Barcelona coach Gerardo Martino dedicated his side’s crucial 1-0 win away to Espanyol on Saturday in the Catalan derby to stricken goalkeeper Victor Valdes.
The Spanish international looks to have played his last game for the club after suffering cruciate ligament damage in Barca's 3-0 win over Celta Vigo on Wednesday.
Valdes had already signalled his intention to leave the club when his contract expires in June and will now also miss the World Cup in Brazil.
“I would like to on behalf of all of us – the technical team, players, staff – to send our support to Victor. We hope his recovery will be quick and obviously we dedicate this victory to him,” Martino said.
“This team is used to bad news, both on and off the pitch, for a while now and their way to respond is on the pitch as they have always done.”
Barca could not afford to be weighed down by the news of Valdes' injury as they travelled to local rivals Espanyol amid the tightest Primera Liga title race in years.
They ground out a vital win as Lionel Messi’s penalty kick 14 minutes from time was enough to hand them a second 1-0 win over Espanyol this season.
“Derbies are always derbies and you have to win them,” Martino said.
“It doesn’t come easy and they are always tight games, for that reason this was a risky away game for us and we value the three points even more.”
The Catalans now firmly have the destiny of the title in their own hands as they host Atletico Madrid on the final day of the season.
However, Martino is taking nothing for granted after suffering a shock defeat to relegation-threatened Valladolid earlier this month.
“What is left continues to be very difficult and very important,” he said. “We still have seven finals left between now and the end of the league season and in those games we will also have with us the memory of our defeat in Valladolid.”
It was a thrilling 4-3 win over Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu last weekend that put Barca right back in the fight for the title, and midfielder Sergio Busquets insists they are determined not to let their advantage slip.
“Real Madrid had the advantage, the Bernabeu was an ultimatum for us and we recovered. That is the mentality of the team and we need to continue like that,” he told Canal Plus.
“Now we are in a privileged position and we depend on ourselves. Hopefully that will be the way things continue until the final game against Atletico Madrid.”
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
Schedule
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21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Yuval Noah Harari, Jonathan Cape
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
