Barça wants to lift its head again after one of the most complicated weeks of the season. The defeats against Real Madrid in the Clásico and PSG in the Champions League have curbed the euphoria of Hansi Flick's team, which had started the season at a high level. Despite the two consecutive blows, the 'blaugranes' maintain the lead in La Liga and are looking for a victory that will allow them to recover their rhythm in front of the fans.

Aleksander Sekulic's Barça has the measure of Xavi Albert's Valencia (98-94). The blue and garnet team, boosted by the Palau and the decisive three-pointers from Joel Parra –four consecutive ones in the third quarter– signed a hard-fought third consecutive win against a rival that missed Nikola Mirotic, an old acquaintance of the Barça fans.

Mariano Díaz (Premià de Mar, 33 years old) has once again found his place in elite football. After years marked by injuries, a lack of minutes, and a career defined by inconsistency, the Alavés striker has regained his prominence in Vitoria. The club was open to a possible departure in the summer, but Mariano did not want to leave. A few months later, the Dominican Republic international has accumulated three goals and four assists this start of the championship.

With 19.1 million in revenue from ticket sales, Sunday's Barça-Madrid El Clásico became the highest-grossing match in Camp Nou history. Never before had a single match generated so much money. And it wasn't just the seats and the VIP products. We must also add the additional 1.5 million collected at the stadium shop over the weekend. The result on the pitch was not what the fans wanted, but the club was licking its wounds thinking about a business model that might be unpopular, but is clearly effective.

Barça Women continues to count its matches in the Champions League as victories: Paris, Rome, and now Koge. The 'blaugranes' were not affected by the nine degrees in Denmark at the start of the match nor by the stadium's artificial turf, and they routed their opponents in a collective exhibition with goals from Graham Hansen, Ewa Pajor, Esmee Brugts, Patri Guijarro, Clara Serrajordi, Kika Nazareth, and Claudia Pina, with a brace (0-8). Pere Romeu's team remains the sole leader in the Champions League.

The lack of "freshness" is, according to Hansi Flick, one of the reasons for Barça's defeats against PSG and Real Madrid. This is the reason the German coach said was behind the 4-2 in Paris and the 1-2 at the Camp Nou in the Clásico. A reason which, despite constantly insisting that he does not like excuses, he associates with the troubled return trip from Seville, where the 'azulgrana' team played a League duel against Betis (2-5). Due to the rainstorm that affected Barcelona and its surroundings last October 17, the 'azulgrana' expedition, which was scheduled to return home on a charter flight past ten o'clock at night, could not take off and ended up spending the night in the Andalusian capital by express order of Flick himself. Players and staff got off the plane, slept in a hotel, the next day they returned to Catalonia and two days later they flew to Paris. Too much wear and tear on the body.

The PSG-Classic sequence has turned a green meadow into a muddy field. We are very predictable: four days ago everything was roses and sunshine, and suddenly, doubts have invaded us. We won't discover the 'Culer' drama or the grandstanding syndrome of “defending like this we won't win the Champions League.” If even Pep Guardiola had his stylistic details questioned, what won't happen to Hansi Flick. It is curious, however, how his exuberant offensive discourse is fully accepted, while he is criticized for taking risks at the back, when both are sides of the same coin. That in the 87th minute Real Madrid kills you on a counterattack because you are looking for the winning goal is better than stalling to preserve a 1-1 draw. This should be indisputable unless you are an Atlético de Madrid fan. By the way: how many Champions Leagues has Cholo Simeone won? Right.

Barça survived a Bayern Munich side filled with former culé players (84-88). The blue-and-red team, which prevented the German rival from winning its first home game, moved forward with more professionalism than brilliance in a match that was full of lead changes. Kevin Punter (23 points) and Josh Nebo (12 points and 9 rebounds) led the culé triumph on a day when the visitors lost too many balls. Aleksander Sekulic was without Joel Parra and Yoan Makoundou. Furthermore, Umoja Gibson was unable to play the second half due to a knee contusion.

Lamine Yamal traveled to London by private jet accompanied by his closest circle. Like Kylian Mbappé and Harry Kane, the Barcelona star had hopes of becoming the winner of a Ballon d'Orwhich the Briton would end up taking, and he would have to settle for the Kopa Trophy, which rewards the best talent under 21 years of age. It is the third consecutive year that Lamine has received this award, although in this edition he expected to take the Ballon d'Or and for it to be Pau Cubarsí, who declined to go to the gala when he became aware that he would not be awarded, who would receive the distinction. These are the five main reasons that explain why he finished behind Kane and Mbappé in the election based on the vote of one hundred journalists from one hundred different countries.

When on July 5, 2022, Alexia Putellas tore her anterior cruciate ligament in a training session prior to the European Championship, her life changed completely. "I felt very sad, because that Alexia was ending and there would be another, I didn't know if better or worse, but another one." That is how the player from Mollet del Vallès described that fateful injury, one of the worst a footballer can suffer, just when she had won her second Ballon d'Or.

It was close to midnight. The Camp Nou stands had been empty of fans for some time. Only the media, club staff and some members of the Barça dressing room were still at the stadium. On the other hand, there was movement on the esplanade, next to the Palau Blaugrana, where a large VIP tent had recently been set up. Music, laughter and a good atmosphere. It didn't seem to matter much to them that Real Madrid had won the Clásico. Probably, very few were unconditional followers of the blue and garnet team, even though they were dressed from head to toe in jerseys, scarves and all sorts of Barça merchandise.

Neither Lamine Yamal, nor Kylian Mbappé. 25 years after the last time, an Englishman reigns in world football. Bayern striker Harry Kane has won the Ballon d'Or with the most uncertain forecast in years, and has managed to emulate Michael Owen's feat in 2001. A prize that he received precisely in London, his hometown and the one where for so many years he scored goals with Tottenham until, tired of not winning titles, he left for Bayern. At 33 years old, Kane received the award at the gala held at the London Palladium in London, finishing ahead of Kylian Mbappé, second, and ahead of Lamine Yamal, third. The blue and garnet player Rodri finished fourth and Lionel Messi, fifth. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia finished sixth, Dembélé in seventh position, Haaland in eighth, Olise in ninth and Fabián Ruiz in tenth.

Painful defeat for Barça against Real Madrid at the Camp Nou (1-2). It is the second consecutive one the blaugrana team has suffered in a few days. Below, some hot takes.

Barça and Real Madrid will face each other this Sunday night at Camp Nou (21:00, DAZN). Fate has willed that Lamine Yamal's first Clásico at Camp Nou coincides with the return of José Mourinho as the white team's manager to a stadium where he received an unforgettable 5-0 defeat in the culé memory and where he engaged in absolutely lamentable outbursts. The Portuguese coach, who will return to the blaugrana stronghold thirteen years later, will have the last-minute absence of Thibaut Courtois, who is suffering from the flu. The Ukrainian goalkeeper Illia Voloshyn has been called up to the squad in place of the Belgian. Another Ukrainian, Andriy Lunin, will start the match, despite Courtois having tried to be there until the last moment.

Barça sweated hard to secure a new victory in Liga F. The 'blaugranes', who encountered a defensive wall in front of them, had to wait until the second half to find the imbalance from Caroline Graham Hansen, who generated all three goals and led Pere Romeu's team in the triumph against Granada (3-0).

In a promotional video shared by Barça on its social media, Adeyemi and Gordon joke by pulling their shorts down below their waist: "That's how Lamine wears them," they joke. In another part, they show the video to Lamine Yamal, who laughs and replies: "Everyone will end up wearing them like that, you'll see. Well, everyone except Rodri." The Madrid-born midfielder is a rara avis in the elite football universe: he never wears extravagant looks, he doesn't dye his hair or get trendy or daring haircuts, he has no tattoos and he tucks his shirt into his shorts to play, like in more vintage football. He also has no social media.

After nine years off the air, Crackòvia will return to the screen with a new season that will combine the characters that turned the program into a benchmark for Catalan sports humor with new additions linked to current football events. 3Cat is bringing back the format with a new distribution strategy that places the digital platform at the center, but also maintains conventional broadcasting on TV3. The first episode will premiere on Monday, October 26th at 8:30 PM on the 3Cat platform and can be seen on Thursday on television, after Polònia.

If anyone wants to go on Sunday to see the classic and still doesn't have a ticket, they should know that they will have to pay at least 1,000 euros to get one. After the first ones sold out, Barça has put a second batch of tickets on sale in different areas of the Camp Nou. The cheapest ones, which sold out on Thursday, cost 1,109 euros in the lower part of the goal, behind the goal. But they come with an asterisk: they are of restricted visibility. A part of the pitch is covered due to the advertising hoardings.

Barça will experience a weekend marked by labor conflict with seasonal permanent workers, employees with indefinite contracts who work periodically according to the club's needs, and who have called a strike coinciding with the 'Clásico' against Real Madrid at Camp Nou (9 pm). The mobilization, promoted by CCOO, will begin at 12 am on Friday, October 23rd, and will last until 6 am on Monday the 26th. The union denounces a deterioration in working conditions, lack of personnel, inequality among workers, and breaches of agreements and the collective bargaining agreement. It also criticizes the progressive reduction of staff while some services are handed over to external companies.

When Clara Serrajordi (Llinars del Vallès, 2007) was told she was nominated for the Kopa Trophy, her reaction was spontaneous and natural. "Was it today?", said the young midfielder, surprised by the news. A response that shows what the blaugrana is like in her day-to-day life. "She is a person who experiences everything with great calm, serenity, and a cool head, with great normality", they explain from her inner circle. In one year, Serrajordi has gone from playing with the Barça reserve team to being a starter in a Champions League final against Olympique Lyonnais (4-0). In fact, the Catalan became the youngest player in the club [counting men's and women's teams] to start in a Champions League final. She did it at 18 years and 167 days old.