Barça now knows its path to the Champions League final, which this season will be held in Budapest on May 30. After narrowly missing out on last season's final in a heartbreaking tie against Inter Milan, the Catalan club will be looking to reach a European final again eleven years later. But to achieve this, they will first have to overcome Newcastle, another tough opponent. "It's a draw where we could have faced two very different teams, but both have their difficulties. Newcastle is a tough side, and it's a difficult ground where we've already struggled," said sporting director Deco from Switzerland.

Marcus Rashford landed in Barcelona on July 23, two days before Barça began their preseason tour. The English winger wasn't the club's first or second choice to reinforce the left flank, but he was the only one they could secure, after Nico Williams turned them down and Liverpool refused to negotiate Luis Díaz's departure. Elegant and cheerful, he said he had come to "work to adapt." Although his willingness contrasted with the skepticism that existed within the club.staffThey weren't entirely convinced that a player who hadn't quite lived up to expectations at Manchester United could succeed in the Barcelona shirt.

The international break has been a good one for Barça. Since returning, they've had three consecutive wins, playing much more expressively than before the break. Against Getafe served to win 3-0 With two goals from Ferran Torres and another from Dani Olmo. Here are some quick notes from the match:

Barça haven't started the Champions League with an away win since September 14, 2005, with a 2-0 victory at Werder Bremen. Back then, Frank Rijkaard was the coach, and Lamine Yamal hadn't even been born. Two decades later, and thanks to Marcus Rashford, the Blaugrana have put an end to this poor record. The English striker made his debut for Barça in the Champions League and scored both goals in the win against Newcastle. "Things are going well. I'm learning a lot, it's obvious," he explained to the English press the day before the match. He said it like that. Making it clear that it's an "obvious" fact, as if he assumed there was no need to explain further, since everyone sees how Barça plays. "We're not used to playing against players who keep the ball like that. We've played against Chelsea, City, Arsenal... but it wasn't the same as against Barça," Anthony Gordon, the scorer of the home side's goal, explained, in admiration of the Blaugranas.

The search for money by Joan Laporta's board has led Barça to close a sponsorship agreement with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, one of the most corrupt countries in the world (ranked 163 out of 180 by Transparency International). It also suffers from extreme lack of water and food in some areas; has serious infrastructure deficiencies and is experiencing a period of insecurity due to the territorial advance of the M23, a predominantly Tutsi rebel military group. Because of all this, activists, journalists and other members of Congolese civil society express their rejection of their government's agreement to allocate more than 40 million euros to sponsor Barça's training shirt for four seasons with the slogan "DR Congo – Heart of Africa (Congo, Heart of Africa). The alliance is official as of this Wednesday.

"I'm Marcus Rashford, a Black man from Withington and Wythenshawe, South Manchester. If I have nothing else, I have this," the English footballer, who arrives in Barcelona under scrutiny for his off-field issues at Manchester United.

Marcus Rashford is Barça's second signing for the 2025-26 season. The 27-year-old English striker arrived in Barcelona on Sunday night and underwent his medical this Monday, the final step before the club can confirm his signing. He arrived from Manchester United, due to a lack of official approval, on loan until the end of the season, and the Catalans reserve a 35 million euro purchase option. The player and President Laporta will hold the official signing ceremony on Wednesday, the day he will also be included in the list to travel to the Asian tour of Korea and Japan.

It's not Nico Williams, who failed Barça once again for the second summer in a row. It's not Luis Díaz, a signing who required a very complicated financial transaction, but Hansi Flick now has the reinforcement in the forward line he's been longing for. According to reports, The Athletic and ARA has been able to confirm, the Barcelona club and Marcus Rashford, who Manchester United had given days off to resolve his departure, have reached a verbal pre-agreement while waiting for the footballer to pass the medical examination. He will surely do so this Monday, before this British newspaper participates, that although they do not consider the operation closed to avoid a new disappointment, as happened with Nico Williams, those who admit the signing is very close to being closed. debuting under Louis van Gaal at just 18 years old in 2016, Rashford has been contaminated by the decadent drift of Manchester United in recent seasons Despite being an icon and wearing the number 10 with the Red DevilsHis performance with the Manchester United side had been declining, so much so that he spent the last half of the season on loan at Aston Villa, where he scored four goals and provided six assists in 17 appearances. His season was cut short by a hamstring injury in April. He missed the final four games of the season and was left out of Thomas Tuchel's final England squad.