La Liga | Round 29: Real Madrid - FC Barcelona 0-4

[khaled_a_d]

https://twitter.com/jamiemkemp/status/1505669552880992262
Xavi's philosophy is a lot closer to 08-09 Barca (my favorite Barca) than Pep's immaculate orchestra of 10-11. We also score a variety of goals including from set pieces and outside the box.

Would say his game so far is closer to the Dutch (Rijkaard/LVG) and Lucho than Pep. Which IMO is a good surprise for us.

Xavi won under 3 different CL era coaches. Rijkaard, Pep and LE. That's a hell of alot of knowledge to take in and decipher with his own ideas and improvements.

True, he also had been coached by guy like LVG who is all time great, won WC and Euros under the likes of Aragones and Del Bosque.
It is good thing he is combining all of this knowledge rather than sticking to just one of them.

Needs to be said. People like to forget that. Even though the improvement is obvious.

Yup, Alemany is the unsung hero of this improvement we had, his creative work to add 3 different attackers has changed the dynamics of the team.
Not taking anything from Xavi work, but it always start from the top and without competent SD he would still have been in a bad position to improve the team.

 

[ronniecro]

i feel nothing lately,can't find joy in anything i love anymore. new f1 season was yesterday didn't even watched. i also wasn't looking forward to clasico since it is 187 points between us,only trashing real would make me happy but i didn't believed it could happen so i am really happy for a change. hats off to the team,our performance and especially result,it felt proper joy watching us play yesterday

 

[Neeraj]

I cannot believe what I saw last night. This was just surreal. To demolish Madrid once again so quickly, that is quite something.

Xavi deserves a LOT of credit of course. As much as the new players who are in here, I think we have to acknowledge the players who are not here. This is why there were calls for Messi and co to move on - there is NO way you can infuse a new identity into that bunch of players. This is what you get when you have a young squad that can run, has no ego and has some direction and of course decent quality.

 

[BarcaGirl]

Watching barca recently has been a joy, especially yesterday

Thank u Xavi

 

[Windhook]

Still can't wrap my mind around the brilliance of last night's performance.

Couldn't say Real Madrid underestimated the "inexperienced" Barca of Xavi. I need to rewatch the game, it's a masterpiece that hopefully will mark the beginning of something glorious.

 

[khaled_a_d]

Great game, but a bit deceiving tbh.
Real Madrid were just shambolic, missing Benzema and Mendy was huge for them, and it wasn't just their impact but because Ancelotti screwed the formation as a result.
Their defensive set up was joke, and their midfield was even a bigger joke with them trying to use Modric as false 9 at times

Not taking anything from our team and Xavi's work, we are probably a better team now if both are healthy, but that result would have been different scoring wise if their squad didn't miss their star.
Huge moral boost for the team, something to build on it and huge statement. Seeing fans of other teams looking at us as a team that is back is huge in itself.

 

[FC B]

Expected a win but nothing like this, fantastic game with the only regret they didn't score 5 or more.

 

[Devils]

I'm still pissed we didn't score 6-7 goals.

I can't believe how many chances we missed!

 

[Catta]

I'm still pissed we didn't score 6-7 goals.

I can't believe how many chances we missed!

Xavi was smart to stop it at 4. If we had scored 6 or 7, Real would probably sack Ancelotti and also do a big reconstruction. Now they will keep Carlo, still play CMK in midfield every game and have Carvajal, Vazquez and Nacho as fullbacks. They will only get Mbappe as a new addition, and he alone won't help them much.

 

[Fati_Future_BallonDor]

Xavi was smart to stop it at 4. If we had scored 6 or 7, Real would probably sack Ancelotti and also do a big reconstruction. Now they will keep Carlo, still play CMK in midfield every game and have Carvajal, Vazquez and Nacho as fullbacks. They will only get Mbappe as a new addition, and he alone won't help them much.

Because of the win against PSG i dont think they would have sacked him even though he is crap atm.

 

[gregorrin10]

Everybody could see it happening, piece by piece, but nobody fully believed it, until now.

Xavi Hernandez has resurrected Barcelona; Barca are back.

Their 4-0 destruction of Real Madrid at a broken Santiago Bernabeu will go down with other historic results, like the 6-2 in 2009 or the 5-0 in 2010, but perhaps it will prove most similar to the Blaugrana's 2-1 win in the Spanish capital in 2004.

Xavi scored that night for Barcelona, who did not win the league, but did help Valencia overtake Real Madrid to claim La Lig. More importantly for the Catalans, it kick-started a new era.

After years of suffering at the hands of their eternal rivals, Barca made that night a turning point. Great success followed, but even before the trophies began flooding in, supporters understood how big it was.

Around four thousands fans headed to the airport to greet the team on their return from Madrid, sensing a profound change was coming.

This victory, humiliating for the league leaders but not likely to be damaging to their title hopes given their nine-point advantage on second-place Sevilla, feels similar.

Barcelona had lost their last five Clasicos, four in La Liga and the Spanish Super Cup clash in January, their worst run in the fixture since the 1960s.

That defeat in Saudi Arabia felt significant, a turning point, one which was greeted as such by president Joan Laporta, who praised the team effusively, despite losing.

It was understandable, given the improvement was obvious, albeit still frustrating to lose to your most bitter rivals. Frenkie de Jong, who was stellar at the Bernabeu on Sunday, noted that Barcelona should never be content to lose a Clasico.

It spoke not only to his high standards, but those of Xavi and his team, constantly seeking to improve performances and correct mistakes.

The remarkable thing is how quickly Xavi has breathed life into a Barcelona that managed just two goals in their six Champions League group-stage games and were relegated to the Europa League, while also languishing ninth in the table.

There have been numerous steps forward since Xavi returned ?home?, with big wins over Atletico Madrid, Napoli and Valencia particular highlights, as well as a general acknowledgement that the team are improving with every game.

The players are increasingly capable of following the system Xavi has set up and the automated moves he wants them to be able to pull off in their sleep.

No longer do Barcelona look blocked and incapable of mentally taking on a game of this size.

Barca are BACK! ����

We can only hope!

 

[suckabov]

Still thrilled

 

[Horatio]

igician nowhere to be seen to celebrate this win. strange

 

[serghei]

Great game, but a bit deceiving tbh.
Real Madrid were just shambolic, missing Benzema and Mendy was huge for them, and it wasn't just their impact but because Ancelotti screwed the formation as a result.
Their defensive set up was joke, and their midfield was even a bigger joke with them trying to use Modric as false 9 at times

Not taking anything from our team and Xavi's work, we are probably a better team now if both are healthy, but that result would have been different scoring wise if their squad didn't miss their star.
Huge moral boost for the team, something to build on it and huge statement. Seeing fans of other teams looking at us as a team that is back is huge in itself.

Yea, don't think we're getting carried away, and Xavi surely isn't. In the grand scheme of things, this is just a good punch that knocked down a top rated boxer in a standard match on some undercard. Nowhere near the WBC title fight.

But I believe we have some gems in midfield that under Xavi could yield a new dominating trio. If we get our focus and fitness to the level of the top EPL sides, I can see teams having trouble with our technical level. We just find passes in midfield that weren't there before, and this is a combination of coaching, superior fitness level, more reduced age and less tired legs in the first 11, more confidence, and luck with La Masia peaking again.

Now imagine if we are blessed with that new signing we just made, Torre who seems to be this new wonderkid in Spain. Such abundance of prodigies in midfield is not going to be easy to counter when they reach maturity.

 

[Horatio]

I am not sure if we are getting carried away or not. But even if we are not as good as we think I think we are on a good road.

I truly do think Real is heavily underperforming. PSG result deceived people. I told my Real friends PSG lost against themselves and not because Real did well. They would not believe me. Now look what happened to them.