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Barcelona 2-0 Real Madrid
The story could had been so much different if Real Madrid had some more quality in their statring lineup. Real Madrid had great chances in the first half and one in the second half. Though Real Madrid were on the back foot for most of the 90 minutes, we had the better chances. Barcelona could not break down the white house as easily as they would have liked.
In the end, Eto’o scored a pathetic goal on the 83rd minute mark, from his thighs and that too was almost cleared off the line by Parejo. The Second goal was even more feeble in nature. This time Barcelona hit Real Madrid on the break. Henry released Messi in the 90th minute and he got in a one on one situation with Casillas (who was at his absolute best in this match) and chipped it over Casillas’s head.
Cannavaro was back tracking and could had easily cleared it as it was a chip, the ball had no pace on it but wait, Cannavaro is 35. I completely forgot that. Messi celebrated as if he had scored the goal of the century (actually he did that 2 seasons ago againt Getafe in Copa Del Ray) while in reality, it was a stupid goal.
Barcelona undoubtedly dominated the game. The match started at a very fast pace and ended at a very fast pace. There were tackles, slides, fouls, cards, abuses. Everything but in the midst of all that, it was Real Madrid who had the most clear cut of chances.
Barcelona did have the ball posession but Real Madrid defended extremely well. Barcelona didn’t have any clear cut chances throughout the game.
Though Barcelona won, the headlines worldwide praised Real Madrid’s performance and we did show some real character in this game. Despite loosing almost ALL our key players and playing under a new coach at the Camp Nou, Real Madrid did not let their fans down and stood up to the challenge and prooved a lot of people wrong who predicted a thrashing of Real Madrid by the hands of Barcelona.
Well, infact, it was Barcelona who got lucky in this game as Real Madrid missed some sitters.
First Half
The big surprise in the start of the game was that Sergio Ramos was playing as left back due to some injuries to other players and Sniejder started the game, though initially he was expected not even in the squad list, let alone a starter. Real Madrid also used some of their reserved team player, of which only Palancka was used.
Whereas, Barcelona had a fully fit squad, almost fully fit. I think only Iniesta was absent and Bojan could had played instead of Gubjhonson, Bojan is as good as iniesta, if not better (atleast against Real Madrid) because of his directness and pace with the ball.
Barcelona started with 4-3-3, with Messi, Eto’o and Henry upfront and Xavi, Gudjhonson, Yaya Toure in the midle. Daniel Alves, Puyol, Marquez and Abidal made the back line.
As expected, it was a high intensity game from the start as Barcelona looked the more dominant side. Messi was a constant threat down the wing, Sergio Ramos didn’t look all that comfortable with him but then again, who’s the one who feels good about marking Messi in a match. Messi is the man who absolutely ripped Roberto Carlos apart 2 seasons ago when Fabio Capello was incharge of Real Madrid. Real Madrid won that match though.
Real Madrid applied clever tactics, as they should I think. I think after Capello and before him after Del Bosque. All our coaches were very weak tactically, relied on touch football rather than change style of play during the games, according to the situation, something which Jose Mourinho is a master at.
Real Madrid players took turns to foul Messi and that is not unfair by any means. It is a physical sport and one should be able to compete physically as well as technically. Messi complained too much and got down too easily. Someone should tell him that all these past years when Messi was improving his touch and control, other players were working their butts off in the gym to get stronger so that they could compete with players like Vieira and Gattuso.
Anyway, Cannavaro and Casillas were the heroes of the first half, as both made crucial saves in the early minutes to deny Barcelona the lead. Messi, when he wasn’t kicked out of the game, did manage to threat the goal of Real Madrid but could not beat Casillas.
Real Madrid were playing with counter attack mindset and did threat Barcelona’s goal. At the 23rd minute mark Sniejder did make a fine volley and forced Valdes to tip the ball over the net.
Less than a minute later though and Real Madrid should have taken the lead when Raúl played Royston Drenthe through behind the defence, only for the Drenthe to shoot tamely when one-one-one, allowing Valdés to save down to his right.
I wanted to spit in Drenthe’s face for what he did there. Last season, Baptista had a 200 times more difficult chance than this in Camp Nou and he scored from it. It happened to be our best chance in that game and it was our only goal in that game. The situation was almost the same minus all the injuries Real Madrid now have. We won last year 0-1 in Camp Nou, thanks to Baptista.
It was our first chance, had we screwed that up, Barcelona might had won that match and now look what Real Madrid management have done, they sold Baptista and brought in the stupid Drenthe. Drenthe worked hard all night, but he does not have that quality.
Mijatovic is buying mediocre players for the past 2 to 3 seasons and for that reason we lost this game as well.
Anyway, coming back to the very end of first half, on the 36 minute mark. Sniejder got injured as he had just come back from an injury. Ramos gambled when he played him and that gamble didn’t pay off. Sniejder was substituted by palanca, who is a natural winger.
Real Madrid fought well in the first half. This is the sort of defending Real Madrid should show in every match. Though Sergio Ramos and Metzelder picked up yellow cards for tackles from behind, but that was only because of the magician that Messi is. Real Madrid were constantly kept under pressure and thats why we fouled other players as well.
Second Half
The second half was expected to be the same with Barcelona dominating the posession. but less than a minute gone, Barcelona’s midfield lost concentration and Higuain was about to get one on one with Valdes before Puyol made a sensational tackle to avert that chance.
Barcelona just could not handle the shear determination of Real Madrid, as they tried and tried, still Bacelona couldn’t break our defense and now the Camp Nou was getting frsutrated.
Again the balance of play, it was actually, Real Madrid who looked the likely side to break the deadlock as Palanca was performing very well down the flank.
Casillas made some unbelievable saves. First Eto’o turned just outside the area and shot towards the bottom corner, Casillas saved it and pushed the ball infront for him, only to find Messi. At that moment, I was like “SHIT, Messi of all people” but guess what, Casillas made a wonderful one vs one save to deny Barcelona the lead.
With the final whistle looming Barcelona were growing more and more anxious and they were nearly picked off on the break by Palanca, but he shot straight at Valdés from a tight angle.
I was impressed with Palanca, I think he managed to strike that balance of debutant’s confidence and the respect of such a big match by staying responsible at the same time, perfectly. He wasn’t afraid to take on Abidal but Palance was always caution not to over do the drills and loose posession.
Had that been Ronaldo (Brazil one, I don’t know why I have to mention this every time), it would have been a sure goal on the chance Palanca got.
Minutes Later, Salgado brought down (unneccessarily) Basquets in the penalty box and Eto’o stood up to take the penalty but Casillas saved it. IN YOUR FACE!! ETO’o.
But unfortunately, Eto’o had the last laugh as in a typical poacher’s style, he lached onto a header by Puyol into the penalty box, Casillas couldn’t do anything against Eto’o shot which he made from his thigh. haha. What a looser.
Eto’o celebrated like he scored a goal with a bicycle kick. Actually, he didn’t even use his foot nor his head. Looser.
Silly goal to give away in such a big match. Barcelona knew they couldn’t score any other way so they decided to test Real Madrid with set pieces and got the reward.
The game was over as Real Madrid just did not have any attacking power at all, now what Barcelona had the lead, they also sat back and that was it for Real Madrid. No chances after that happened.
The home side didn’t stop there either as they grabbed another late in injury time through Messi, who after being played through by Henry on the counter-attack, chipped over Casillas to end the game.
As I mentioned before, it was a pathetic goal. Cannavaro though played superbly throughout the match, neutralized his good performance by this awful clearance off the line.
There was no thrashing which many pundits expected before the start of the game and Real Madrid fought with pride and honor. Now Barcelona are 12 points ahead of us.
I am a Real Madrid fan through and through and I don’t think the season is over yet.
