Javier Mascherano

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.

There have been several rumours that Barcelona midfielder Javier Mascherano, who joined the club from Liverpool for £ 25 million a few seasons ago, could be set for an exit away from the camp Nou. The midfielder refused to rule out the rumours by admitting that anything is possible.

This would put Barcelona in a difficult situation especially given that they have been looking to sign a central defender – without any success – in the last few months. They have been linked with almost every high-profile central defender like David Luiz and Thiago Silva, but their approach has been rebuffed by their clubs.

Barcelona midfielder Javier Mascherano has backed the club’s new manager Gerardo Martino to be a success at the club. Despite several fans calling the appointment of the former Paraguay boss a shock, the Argentina international believes this is just reward for a man who has achieved almost everything with Newell’s Old Boys and added that his lack of experience in European competition will not be an issue.

Martino was unveiled as the new Barcelona manager on Friday and his first job in Europe arguably braces him for the arguably the biggest task in the continent – that of taking over one of the best football clubs in the history of the game. The 50 year old replaces the departing Tito Vilanova, who has stepped down from his role as Barcelona manager after a relapse of his cancer.

Signed from Valencia in the summer, Jordi Alba has quickly established himself as one of the best left back in the world due to his attacking ability. He has also been extremely good in the defence as well. Alba has played a huge role in Barcelona establishing a 15 point lead at the top of the Spanish league.

The defender, though, will be missing a number of crucial matches for the club after suffering a hamstring injury. The club have today confirmed that the defender will not be taking part in the Spanish national team's match against France in the World Cup qualifying group.

The Argentinean football team has defeated Sweden in a friendly match played at Friends Arena on Thursday. Argentina won the match by 3-2.

The margin of Argentina’s victory suggests that the match was a close one, but, it isn’t the truth. Argentina was dominant for most parts of the match and was ahead by 3-1 till the 90th minute. It was a stoppage time strike by Rasmus Elm which reduced Argentina’s lead to 2-3.
The Sweden team was off to a disastrous start in the match. Mikael Lustig scored an own goal in the 3rd minute of the match and gave Argentina the lead. It was a great start for the Argentinean team.

The score became 1-1 in the 18th minute of the match. It was a fine corner kick by Kim Kallstrom. The ball went towards Jonas Olsson who jumped and headed it towards the net. The Argentinean goalie, Sergio Romero, tried to stop the ball, but, the shot had so much power in it that he couldn’t do much and the ball went into the net.