Javier Mascherano

Barcelona recently progressed to the final of the Club World Cup after a comfortable 3-0 win over Chinese outfitGuangzhou Evergrande Taobao FC.

Luis Suarez turned out to be the hero for the Catalan club once again after his hat-trick. The club were overwhelming favourites to lift the Club World Cup, which has been dominated by European teams in the last decade. They will now face River Plate in the final of the competition. Prior to the emergence of European teams in the competition, South Americans used to be highly successful since they paid a lot of attention.

Midfielder Javier Mascherano has claimed that the recent 4-1 defeat for Barcelona against Celta de Vigo has left him with a bad taste in the mouth.

It was the first loss of the season for the Catalan club and the one that came in surprising circumstances. They were fully expected to continue their 100% start to the season. However, there have been recent wobbles from the reigning champions and the home team fully exploited the deficiencies. Barcelona’s impressive attack featuring the likes of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, and Neymar has been able to get the club out of trouble more often than not. However, they could only manage one goal against the home team.

The Argentine national football side has not won any major title since 1993 which was the last time when Argentina won the Copa America. They had the chance of lifting the 2015 edition of the Copa America on July 4 as Argentina faced off with Chile in the finals but ultimately lost in penalty session.

Argentina were the favorites of winning the 2015 Copa America as the squad has some of the most talented players in the world including: Lionel Messi, Angel Di Maria, Javier Pastore, Sergio Aguero and EzequielLavezzi just to name a few.

Even with all of that talent, it wasn’t enough as Chile came out on top with the victory.

Things haven’t been going so well for the Argentine national football team as they lost in the finals of the 2014 World Cup when playing against Germany and now failed to defeat Chile. The national of Argentina have been performing impressively but just come out short and struggle to push until the end.

Barcelona midfielder Javier Mascherano says that the club might have answered some critics after a brilliant win over Atletico Madrid.

The 3-1 win over the reigning league champions is a clear statement of intent according to Mascherano, who was part of the Barcelona team that were defeated 1-0 by relegation threatened the Real Sociedad after the season resumed in the first week of January.

The defeat raised further questions about manager Luis Enrique, who has been questioned a lot since the 3-1 defeat against Real Madrid several months ago. Even though Barcelona remain within touching distance of Madrid, Enrique has not been seen good enough to lead the team.

Javier Mascherano was part of the Argentine team that lost 1-0 to Germany in the World Cup 2014 final.

The midfielder may have just turned 30 years of age, but he remains an integral part of the Argentina team. He has the right mixture of experience and playing capabilities to be a force even at the next World Cup. The Barcelona defender, though, has revealed that he considered the possibility of retiring from international duty after the World Cup. Since making his debut in 2003, Mascherano has gone on to make more than 100 appearances for the national team.

Louis Saha has said that his compatriot Robert Pires is a great signing for the Indian club FC Goa.
Saha believes that the 40-year old play maker is a class act and no matter in which tournament he plays, he always looks to win.
In a British television programme, Saha was quoted as saying, “Robert is very elegant. You can travel miles to watch such players. He is an absolute pleasure to the eye. It’s good for ISL that he has signed up. He is going to light up the tournament there in India.”
“He has been out of the game for three years now but, knowing him I can tell you, he would try as hard as he can to guide his team to glory. He’s a motivated personality and spending time with him will be good for the young Goa players. He would be passing a lot of key advices to them.”

German international Bastian Schweinsteiger has stated that his team are wary of the tackling abilities of midfielder Javier Mascherano. The former Liverpool midfielder was a major reason in Argentina reaching the final of the World Cup 2014. He prevented a number of opportunities for Netherlands in the semi-final by making last-ditch challenges. Germany come into the final after achieving a historic result by beating home team Brazil 7-1 in the semi-final. Hence, they are overwhelming favourites to beat Argentina team that has so far been winning by the odd goal.

Barcelona were left hugely saddened by the death of their former manager Tito Vilanova. The former assistant manager to Pep Guardiola had a lot of connections with the club. Even though he was their manager for only one season, he led them to the league title before ultimately stepping down due to health reasons. The 45-year-old has recently passed their way after several years of battle with cancer. The cancer was first diagnosed when he was working as the assistant manager to Guardiola, with whom he had forged a great friendship when they were playing at the Barcelona youth academy.

Barcelona’s loss in their last La Liga match against Valencia has pushed them back in the title race, but, one of their senior players Javier Mascherano is still very confident and he reckons that the title has not gone out of his team’s hands.

If technically seen, the Argentinean defender is not wrong as there are still more than 15 games to go in the league. So, there is enough time left for things to turn around. But, the kind of form the other title contenders are in at the moment, this defeat might prove to be very costly for Barcelona.

Barcelona suffered the first league defeat of the season after a 1-0 score against Athletic Bilbao. As a result of the defeat, Atletico Madrid have moved level on points with the Catalan club at the top of the table.

After going several points ahead of archrivals Real Madrid, Barcelona were expected to coast to the title. However, this defeat has proved to be a major setback since it comes only days after the defeat in the Champions League to Ajax. A lot of questions have been asked about Barcelona's style of play since the start of the season.