 17 (Reuters) - Defender Ronald Araujo is confident Barcelona, who clinched a domestic treble by winning the LaLiga, Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup this season, have what it takes to capture the Champions League, a title that has eluded the club for a decade. Thousands joined Barcelona's victory parade from Camp Nou to Arc de Triomf on Friday, a day after the Catalan side secured their 28th Spanish top-flight title with a 2-0 win at local rivals Espanyol. "Very happy, we deserve it. The team and the people deserve it. Nobody was betting on us at the beginning of the season and we have won three titles," Uruguay's Araujo told Barca One during the open-bus parade. "People are excited about this team because there is good raw material. We missed the Champions League, but we will get it." Barcelona, who were eliminated from the Champions League semi-finals by Inter Milan this month, last won the top European club competition in 2015.
Times
16-05-2025
- Sport
- Times
Barcelona car crash: fans injured before La Liga title win
Barcelona's title triumph on Thursday night was marred by an incident outside the stadium in which at least 13 people were injured when a car crashed into a crowd of supporters. The incident took place just before kick-off in the the city's derby match attended by 34,283 people at Espanyol's RCDE Stadium, which Barcelona won 2-0 to seal their 28th La Liga title. Messages over the venue's public address system stressed to supporters inside the stadium that only minor injuries had been sustained. The game was paused for several minutes while the referee was briefed by police. Video footage appeared to show a stationary car blocked and surrounded by fans, some of whom threw objects at it. The vehicle then accelerated towards the crowd, hitting
