Real Madrid Galacticos

Barcelona 1-0 Real Madrid (My Notes on the game)

Posted on 30. Nov, 2009 by Borris Becker in Match Reports

Disappointing game really. Disappointing in the sense that Real Madrid made loads of great chances and the names who got those chances should have finished those chances but they did not and naturally that cost us the match. Hats off to Barcelona, they really outplayed Real Madrid, but Real Madrid only survived a Barcelona mauling because of  pure will and determination. We could not compete with Barcelona on anything except at the physical level, they had far superior techniques and strategies, I am just glad and there are many positives that Real Madrid can take from this game.

Here are my notes from the game and I will try to post another POST which would be a bit more organised this one but you know, after every loss in El Classico, I get down so low that my mind just stops thinking and that is the reason why I could not write a review on the game, this post is more like a , live commentary on the game along with some thoughts I had as the game progressed, So please, forgive me for my numerous grammatical errors in this post but this post will make sense, that I guarantee:

(The second half is not too detailed as I was completely in shock as to how a stupid cross found Ibrahamovic who (despite being a big guy) sneaked behind everybody inside the penalty area, unchallenged for an easy volley).

The lineups for both the teams were not surprising apart from the fact that Real Madrid decided to start with Higuain and Marcelo instead of Van Der Vaart (yeah I know, but I just love him as a player because when he is in form there are very few players who can orchestrate the game as he can) and Benzema. Barcelona also made a mistake in my opinion of starting with Henry instead of Ibrahamovic.

Real Madrid Line up:

Casillas

Sergio Ramos

Pepe

Raul Albiol

Arbeloa

Lass

Xabi Alonso

Marcelo

Higuain

Ronaldo

Kaka

Barcelona Line Up

Valdes

Daniel Alves

Puyol

Pique

Abidal

Iniesta

Xavi

Keita

Henry

Messi

Sergio

First Half

Its Half time and the score is still 0-0. I ask, who in the heck in his right mind would have predicted this scoreline at half time in a match between Barcelona and Real Madrid. This really shows that Real Madrid’s defense not its weak link as most people (especially in EPL) like to think so. Barcelona have, by far, the best attacking pairs in the world in Messi, Henry, Iniesta, Zlatan and Xavi. Where the combination of Iniesta and Xavi is so potent, I bet these two could find each other even if the floodlights were turned off at the Nou Camp.

Real Madrid should have scored in the first half, they had the best of the chances.  Barcelona did play some nice moves but not a single one resulted in shot on goal of Real Madrid. Ronaldo was fouled at every opportunity he got the ball, same was the case with Messi.

Serrgio was lucky that he did not receive a color known as YELLOw for a foul on Ronaldo from behind. The opening half was all tight affair. The ball stayed in the middle of the park alot of times.

Kaka made a spectacular move in the 19nth minute and setup ronaldo for an easy chance but Victor Valdes made a incredible save. I couldnt believe how Ronaldo missed that. Kaka had worked so hard to open up Barcelon a’s defense, only to see Ronaldo waste the opportunity and that should be unforiviable for a player of Ronaldols class. Kaka setup another goldern opportunity for Marcelo but Marcelo’s touch was too heavy and messed up.

I wanted to kill Marcelon at that moment. Puyol, one of the best defender in Europe, also made a spectacular block in that. Barcelona only had some nice plays with no end product because of superior position of Casillas as compared to Victor Valdes while defending.

Xabi Alonso played the anchorman in the midfield with Diarra making all the tough tackles on Messi and Xavi. Barcelona tried to mix up their strategies. They changed positions alot. At one point, iniestra and henry were playing on the left and Messi was playing in the middle, but to the dismay of Barcelona fans, they were unable to hurt Real Madrid as Real Madrid looked extremely sharp in defence. Notice that I did not say the world organised or composed because Real Madrid defense lacked these two things completely. We gave away the ball plenty of times in dangerous positions but thankfully Barcelona were not able to capitalise on those mistakes.

I loved the way Pelligrini used the combination of Xabi and Diarra to counter that of Xavi, Iniesta nad Keita. Though I did not like the fact that he played Higuain instead of Benzema. There were some long passes that Xabi made with imaculant accuracy to which Higuain didnt get to and I would have thought that Benzema’s pace would have been sufficient in those areas.

First half weak link for Real Madrid by far was Marcelo. Missed two easy chances. Messed up attacking moves started by Ronaldo and Kaka. Was a obstacle in the defense as well as he lost the ball plenty of times.

Barcelona made the mistake in that they played Henry instead of Ibra. Henry is not the old Henry, he does not have the pace anymore, that clearly showed when he lost a “chase the ball” race to Pepe. Ibrahamovic though does not has speed but could have atleast played as the target man upfront.

In the first half the likes of Lionel Messi and Ronaldo did not live up to the international brands that both of these have become. Barcelona are arguably the best team in Europe at the moment and Real Madrid showed that, they are not far behind too. Barcelona did not play to their potential, thats true, but what one does not notice at first is that Real Madrid did not allow Barcelona to play their game in the first half.

Real Madrid are leading the la liga at the moment so a draw wouldnt have been a bad result for Real Madrid. Barcelona were just pure frustrated as they couldnt break down Real Madrid’s defense.

That was the story of the firs thalf. Barcelona had all the posession and the tricks, flicks. But real madrid had the best of the chances which they couldnt convert. Damn you Marcelo. I forgive Ronaldo because of the obvious reasons.

2nd Half

There had been no 0-0 result in El Clasico for 20 years, surely that was not going to change considering the amount of talent and money that was present there on the field. El Clasico is always a contest for leadership and both sides fought till the end. At the start of the 2nd half Barcelona tried different approach. They came from the wings in hope of trying to disturb the rhythm of Real Madrids defence.

On the other hand Barcelona did play in their rhythm, sprayed the ball around really well but real madrid were upto the task in cutting their passes off, most of the times but that took alot out of Real Madrid’s defense and midfield, as a result we were not as bright in attack as we were in defense.

Messi showed his brilliance on many occassions, but was always pulled down by Real Madrid defensive midifled players namely diarra and Xabi. These two worked their socks off.

Sergio Ramos played extremely well on the right flank and looked more like a winger as so often he does by beating barcelona players on the wing several times with his skill on the ball.

Early in the second half, Ronaldo made a fantastic turn but was obstructed by Sergio who consquently got booked. One more thing. Arbeloa sucks. Everytime he got the ball he just shot it long out of the ground and put the pressure right back at Real Madrid by giving away the possession so cheaply.Anyway, Barcelona subbed the 32 old henry for Ibra and the nou camp erupted.There was their man, the 2nd most expensive player in the history of football after Ronaldo.

He changed the game alot because he is strong in the air and can play the one twos very well.

Great defending from Real Madrid as they got possession back from Barcelona in a dangerous situation, they worked over time as Barcelona passed the ball slickly. Real Madrid counter attacked with Ronaldo and Higuain. Higuain turned quite brilliantly inside Puyol but Puyol recovered in time to make another magnificent block. He had now saved 2 goals for sure.

Ibrahamovic scored the openning goal on the 55th minute mark. Cross  by Alves and the finish from ibrahamovic who made a left foot volley to hammer in the first goal. Absolute screamer. but guess what, on the replay i saw a little hint of Ibra being offside, well the sstupid ref didnt see it so whats the point in discussing that.This now called for a response from Real Madrid. After that Barcelona played their game of keeping the ball and looking for gaps in the real madrid water right defence.

That was the first shot Bracelona had on the Real Madrid goal and they scored from it.

Sergio got a red card for handling the ball. I dont know if its Barcelona or its players who are to blame for this. Messi does this all the time and now sergio is joining the act too.

Ronaldo missed an easy header off a cross from Marcelo.

My wish came true and Benzema came on. But wait, the stupid Pelligrini brought him on for Ronaldo. I know ronaldo just came back from injury, but this was not the best decision Pelligrini made in his time so far at Real Madrid. With ronaldo gone, the pace was gone for Real Madrid in the attack.

Raul came on for Arbeloa and interestingly, he hadnt scored at the nou camp for more than a decade.

Diarra got booked again in the 90th minute and thus both sides had 10 men on the field. Well, from the way Barcelona kept posession, I couldnt notice which side had the lesser  number of men before Diarra got sent off.

Barcelona players went down on every touch they felt after they got their goal (and got reduced to 10 men). Real Madrid could not build any momentum after that, Barcelona dictated the pace of the game through their superior passing. Real Madrid tried hard but just could not match Barcelona interms of the pace and the creativity.

For me, the man of the match was Puyol who saved atleast 3 goals for Barcelona. Well, we can really dwell on this anymore. Real Madrid are now 2 points behind Barcelona which can be credited to the chances wasted by Real Madrid against a side like Barcelona.

I noticed throughout the game that Real Madrid players did not have the same skill on the ball as Barcelona players had. Barcelona players were so much more comfortable on the ball and all of their players from Daniel Alves to the obvious Lionel Messi had such a good touch on the ball. Whereas in the Real Madrid side, Sergio Ramos, Diarra and Marcelo had average feel for the ball and too many times broke the momentum of Real Madrid’s attack simply because of their poor first touch.

As Beckham said, the most important thing in football is the first touch, if you have a good first touch then the rest becomes so easy. Zidane showed us the mastery in this skill and I can tell you that Lionel Messi is not far off.

Anyway, nothing to worry about, there are plenty of matches left. Hopefully Ronaldo will be fully fit for Real Madrid in our next Classico and hopefully Marcelo would be dead by then (I have been super critical on Marcelo but he did work hard and made some vital blocks while closing down Barcelona defenders to setup some Real Madrid attacks, but he also evened that out with his stupid sense of the beautiful game known as football, hell to those who said that Marcelo was the next Roberto Carlos).

HALA MADRID!!!!

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Tags: Barcelona 1-0 Real Madrid 2009, featured