“It’s a dream come true. I love Real Madrid, they’re my whole family’s favourite team. I’m very grateful for the welcome given to us by the president. In Syria, we dreamed of seeing a Real Madrid match, and now that’s going to come true.”

Xavi Hernandez is determined to end his Barca career in Berlin tomorrow by collecting his 25th trophy in 17 remarkable years; but measuring his contribution to Barcelona history in silverware alone, even bearing in mind those remarkable statistics, doesn’t even come near to over-estimating his influence on the most successful team of the 21st century.

The world of football has been lining up to praise the incredible skills of Lionel Messi after his spellbinding show against Bayern Munich.

Barcelona coach Luis Enrique insists he has the backing of his club and his squad – but refused to deny reports of a rift with Lionel Messi.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger last night hailed Alexis Sanchez as "a fantastic footballer" after Chile star agreed to join the Gunners from Barcelona on a long-term contract for a fee in the region of £35 million.

LA LIGA

A stoppage-time goal from Angel Lafita snatched a dramatic 2-2 draw for Getafe at Barcelona, which could prove fatal to the Catalan club’s hopes of retaining the Primera Division title.

Barcelona 1 Real Madrid 2

PARENTS are rubbish human beings who get everything wrong as they blunder about paying the mortgage and the bills and putting food on the table.

Barcelona 1 Paris St Germain 1 (3-3 on aggregate, Barca win on away goals)

Both Real Madrid and Barcelona warmed up for this week’s Champions League quarter-final second legs with thumping La Liga victories on Saturday, but the mood around each camp differed markedly.

Paris St Germain 2 Barcelona 2

Barcelona 1 Real Madrid 3

Lionel Messi ended the night on a stretcher instead of the history books as an under-strength Barcelona battled to a goalless draw against Benfica last night.

Spartak Moscow 0 Barcelona 3

Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure has reiterated his desire to finish his career back at former club Barcelona.

The life of a great football team is brief: as the great Hungarian coach Bela Guttmann observed, “the third season is fatal”.

Let’s say Swiss television ran a version of ‘The Voice’ and decided to call it ‘The Yodel’, then rest assured, Gary Neville would be one of those poor divils who only features in the end of season compilation of embarrassing audition outtakes, included just to give everybody a cheap laugh.

Barcelona president Sandro Rosell has announced that Pep Guardiola’s assistant Tito Vilanova is to step up into the top job.

The team selection against Arsenal demonstrated once and for all (had confirmation been necessary) where the priority for this season lies. Eight changes from the team that faced Barcelona had me fearing the worst but we managed to nullify the threat of Van Persie and without him on song, Arsenal have very little else to offer — the one-man team label looks more than accurate.

Chelsea captain John Terry apologised to his team-mates for "letting them down" after being sent off in the first half of his side's remarkable Champions League semi-final aggregate victory over Barcelona.

Barcelona defender Eric Abidal is recovering well after undergoing a liver transplant yesterday, club president Sandro Rosell has said.

BARCELONA defender Gerard Pique has hailed team-mate Lionel Messi as the finest player in the world as the Argentinian waits to discover if he has won the FIFA Ballon d’Or award for 2011 today.

Santos 0 Barcelona 4

BARCELONA striker David Villa faces a major battle to prove his fitness for Spain’s Euro 2012 squad as the club confirmed he will be sidelined for between “four and five months” after breaking his shinbone in yesterday’s 4-0 Club World Cup semi-final victory over Al-Sadd.

AC Milan 2 Barcelona 3

BARCELONA midfielder Andres Iniesta will be sidelined for around a month after suffering an injury during last night’s 2-2 Champions League draw with AC Milan at Camp Nou.

Barcelona 2 AC Milan 2

LAST time around, we had to wait until the very last game of the season for confirmation of what we had long suspected: Manchester United are not in the same league as Barcelona.

Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho has continued his verbal assault on Barcelona, labelling the European champions "a small team" after last night's Supercopa second leg defeat at the Nou Camp.

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola has said the deal to sign Arsenal’s Cesc Fabregas is “very advanced” – but still not complete.

NEW Arsenal forward Gervinho maintains the club will move on should they fail to keep hold of wantaway captain Cesc Fabregas and contract rebel Samir Nasri.

BY Thursday lunchtime, we knew that Manchester United will win tonight’s Champions League final.

Barcelona have confirmed a board meeting will be held later today as the club consider action against Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho.

BARCELONA all but secured their spot in the Champions League semi-finals and a probable showdown with arch-rivals Real Madrid after building a huge first-leg lead over Shakhtar Donetsk.

Barcelona 5 Shakhtar Donetsk 1

WITH the two legs against Pep Guardiola’s Barca, a side that’s widely perceived as the paradigm of the beautiful game, sandwiched between games against Leyton Orient, Stoke and Sunderland — not to mention the trifling matter of a trip to Wembley — I guess us Gooners are set to witness the entire wonderful panoply of the footballing spectrum over the coming weeks.

Outgoing Barcelona president Joan Laporta is confident Arsenal will eventually “give in” and allow midfielder Cesc Fabregas to move back to the Nou Camp.

Jose Mourinho has admitted he could never coach Barcelona after leaving the Catalan club’s Champions League dreams in tatters last night.

Barcelona 1 Inter Milan 0 (Inter Milan win 3-2 on aggregate)

Inter Milan 3 Barcelona 1

TWO things we learned from last night’s action in the Nou Camp: don’t score first against Barcelona ‘cos you’ll only annoy them and, if Best was the most perfect name in football, Messi must be the most inapt.

Barcelona 4 Stuttgart 0 (Barcelona win 5-1 on aggregate)