2011 Onwards
Barcelona would start of the season with the traditional curtain raiser, the Spanish Supercup, against Sevilla, and would lose the first leg 3-1 at the Sánchez Pizjuan, but would make an amazing comeback to win 4-0 at the Camp Nou to win the Supercup 5-3 on aggregate. In the 2010-11 La Liga season Barcelona would endure a very slow start to the league season, even though they defeated Racing Santander 3-0 on the opening day of the season, they would go on to be defeated 2-0 at the Camp Nou by newly promoted minnows Hercules. Nevertheless Barcelona would recover and go on to magnificent 5-0 win over Real Madrid at the Nou Camp. In the Champions League semi finals against Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, Lionel Messi scored two goals to ensure a 2-0 win for Barcelona, the second leg at the Camp Nou ended in a 1-1 draw to send Barça through to the finals. In the Copa del Rey finals at the Mestalla, Cristiano Ronaldo would convert a header on the 100th minute to win the Copa del Rey 1-0 for Madrid against Barcelona. However, Barça would end up beating Manchester United 3-1 with goals from Pedro, Messi and David Villa to win them the UEFA Champions League for the fourth time in the club's history. Barcelona would also claim La Liga with 96 points to Real Madrid's 92 for the third time in a row to round of a very successful season.
2011-12 would kick of with the Supercup, this time against Real Madrid. In Madrid Barcelona would pick up a 2-2 draw, but will seal the Supercup with a 3-2 win at the Camp Nou. The first kick of a ball in La Liga for Barça would be at the Camp Nou against Villarreal, with the Catalan club easily winning 5-0. In the first Liga Clasíco of the season, Barcelona would win 3-1 in Madrid to level on points with Madrid going into the Christmas break. Nevertheless Barcelona would drop 2 points away to Espanyol, which ended 1-1, to go 2 points behind their arch rivals. In the Copa del Rey semi finals, in the first leg against Real Madrid the Blaugrana would win 2-1 in Madrid, and seal their place in the semi finals with a 2-2 draw at the Camp Nou. In the Round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League the then defending champions would defeat Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 in Germany and rout them 7-1 at the Camp Nou. The quarter finals against AC Milan would begin slowly for the Catalan club with a 0-0 draw in Milan, only for them to sweep the Italian club aside 3-1 at the Camp Nou with two strikes from Lionel Messi. In the semi finals against Chelsea, Barcelona would be defeated 1-0 in London with a Didier Drogba strike on the 45th minute winning the game, and the second leg at the Nou Camp finished 2-2, to all but eliminate Barcelona from the Champions League. In the penultimate game of the season at home to Real Madrid, perhaps the most important game of the Catalan club's season, where they absolutely needed the 3 points, they would collapse 2-1 to Real Madrid with a strike each from Sami Khedira and Cristiano Ronaldo winning the capital club the match. On 27 April, coach Pep Guardiola announced in a tearful press conference in Barcelona that he would be stepping down as coach of the Catalan club at the end of the season, citing that he needed a break from football, to be replaced by Tito Vilanova. In the Barcelona's final game of the season, the Copa del Rey finals against Athletic Bilbao, Barça would win 3-0 with a brace from Pedro and a strike from Lionel Messi winning the club the coveted trophy. That season Barca would also win the European Supercup 2-0 against Porto and the Club World Cup 4-0 against Santos.
2012-13 again started of with the Supercup which again was El Clásico. Barcelona would win the first leg at home 3-2 with a goal from Leo Messi and goals from Pedro and Xavi, but in the second leg, despite a wonderfully struck free kick from Lionel Messi from 35 yards out, Barcelona would succumb 2-1 to their fiercest foes with goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and Gonzalo Higuain. In terms of La Liga, Barcelona would shoot straight up to the top of La Liga with a 5-1 win over Real Sociedad and would remain there until now. In the most hyped game of the season so far, Barcelona and Real Madrid would play out what many regard as the best El Clásico in recent memory, which ended in a 2-2 draw at the Camp Nou with both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo netting twice for their clubs. Barça would also kick of their Copa del Rey defense with a 3-0 win over Alavės. In the Champions League on 7 November 2012, Barcelona would fall 2-1 to Celtic, with Lionel Messi grabbing his third Champions League goal of the 2012-13 season in the 90th minute in Glasgow. Barcelona were eliminated from the 2013 UEFA Champions League 0-7 on aggregate in the semi-finals against Bayern Munich. It was Barcelona's worst ever aggregate loss in any European competition.
Read more about this topic: History Of FC Barcelona