After two months of treatment in New York City for a throat tumor, Barcelona coach Tito Vilanova is finally back in Spain. Vilanova's health has been on many people's mind as the coach suffered a cancer relapse after he had to get a saliva gland tumor removed back in November 2011.
While Vilanova was away, Jordi Roura took care of the team. Roura, Vilanova's assistant, was in constant contact with the coach about decision making. During Barcelona matches, Vilanova communicated with the team's coaches via mobile phone from New York City.
During Vilanova's absence the team went through a rough patch when they had to face strong teams within a short period of time. From February 20th to March 2nd, the team played four times losing on three occasions. Two of those matches were against arch-rivals Real Madrid, who beat Barcelona in two consecutively; once for the Spanish Cup, which eliminated Barcelona from the competition and another time in the league. During that stretch, Barcelona also fell 2-0 to AC Milan in Italy in the Champions League Round of 16. Their only victory during the stretch was at home against an always tough Sevilla team.
Arguably the most memorable game was Barcelona's impressive comeback in the Champions League second leg against AC Milan, winning 4-0 to qualify for the quarterfinals.
Vilanova's return should only add fire to a currently hot Barcelona who are looking to become European kings once again and La Liga champions.
Cristian Tello believes that Jordi Roura has done a spectacular job stepping in when Tito was out recovering, however, he is very pleased with Vilanova's return.
The next few games for the Catalans will be season-defining as they face Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League quarterfinals.
Vilanova might not be able to count with Pedro for the upcoming games as the Spain international sustained a small tear in his calf during Spain's World Cup qualifying match against France. He is due to miss 10 games, meaning he will not play this weekend. He was already going to miss the first PSG fixture due to yellow card accumulation.
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