Barça’s outstanding league stats

Messi, Cesc, Alves, Xavi and Piqué are some of the players who top the stats rankings

Now that the league campaign is over, it’s time to look at the stats and compare them to last season. Leo Messi leads the way in attack while players such as Sergio Busquets, Dani Alves and Gerard Piqué stand out in defence.

Match played

2011/12	2012/13
Messi (37)	Cesc /Messi (32)
Valdés (35)	Valdés / Iniesta/ Busquets (31)
Alves (33)	Alves / Xavi (30)

Goals

2011/12	2012/13
Messi (50)	Messi (46)
Alexis (12)	Cesc (11)
Xavi (10)	Villa (10)

Shots

2011/12	2012/13
Messi (201)	Messi (163)
Iniesta (47)	Cesc (49)
Alexis (46)	Villa (45)

Passes

2011/12	2012/13
Xavi (3023)	Xavi (3003)
Alves (2776)	J.Alba (2467)
Messi (2496)	Alves (2376)

Fouls commited

2011/12	2012/13
Alves (58)	Alves (56)
Keita (36)	Alexis (38)
Thiago (29)	J.Alba (34)

Fouls suffered

2011/12	2012/13
Messi (79)	Messi (74)
Busquets (79)	Alexis (56)
Iniesta (53)	Busquets (51)

Yellow card received

2011/12	2012/13
Alves (10)	Busquets (9)
Busquets (9)	Cesc (7)
Piqué / Mascherano (7)	Piqué (6)

Yellow card provoked

2011/12	2012/13
Messi (24)	Messi (13)
Busquets (13)	Alexis (10)
Cesc (7)	J.Alba (7)

Crosses

2011/12	2012/13
Alves (129)	Alves (169)
Messi (96)	Xavi (100)
Xavi (88)	Messi (46)

Completed Dribbles

2011/12	2012/13
Messi (172)	Messi (119)
Iniesta (49)	Iniesta (65)
Thiago (33)	Thiago (32)

Balls recovered

2011/12	2012/13
Mascherano (356)	Piqué (280)
Alves (258)	J.Alba (276)
Busquets (248)	Busquets (274)

*Provided by GECAsports

Ilie Sánchez signs for two more years

The Barça B captain will be staying with the reserves for two more years, with his buyout fee now set at 12 million euros

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  Ilie Sánchez, with director Jordi Mestre / PHOTO: GERMÁN PARGA-FCB

Barça B will be keeping its captain for another two years. This Thursday Ilie Sánchez renewed his contract with FC Barcelona until June 30, 2015. The midfielder’s buyout fee will now be 12 million euros. He signed his new contract in the company of director Jordi Mestre.

All too easy 
 
After putting pen to paper, Ilie Sánchez admitted to feeling overjoyed at a decision he describes as having been "all too easy. I am so happy to be staying at this Club and everything that it represents.” Speaking to Barça TV and fcbarcelona.cat, he added that "I am happy with my team-mates and the coaching staff. I think there’s a wonderful atmosphere here”.  
 
The player is thrilled with the way the season has gone for Barça B in Division 2A: "It has been an excellent season in terms of effort, sacrifice and desire. We’ve suffered a lot and managed to get through some difficult times. So I’m happy with the results we’ve achieved”. 
 
Strong character
 
Ilie has played 27 matches this season, with one still to go, and started 21 of them. The locally born player was named captain at the start of the season in replacement for Armando Lozano. 
 
Having fully recovered from a heel injury that meant he only played one game the season before, Ilie Sánchez has regained a regular place in Eusebio’s plans this season. The 22-year old is admired for his balanced football and for being so versatile that he can play in most midfield positions or even at right back. Next season will be his fifth with the Barça second team.

Agreement to extend Eusebio's contract through 2014

This will be the manager's third year at the helm of Barça B 

The members of Eusebio's coaching staff will also stay on through the end of next season 

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  Eusebio / PHOTO: ARCHIVE FCB

Eusebio Sacristán and FC Barcelona have agreed to extend the contract linking the two parties through June 30 of 2014. This deal includes the coaching staff of Barça B, who will also stay on an additional year. 

Three seasons in Segunda A

Eusebio will manage Barça’s reserve side for a third consecutive season in Segunda División. In his first year Barça B finished 8th with 59 points, while the team are in 9th (57 points) this season with one game to play before the end of the competition. 

It’s worth noting that before his tenure as Barça B’s manager, Eusebio Sacristán was part of the Dream Team and he was Frank Rijkaard’s right hand man when the Dutchman managed FC Barcelona.

Isaac Cuenca out for between three or four months

Cuenca had an arthroscopy to deal with cartilage injury in his right knee.

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  Cuenca, playing for Barcelona / PHOTO: ARXIU FCB / FOTO: ARXIU FCB

Isaac Cuenca has undergone an operation on his right knee and will be out of action for between three and four month. The Catalan winger has been on loan at Ajax since last January.

Cuenca missed the start of the 2012/13 season with Barça due to a similar cartilage problem in his right knee and didn’t make a single appearance for the Club before his loan move.

Cuenca burst onto the scene in the 2011/12 season, when he played 30 games for the first team and scored 4 goals.

Comparings statistics from last two seasons

We ‘ve compared the stats from Barça’s 2011/12 and 2012/13 seasons and it’s thrown up a number of interesting facts and figures

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  Els jugadors, celebrant un gol. FOTO:MIGUEL RUIZ - FCB

Once more, Barça have headed the league across a wide range of stats and this year they’ve even bettered some of their own records, such as the number of goals scored and set new league records for the number of goals scored away from home.

Barça head the stats for away goals scored in the 2012/13 season and have also conceded fewest headed goals, compared to the previous season’s figures when they scored more than any team from dead ball situations and headers and conceded fewer than anyone else:

GOALS SCORED	2011/12	2012/13
TOTAL	114	115
HOME	73	63
AWAY	41	52
FROM DEAD BALL	10	5
FREE KICKS	5	4
HEADERS	13	5
PENALTIES	10	4

Last season’s side had more shots and made more crosses into the box, but scored fewer goals than this year’s more clinical team. The woodwork once again also played a big part:

GOALS CONCEDED	2011/12	2012/13
TOTAL	29	40
HOME	11	15
AWAY	18	25
FROM DEAD BALL	2	3
FREE KICKS	0	2
HEADERS	7	3
PENALTIES	3	3

SHOTS	2011/12	2012/13
SHOTS MADE	621	525
SHOTS RECEIVED	268	334
SHOTS ON TARGET	287	250
SHOTS RECEIVED ON TARGET	106	120
POSTS	22	25
CROSSES	664	597
MINUTES OF POSESSION	1366	1382

Barça were once again the team which received fewest cards and led the fair play table  - the team’s first choice centre half pairing  - Pique and Mascherano only committed 14 and 24 fouls all season long.

	2011/12	2012/13
FOULS RECEIVED	624	518
FOULS COMMITTED	402	399
YELLOW CARDS	82	59
RED CARDS	5	3
OFFSIDES	114	123

* GECAsport data