11/12 Lliga: Real Madrid - FC Barcelona 1-3

[dalitis8]

My week = made. Manchester United in Europa League. Barcelona scoring 3 goals in the Bernabeu. Plus Cristiano having a stinker. Only 1 worthy gif for this occasion:

 

[Trillske]

I think Pep actually changed formation.

Hm... To me it looked like RM loosened the pressure a bit because they got tired.

Yeah, after about 10 minutes.
The first goal was no coincidence, the high pressure by Real was out of this world, possibly the best ever (though a hard fact to validate). But it lasted only a few minutes.

 

[dalitis8]

Neymar

Aguero
rooney

balotelli

hazard

goltze


ect ect ect

A certain David Silva as well.

 

[barcelonista]

Come on. Mourinho is a clever coach. He's not going to praise Barca, no matter what. His players must be traumatised enough by Barca now anyway. I swear, I think I've seen Xabi Alonso cry at the end of the game. Have you seen his reaction to our third goal? Complete disbelief: "This shit is happening again and again and again ..." I even felt sorry for Xabi.

 

[IbraFTW]

I think Pep actually changed formation.Yeah, after about 10 minutes.
The first goal was no coincidence, the high pressure by Real was out of this world, possibly the best ever (though a hard fact to validate). But it lasted only a few minutes.

It lasted through entire first half, I think. It's just that it took schoolboys (mwahaha) at least 10 minutes to adapt and to start working harder to keep possession.

 

[diegomessi]

A certain David Silva as well.

couldnt bare the thought

 

[e28makaveli]

Guardiola signed Alves. Alves>Fabregas/Alexis, so far

Sorry, I meant better signings. Agreed on Alves > Fab/Alexis. Alves rocks.

 

[Trillske]

It lasted through entire first half, I think. It's just that it took schoolboys (mwahaha) at least 10 minutes to adapt and to start working harder to keep possession.

Yeah, but it was a bit drained erlier. Look at the first 20 secs of the game leading up to the goal, it looked like Usain Bolt and his doped twin brothers.

 

[el tren]

You are massively exaggerating this luck thing.

First of all, it was Madrid that were lucky to go ahead.

Then Ronaldo missed a good chance to make it 2-0 (you know, that happens in football, Messi also missed a chance to level things earlier)

Then we went ahead with a lucky goal (fuck, are we not allowed to get a lucky goal ourselves for once? Essien got lucky against us, Milito the same, Rooney got an offside goal, as did Benzema today)

Then CR missed a sitter. Too bad for him.

Then we scored a quite brilliant goal (as was our first) with Messi-Alves-Cesc combining.

Then Iniesta showed Mou and his boys how football is played, and they were lucky to to not concede two more...

So. I am not so certain who was actually lucky after all.

Seriously, whats the intention of that post? You pretty much excactly summing up my point while actually trying to hold a completely different position. Hows that gonna work out?

 

[e28makaveli]

Real took the lead by a scrappy Valdez mistake - reminder of his old days - but we can forgive him, cauz the last 2 years he has been excellent..

Afterwards, it was obvious that we controlled the middlefield quite easy i would say..
We could penetrate and get into their box, whenever we wanted.. Real's only chance during the whole first half was Ronaldo's mis-shot..
Second half was more of the same, but with real threatening more with some chances, but barca also going all the way to casillas every now and then...

Mourinho approach is pretty obvious.. He is trying to forget his last year's various (either sit back(1-1 bernabeau), or play naive (5-0) or aggressive 3/4 pressure and counter (copa, CL bernabeau)) approaches and now he is clearly trying to make madrid press as high as possible, win balls deep in barcelona's half - or force to mistakes) and convert quickly..
I do not think he is any successful so far though..
It is clearly a failure (shown once more today) to try compete with barcelona, playing only 2 deep-lying mids, one of which was never able of decent defending(alonso)..
On the other hand you might argue that his new approach is to build an attacking madrid, but you know the best possession stat you can get versus barcelona is what he got today (40%).. Maybe madrid fans think that if this team plays more together this stat will rise.. Maybe, but not versus barca - barcelona players have played all their football life together..

Regarding our team: The worst problem that Madrid has created to us, is the psychological one: getting our players really nervous.. Since last year series, i have noticed this lack of concentration. It was also evident in the Supercopa.. It appeared again today.. I am not referring only to valdez mistake, but is the general tone.. I think that Pep should work on that. Our ability to circulate the ball was never questioned.. They sometimes seem to get overwhelmed and forget the basics..I still hold that Pepe made a huge mistake with Fabregas (yeah ok he scored..). It was evident that Iniesta was struggling out wide, and at the beginning of the second half -as mentioned by other members - when he tried to come inside and fabregas came out to cover for him, the triangle was clicking again.. Pep should never spoil that again in any serious game..

Alexis is a beast - of stamina and determination. he is a real fighter.. already far ahead of villa.. i liked also the way he moved to CF position and messi came to the right to alternate.. I hope next time we face madrid the AMP will be devastating..
Also, we saw once more why Puyi is our captain and why he will be playing untill 38.. Wise choice that he started over mascherano..
What i didnot like - besides the un-fitting of cesc in the center - was that alves sometimes stayed so high up (second half mainly) that puyol had to shift right and busquets backtracked to fill the CB position.. I never liked busi there and his partnership with Pique..

Well, the league has a long way to go.. Leagues are decided on the basis of what you do with all the other teams and not so much what you do versus your main opponent. Madrid is still better in that sense.. And they can lead again by 3 if they win Sevilla.. We need to improve..

and this is also my main concern. If you look at the two teams analytically, Barca is far superior. The moment I see folks like Lass on the field against a team like Barca, I see desperation tactics.

The only team that can truely hurt Barca on a consistent basis has to play Barca style and be better at it. Until them we will dominate with this current crop of players.

 

[gingerless]

Hm... To me it looked like RM loosened the pressure a bit because they got tired. What changes did Pep make? That's a serious question, I never notice stuff like that

xavi to a deeper role where he could help build from the back (the midfield was getting no service until this change was made) while iniesta/cesc moved more centrally, xavi was moved to busquet's position almost, and busquets was cb with puyol as rb to allow alves freedom to go forward. as someone already posted, the majority of the game was played as 4-4-2 in the end

 

[IbraFTW]

xavi to a deeper role where he could help build from the back (the midfield was getting no service until this change was made) while iniesta/cesc moved more centrally, xavi was moved to busquet's position almost, and busquets was cb with puyol as rb to allow alves freedom to go forward. as someone already posted, the majority of the game was played as 4-4-2 in the end

Ah, ok. I'd say that's just Xavi making him self available at all times, as he always does. He rarely has to drop very deep to do that, but this time he had to. Maybe Pep told him to do so, I don't know, but that sounds like... Just Xavi being Xavi.

 

[UEFA_Barça_Chris]

ray hudson commentary

 

[IbraFTW]

ray hudson commentary

Thanks, I didn't know his name. Must be best commentator ever.

 

[Beast]

Congrats on the win folks
battle is lost but not the war

In short my two cents of the game , Jose screwed it up big time with Coentrao playing at the RB .. really ?? really ? you play him as a RB for the first time in the clasico !!!?? playing with 2 attacking fullbacks !! ..the idiot was involved in practically all goals...
second point CR..seriously fuck off u big choker for all the arrogance he transmit he is knows he is second class whenever he meets Barca.. we could have wrapped it early in the first half and again when we went 2-1 down..i wished Jose would have taken him out he was clearly psyched out of the game

MOM for Real is clearly Benzema who did all what a striker can do in a football game.. he was a headache for Barca throughout the game.. respect