FC Barcelona kicked off their season today in a grand fashion as they made easy work of Racing for their first victory of the season. Messi opened the scoring in the second minute and Iniesta doubled the club’s lead before Valdes stopped a penalty shot to protect a two goal first half lead. David Villa scored the club’s only goal in the second half and the club celebrated their first victory of the season. It was not all roses as Puyol suffered an injury during warm ups which lead to Pique had to start in his place after being selected as a substitute prior to kick off and Xavi also had to be substituted at the half because of an Achilles problem. Barça won’t be back in action until they host recently promoted Hercules on September 12 because of international games next week and one has to wonder if Puyol and Xavi will remain with the club and not be called up for international duty.

UEFA announced today the nominees for its UEFA Club Football Awards. A total of 12 players were selected for both the positional awards and for the award of UEFA Club Footballer of the Year. Four Barça players have been shortlisted from the list of 12. Valdes, Pique, Xavi and Messi were the club’s only nominees this season. Inter Milan had the most players nominated with 5 players. The awards will be handed out on Thursday, August 26 in Monaco during the Champions League draw.

In a game of two halves, Barcelona’s first half performance that ended with a one goal lead, courtesy of Ibrahimovic, was met with a nightmarish second half performance that saw Sevilla hammer three unanswered goals to give them a 3-1 goal aggregate. This result means Barcelona needs to score two goals at the Camp Nou next week to overturn this result and make sure Sevilla are kept scoreless. Hopefully next week will see a strong lineup full of Barca regulars after today’s starting lineup consisted of youth and veteran mix with some odd decisions with Guardiola. The youth players failed to impress and Guardiola’s decisions and substitutions back fired which ultimately lead to Barcelona getting deservedly beaten after 90 minutes thanks to the decisions made by Sevilla in the second half by their manager.

FC Barcelona kicked off their Asian tour with a come from behind 5-2 victory over a K-League All star team in Seoul today. Messi did not start the game but featured in the last 15 minutes of the first half. His 15 minute cameo resulted in a brace to give Barcelona a 3-2 lead right before halftime. Zlatan Ibrahimović scored Barça’s first goal of the game and half before Messi’s brace and then Victor Sanchez and Jonathan Soriano scored the club’s only goals in the second half. Although the K-League All stars took the lead twice, they were shut out in the second half as Barça scored 3 straight unanswered goals for the win. You can click and watch the highlights above or click read more to enjoy a written report.