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European Ticker: Iniesta injured, Zola considers resigning and more

Andres Iniesta 1 (Getty Images)  

By FRANCO PANIZO

If Barcelona is to win the first leg of its Champions League quarterfinal series against Arsenal, it will have to do so without Andres Iniesta.

Iniesta suffered a hamstring injury in Barcelona's 1-0 win against Mallorca on Saturday, and tests have revealed that he will miss up to ten days. The injury will force Iniesta out of Wednesday's game against the Gunners and next weekend's league match vs. Athletic Bilbao.

Iniesta should recover in time for the second leg against Arsenal on April 6 and the pivotal 'Clasico' against Real Madrid on April 11.

Here are some more stories from Sunday:

Zola contemplates future

Gianfranco Zola has gone home to Italy for a few days to think about his future with relegation-threatened West Ham United.

The Hammers lost their sixth straight match on Saturday, and Zola has given the team three days off to try and alleviate some of the increasing pressure on the club. Zola has taken the opportunity to fly home to Italy, where he is said to be thinking about whether or not to resign.

West Ham is currently one place above the drop zone, but is tied on points with 18th-place Hull City which has a game in hand.

Fabregas plans Arsenal stay

For much of the season, Cesc Fabregas has been linked with a summer transfer to Barcelona, his former club, but the Spanish playmaker says he has no intention of leaving Arsenal.

Fabregas is enjoying a dream season with the Gunners, notching 15 goals and 13 assists in league play alone, and insists he will not be departing the club at the end of the season. Fabregas is excited, however, to play against Barcelona when the two clubs meet in the quarterfinals of the Champions League on March 31.

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How badly do you think Barcelona will miss Iniesta in the first leg, if at all? Should Zola resign, or is West Ham destined for relegation anyway? Do you believe Fabregas?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. mlssoccer.com is supposed to be the new official website of MLS. mlsnet.com doesn’t actually have anything current.

    And yes, mlssoccer.com is pretty lacking in… everything.

    Reply
  2. I’ve always been under the impression that mlsnet.comwas the official website of MLS. The website I mentioned, by the way, has all of the things you mentioned in your post and more…

    Reply
  3. Is it me or did MLS launch the biggest piece of crap, no useful info, where the hell is all the important soccer stuff… website in the history of the internet.

    There is nothing on that website that is worth $&!#. Where are the scores, attendances, extra videos, TV listings? Holy crap, it is like they thought the league wasn’t going to play this year…. oh, wait…

    BTW, it is mlssoccer.com, that is MajorLeagueSoccersoccer.com. Brilliant, who is the f’in genius to come up with that one.

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  4. What bugs me about all the crap that Zola’s been given is just how much he had the rug pulled out from under him this season. The state of the team’s finances was so parlous that he had to buy players on the cheap in the summer transfer window and sell guys for whatever he could get. The personnel on this team are worse than they were last year; it isn’t as though Zola forgot how to manage. These guys just aren’t as good as he inherited last season, and this is one time in which you can’t really blame the manager for the team getting worse.

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  5. Barca needs Iniesta in these Champions League games, he can do so many things to help orchestrate passes and draw defenders. Arsenal must be liking their chances.

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  6. Zola seems like a good guy, he certainly likes Spector and the rest of the players like him. That being said, the team can’t seem to win right now, I suspect Zola will be gone this summer no matter what so maybe someone should come in and take over for the last few games.

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  7. I concur. Fabregas would be fighting for playing time with the same guys he can’t beat out on the national team. He might as well stay at Arsenal where he actually gets on the field…

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  8. F*uck the hammers. I hope they do get relegated so Spector can play his actual position ,RB, on another EPL team that actually needs a decent player of his caliber.

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  9. Never understood the Fabregas to Barcelona talk. Where exactly would he fit into that team? Probably be benched, just like he is for Spain. He’d walk into most other teams though.

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  10. Nick Frost has taken to stop talking about West Ham getting their butts kicked, and has turned to talk of drinking lots of beer. You can always tell when West Ham is struggling…

    Reply

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