Barcelona look to erase memories of ‘annus horribilis’

We continue our extensive live coverage of Europe's top teams this season with ALL of Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich's matches this season getting the live commentary treatment. We will also be covering the biggest matches in Italy and France across the 2014-15 campaign.When it looked like they couldn't sign any more players including ones they'd lined up like goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen, the club successfully appealed, but we'll come to that.An awful April saw them lose the Copa del Rey final to Real Madrid. Tragically, they also lost their former manager Tito Vilanova to cancer, aged just 45.Lionel Messi's form dipped and he became implicated in tax evasion for which he'll likely go to court. Barça lost their status as Spanish champions as their league season petered out in poor form and uninspiring football.It was a surprise that they were still in contention for the league title on the final day of the season, when they saw Atletico Madrid crowned champions in Camp Nou. Barca's fans booed them off the pitch, triggering the sales of perceived underperforming players Cesc Fabregas and Alexis Sanchez. It was the first year in six that Barca finished without a trophy.Long time club captain Carles Puyol finally retired, long standing goalkeeper Victor Valdes ruptured his cruciate ligament in his final game for the club before a summer transfer which never happened after suitors Monaco understandably pulled out. Real Madrid won the Champions League, a competition Barça were eliminated from by another Madrid side, Atletico.To pour oil on troubled waters, Barça then signed Luis Suarez. He's apologised for his latest biting episode and says it won't happen again. We've seen apologies from Suarez before, but a strike force of Messi, Neymar and Suarez will not only be familiar with various types of court rooms, but could be the best in the world. Better even than Real Madrid's Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo.Barca's season starts on Sunday with a home game against an Elche side they met in the penultimate game of last season. Had Barca beaten the promoted team, they would have won the league with that final draw to Atletico. Instead, they played out a turgid 0-0 draw as if they couldn't wait for the campaign to end.Under new boss Luis Enrique, Barça will hope to be reinvigorated against Elche. Anything but a victory and grumbles will begin against the new manager, just as they started after Pep Guardiola took a few games to find his feet when he took charge in 2008. Enrique is a driven, talented man who knows the club and all its foibles well. He replaces an outsider, Tata Martino, who couldn't be expected to get to grips with planet Barça and, ultimately, didn't. He even confessed that he simply wasn't enjoying the job earlier in the year.(uk.eurosport.yahoo.com)Bakudaily.Az