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Tampilkan postingan dengan label el clasico. Tampilkan semua postingan
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Watch Live ElClasico Barcelona vs Read Madrid Spanish Super Cup Secong Leg
Watch this space. Live streams would be made available before the start of the match.
Disclaimer: All live streams provided are available freely on internet. Please direct copyright issues to the source of the stream.
Champions League Semis: Real Madrid vs Barcelona Recap (2nd Leg)
1 – 1
Real Madrid vs Barcelona (2nd Leg)
Barcelona advances to the finals. Recap of the el clasico series, there have been two draws and a win for both teams:
el clasico VI – Champions League Semis leg 2 (May 4): Barcelona 1-1 Real Madrid
Real started strong in the match and was more alive, offensively speaking, compared to their 1st leg performance. However, Barca found their footing and began to dominate the 1st half having a lot of spectacular attempts, putting Casillas to work. During the 2nd half, again, RM started strong with a few attempts but was handled quite well by Barca defense. And then Barca scores the 1st goal when a through-ball from Andres Iniesta was received by Pedro who then beat Iker Casillas in a one-on-one situation and found the back of the net. Real equalizes when a shot from Angel Di Maria hits the post, the ball bouncing back to him and he crosses it to Marcelo who had a clear shot to the goal.
The end part of the match was a bit disappointing as it seemed to fall into the pattern of fouls, time-wasting and some injury feigning. But fortunately, there were no ugly scenes of bad tempers and fighting like the 1st leg match. Although, Real Madrid are protesting Gonzalo Higuain's disallowed goal due to a foul by CRonaldo on Javier Mascherano (I guess preventing Mascherano from defending Higuain) prior to Higuain’s attempt. The replay happened so fast so I’ll try to look for the vid. I wonder what Pierluigi Collina would say about this referee decision.
But, overall, it was Barca’s night as they dominated with 69% possession and had 11 shots (5 on target) and most are probably are Messi’s or had some assist from him. On the other hand, Real Madrid only had 3 shots (1 on target) and still playing a more physically aggressive game as they committed 31 fouls compared to Barcelona’s 10. At least this time, no one from Real Madrid was sent off in this match.
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| photo courtesy of Reuters |
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| poor Messi photo courtesy of skysports.com |
Throughout the match, Leo Messi was a threat to Real Madrid’s defense, making close attempts or providing assists for his teammates. But he got pretty banged up in this game. I guess if you’re a prolific scorer like Messi, you would be a well-marked man. He was tackled a lot, I’d say around 12 times in the match. At one point in the 1st half he was sandwiched by 3 Real players who were tackling him at the same time. In the 2nd half he was sent flying off from Marcelo’s tackle, then his head was pushed down by (was it) Diarra? and seconds later Adebayor pulls him down. I worry about this coz you can pick up scary injuries from this (remember Ronaldo?). I wonder how many times he gets tackled in a game? Pique also had quite a good game, making great calls in tackles, suppressing any attempts from Real and dispossessing the ball from RM.
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| Abidal got a touching reception from teammates and fans on his return to the pitch photo courtesy of Getty Images |
Of course, one of the special moments in the match was when Eric Abidal comes in for Carles Puyol during the 90th minute. Both players got cheers from the fans. I’m glad Abidal has recovered from the removal of the cancer in his liver, he's a very crucial part of Barca’s defense. As the match ended, Barca teammates playfully tossed him in the air a couple of times
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| Karanka, Real Madrid's assistant coach. I wouldn't mind seeing him instead of Mourinho :P photo courtesy of Real Madrid |
Jose Mourinho, of course, missed the match due to a touchline ban he earned during the 1st leg . He opted to watch the game from the hotel. Aitor Karanka, his assistant who took charge of the match, is quite the hottie. :P
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| hhhmmmm….why is his hand cupping Morientes’ butt?? :P photo courtesy of connect.in.com |
Apparently he used to play for Real Madrid as a central defender during the pre-galacticos era, alongside Fernando Hierro, Roberto Carlos, Fernando Morientes, Raul, etc.
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| rain, rain go away… a very wet pitch. photo courtesy of uefa.com |
Other match observations: The pitch was quite slippery as there was a thunderstorm prior to the match and it continued to rain until 2nd half. Also, a fan managed to go inside the pitch before the 2nd half was about to kick off, there was a bit of chasing before they caught him.
Sighting: what’s that pink thing on CRonaldo’s right hamstring? Wish I could find a photo of it.
I’m grateful that Balls Channel has aired live telecasts of the Champions League matches but where is the half-time and post match commentary? I know there usually is one…And I know UEFA usually flashes the 1st half stats before going to commercial break. Did Balls cut to commercial way too soon? Would’ve loved to see the 1st half stats. The only 1st half stat I saw that flashed was Barca having 7 attempts and Real Madrid had 0.
Final Aggregate Score:
Real Madrid: 1
Barcelona: 3
Here are numbers:
Barcelona | Real Madrid | |
1 | Goals scored | 1 |
6 | Attempts on target | 1 |
5 | Attempts off target | 1 |
1 | Blocked Shots | 1 |
4 | Offsides | 2 |
3 | Corners | 2 |
69 | Possession (%) | 31 |
36' 35'' | Possession (time) | 20' 7'' |
631 | Passes Completed | 261 |
88.7 | Passing Success | 75.2 |
28 | Tackles | 30 |
75 | Tackles Success | 70 |
10 | Fouls committed | 31 |
1 | Yellow cards | 5 |
0 | Red cards | 0 |
47.9 | Territorial Advantage | 52.1 |
54th minute – Pedro Rodriguez (Barcelona)
64th minute – Marcelo (Real Madrid)
Yellow Cards:
Ricardo Carvalho (Real Madrid)
Lassan Diarra (Real Madrid)
Xabi Alonso (Real Madrid)
Marcelo (Real Madrid)
Pedro Rodriguez (Barcelona)
Emmanuel Adebayor (Real Madrid)
First XI Line Up
Barcelona (4-3-3):
Valdés
Alves, Piqué, Mascherano, Puyol
Xavi, Busquets, Iniesta
Pedro, Messi, Villa
Substitutes: Oier, Jeffren, Keita, Afellay, Abidal, Fontas, Thiago
Real Madrid (4-2-3-1):
Casillas
Arbeloa, Albiol, Carvalho, Marcelo
Lass, Alonso
Di Maria, Kaka, Ronaldo
Higuain
Substitutes: Dudek, Benzema, Granero, Garay, Ozil, Adebayor, Nacho
More great articles on the match here:
El Clasico woes
I don’t really like to give opinions or comments on controversial issues on football and my opinion probably doesn’t mean much as I’m not an expert but as a fan, but I’m very disappointed on how things progressed with the whole Barca-Real conflict. It has reached a point where the focus is no longer about the game. If you win, then be a humble winner, if you lost, be a gracious loser.
Tempers were probably a little frayed as they were halfway thru the el clasico series. We can all assume that both teams were already feeling the pressure to win. Mourinho fired the 1st shot as he criticized Pep Guardiola as a coach said prior to the 3rd el clasico (click here to read what Mourinho said). The Barca coach who was usually diplomatic respond to Mourinho’s “statements” had responded with expletives (click here to read Guardiola’s response), Guardiola shouldn’t have lost his cool (although this article suggests that it was actually “a cool, calculated and carefully planned strategy – a premeditated message: “We won’t be bullied any longer.””)
Then there were allegations from Real Madrid on unsporting behavior/diving of certain Barca players and the infamous Pepe red card. I can’t really tell most of the time if a player dived or not but to claim that it was only Barca who is guilty of it? What about Di Maria and CRonaldo? How many free kicks were given from Di Maria’s “fall”? And if Barca is notorious for diving and play acting more than any other team normally does, shouldn’t they also have a history of finishing matches with opponents having 10 men left? (correct me if I’m wrong as I haven’t been following football that much until this year and I haven’t really researched this much).
And did Dani Alves really “dive”? I don’t really know. Here’s a video of the tackle, you decide:
But some are claiming that Pepe never really touched Alves at all, here’s a video that from a certain angle, shows that there wasn’t any actual contact between the Alves and Pepe (of course, Barca fans are questioning its authenticity):
Whether there was contact or not, isn’t there a FIFA rule about tackles with studs up and off the ground (plus Alves touched the ball 1st) are considered a serious foul play? And if you look closely at the video, wouldn’t be very difficult for Alves’ leg to go on one direction (kicking the ball forward) to suddenly change course to the other direction and continue doing so until his whole body rotates/flips 360 degrees and land on the ground and all with only one foot on the ground as balance? The force that made Alves flip/turn 360 degrees is very difficult to do with just one foot on the ground, there has to be some other force (like a kick from Pepe) that made him turn/flip before landing on the ground. Just sayin’. And the fact that Real Madrid (and Mourinho) seemed to have a bit of “history” of ending matches with only 10 men says a lot about how they play (click here to read an article listing Morunho’s experiences of ending a match with 10 men). In this particular match, Pepe was already warned a couple of times prior to the red card. And his tackle in the Copa del Rey? Some are saying it should have been a red card. My point is Pepe has “history” with bad tackles, maybe this is one of those instances? And while I was trying to find the video of the Pepe-Alves tackle, I found this instead:
skip to 0:38
I know, I know, this has nothing to do with the match and trying to use this as “proof” that Pepe does bad tackles is a stretch, but this is just one crazy ass video that I just had to share. Pepe’s scary! But he’s kinda hot in bad-ass kind of way… hihihihi :P
Going back to the topic now…. And lastly, Mourinho’s post game rant was way out of line, especially when he said (click here to read all what he said):
"[Wednesday] once again showed that you don't stand a chance against Barcelona. Uefa doesn't allow any team to really do something against them. I really don't know what's behind all this. Maybe it's their ties with Unicef or maybe it's because they just find Barcelona a sympathetic club. I've been wondering about this all my life and I'll get an answer one day."
He should really need to think before saying anything. If he makes claims, he should be able to back them up. To imply that Barca and Pep Guardiola have only achieved what they have on an alleged connection with UEFA or Unicef and alleged referee favors without offering any proof, it seems like he just wants to make trouble. You cannot deny that Barca is a great team. They could not have won 32 domestic games (losing only two) if you’re not a great team. If they are as bad as Mourinho claimed, other coaches and teams should have complained by now. If you want to prove you’re the better team and the better coach, then show it on the field, not off it. And even former Chelsea Manager, Guus Hiddink, called out Mourinho on his post-game rant (read the whole article here). He said:
“Before I knew it, he [Mourinho] got me involved. Jose compared the Real - Barca game with the Chelsea – Barca semi-final in 2009 when I was manager at Stamford Bridge. We missed out on the final, too. But the big difference is that we did not moan about conspiracies. I don’t agree with Mourinho at all on this. It is right that Chelsea was badly disadvantaged then, especially with the handball penalty we were denied in injury time. That was a clear mistake from the referee. A couple of days later, when all the emotions had gone, we realised we had been robbed of a Champions League final. But never, ever, did anybody at Chelsea claim there was a conspiracy. You just don’t say things like that. The thought would not even enter my mind.”
I found an interesting article that states that Mourinho could be guilty of what he is accusing Guardiola of (click here to read it). And oh yeah, apparently, this isn’t the first time that Mourinho was involved in a controversy, click here for the list of controversies he has involved himself in, he really needs to think before he speaks.
I tried to be very objective in this post (I really did), as obviously I’m a Barca fan. I tried to find articles listing Guardiola’s past misbehaviors but I just couldn’t find any (if you find one, please share it). At this point, what I can says is, what happened to Real Madrid? I used to like this team (especially during their pre-galacticos era where it they had Fernando Morientes, Raul, Roberto Carlos, Fernando Hierro and a young Iker Casillas). I’m still a big fan of Casillas and I think Ozil is pretty great, too. I don’t really care much for Kaka and I think CRonaldo is an ass. But Mourinho is something else. No question he’s a great coach in terms of winning trophies, but he should prove it only on the pitch and keep his mouth shut. Let the awards and wins speak for itself.
He doesn't go quietly... Jose Mourinho's Champions League exit rants through the years (interesting read)
Real Madrid's Jose Mourinho will not speak ahead of Barcelona clash (he should’ve have done this in the first place)
Real Madrid's Iker Casillas: We can only bite our tongues and keep quiet (Mourinho should’ve have taken his cue from the Real Madrid skipper)
Lionel Messi’s father criticises Jose Mourinho’s comments after Real Madrid’s defeat to Barcelona (I love, love, love Leo… but I wish his dad would’ve just kept quiet)
Mourinho lets "images do the talking" (now he says this? A little too late don’t you think?)
Champions League Semis: Real Madrid vs Barcelona Recap (1st Leg)
0 – 2
Real Madrid vs Barcelona
Barcelona was back with a vengeance scoring two away goals in the 1st leg of the Champions League Semifinals. So here’s the update on the el clasico series (click here for recap, stats, etc on the 1st two el clasico matches):
el clasico I – La Liga (Apr 16): Barcelona 1-1 Real Madrid
el clasico II – Copa del Rey (Apr 20): Barcelona 0-1 Real Madrid
el clasico III – Champions League Semis leg 1 (Apr 27): Real Madrid 0-2 Barcelona
All the CRonaldo vs Messi debates? Well, Messi shows them who’s boss as he scores the two goals of the match (scoring 11 goals in 11 Champions League matches and scoring on each of his last four visits to the Bernabeu). “Another Messi master class,” according to the commentator. His 1st goal breaks the 67 minutes of deadlock when he converted a brilliant cross from Ibrahim Afellay. His 2nd goal was from a 20-30(?)-yard run, eluding four Real Madrid players then beating Iker Casillas with a right-footed shot to score. As the commentator said, it was “Delightful!” Can I just say that Messi is well marked man? Whenever he has the ball 2-4 Real Madrid players flock to him.
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| cute cartoon showing who won the Messi-CRonaldo debate in this match from goal.com |
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| Messi master class photo from eufa.com |
It was another enjoyable tiki-taka football from Barca with them ending the match with a 72% ball possession and 482 passes completed while Real Madrid only had 127. All the passing frustrated CRonaldo during the 1st half, as he ran around in a circle trying to dispossess the ball from Barca, eventually throwing his hands up in defeat.
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| tempers flare in this very intense match photo courtesy of ibtimes.com |
The game was full of the tension and you can feel the pressure as tempers flared causing the game to stall twice in the 1st half as a brawl was about to erupt between the two teams on the field. Then during half-time, both teams went at it again as they made their way to their locker rooms. I couldn’t tell how it started as the camera only started to capture it when there was already a lot of pushing and shoving but apparently it started from a confrontation between Seydou Keita and Alvaro Arbeloa they left the field, Barca's substitute keeper Jose Pinto ended up with red card from the scuffle. During the 2nd half, things started to get ugly again when Pepe got sent off from challenging Dani Alves. This makes it the 4th consecutive time a Real player gets a red card in a game against Barca, I guess Real kept their “practice” of ending a match with 10 men. Jose Mourinho got so heated up about this and Carles Puyol was seen trying to calm him down. But Mourinho ultimately sent off to the stands after he sarcastically clapped and showed a thumbs up to the fourth official. The look on his face when he was made to sit on the stands… priceless! Btw, they that challenge on Dani Alves looked like it hurt like hell, he was stretcher off the field. I hope he doesn’t end up with an injury from this match, he got battered in this game, taking a lot of knocks.
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| the look on Mourinho face photo courtesy of Getty Images |
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| Mourinho sent off to the stands photo courtesy of totalfootballmadness.com |
Real Madrid played a very aggressive game (in the physical sense), there was Marcelo stepping (or was it more of a stomp?) on the leg of Pedro, Adebayor hitting Busquets on the face, hard tackles and challenges, etc.
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| Pepe sent off |
Trivia: Pep Guardiola never lost a match at the Santiago Bernabeu, amazing right?
Jersey Watch: nobody asked for Messi’s jersey after the game. I’d ask for it if I was there :P
After the match: sighting, Puyol walking around with a ball on his belly, inside his jersey. He had an outstanding performance in this match. He seemed to be playing across the whole defence, helping out whenever his colleagues at the back made a mess of things. I’m glad he was fit enough to play, Barca really needed his presence in this game.
Messi, simply sublime
Click here to read the Match Preview
Aggregate Score:
Real Madrid: 0
Barcelona: 2
Here are numbers:
Real Madrid | Barcelona | |
0 | Goals scored | 2 |
3 | Attempts on target | 8 |
5 | Attempts off target | 3 |
4 | Saves | 3 |
1 | Corners | 1 |
3 | Offsides | 1 |
17' 9'' | Possession (time) | 43' 23'' |
28 | Possession (%) | 72 |
28 | Fouls committed | 36 |
18 | Fouls | 22 |
3 | Yellow cards | 2 |
1 | Red cards | 1 |
70.5 | Passing Success | 91.7 |
23 | Tackles | 18 |
60.9 | Tackles Success | 66.7 |
54.7 | Territorial Advantage | 45.3 |
Goals:
67th, and 87th minute – Leo Messi (Barcelona)
Yellow Cards:
Arvalo Arbeloa (Real Madrid)
Dani Alves (Barcelona)
Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid)
Javier Mascherano (Barcelona)
Emmanuel Adebayor (Real Madrid)
Red Cards:
Jose Pinto (Barcelona)
Pepe (Real Madrid)
Jose Mourinho (not exactly Red Card but sent off to the stands)
More great articles on the match here:
El Clasico
I’m back. After posting at least one entry per day for two months, I took a little bit of break from blogging. This entry was supposed to come out last April 15 but I got too busy preparing for my Holy Week vacation and by Holy Week, I got too lazy.
sorry, but this post is 10 days late... Will just update it a bit. So here goes…
In football, I’ve heard of the term derby, where in the domestic leagues there are two teams that have a strong rivalry with each other (I guess in local school sports, it’s like an Ateneo vs La Salle game). Being not that interested in domestic leagues, the only teams I knew who had this was AC Milan and Inter Milan. So I only recently found out that in Spain, they have what they call the el clasico. The el clasico is any match between Real Madrid and Barcelona. It’s apparently one of the world's great sporting rivalries. The last el clasico was last November 2010 where Barca slaughtered Real Madrid with the final score of 5-0 (I wish I saw this match, click here and here for the match recap).
So to the madridistas who want to see the Los Blancos avenge their 5-0 defeat from Barca, they have four opportunities to do so within 18 days. These are:
April 16: La Liga
April 20: Copa Del Rey Final
April 27: Champions League Semifinals 1st Leg
May 3: Champions League Semifinals 2nd Leg
If you were like me who hoped to see the two Spanish giants face off in the Champions League, now you have an overdose of Barca vs Real Madrid matches.
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I have been worried for Barca in the upcoming matches against Real Madrid. Being strong offensively may be enough against some teams but facing a strong opponent like Real Madrid, they need to fix their defense. With the absence of Carles Puyol’s solid presence at the back and Eric Abidal still recovering from his surgery, Pep Guardiola has to figure out a way to make his back line impenetrable. Gerard Pique is there but, I dunno, I feel like he sometimes gets distracted and needs Puyol at his side to keep him focused. I hope Puyol will be fit in time for these matches, I originally thought his knee injury was a minor thing, but he’s been out for like two months already.
So here are the updates so far..
La Liga (April 16)
1-1
Barcelona vs Real Madrid
If you’re not familiar with the La Liga or the Spanish domestic league, they have, like, 20 teams that play against each other twice (home and away) and the team with the most points wins (3 points for a win, 1 for a draw and 0 for a loss). The 1st match between the two was last November 2010 in Camp Nou and as I’ve mentioned Barca beat Real Madrid with a stunning 5-0 defeat. So this was their 2nd face off in this season's La Liga in Real’s home turf, Santiago Bernabeu.
With a lot riding on this 1st of 4 matches (as some are saying that whoever will win this will have some sort of psychological edge over the other team), a draw is better than a loss, I guess. I'm bummed that I didn’t get to see this match (there’s no coverage here in the Philippines).
The game ended in a draw with goals from Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Interesting as the two have some sort of rivalry with each other and both goals were from penalty kicks. Messi’s penalty kick was from Raul Albiols’ tackle on David Villa inside the box and Albiol was sent off with a red card. Barca actually dominated the game clearly with 76% possession and almost had it in the bag until 10 minutes before the match ended, Real Madrid earned themselves a penalty. I guess in the end, it doesn’t matter how long you held on to the ball, it’s the number of goals you score that counts.
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| Messi vs CRonaldo |
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| CRonaldo vs Messi :P |
Because I missed the match, I can’t really comment on the offense or defense of either team. But what I can report is that Carles Puyol was well enough to play. But, unfortunately, he was stretchered off during the game from a hamstring problem. I know he’s been missing action for, like, three months now, but maybe he played too soon? You shouldn't rush injuries coz you could end up with even more serious problems.
On an unrelated note: an interesting trivia on this game, more than 100 million people from around the world watched this match (sadly I was not one of them)
So here are the numbers:
Real Madrid | Barcelona | |
13(6) | Shots (on Goal) | 11(6) |
22 | Fouls | 14 |
8 | Corner Kicks | 0 |
1 | Offsides | 5 |
24% | Possession | 76% |
2 | Yellow Cards | 5 |
1 | Red Cards | 0 |
5 | Saves | 5 |
Goals:
53rd minute – Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
82nd minute – Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
Yellow Cards:
Adriano (Barcelona)
Gerard Pique (Barcelona)
Marcelo (Real Madrid)
Arbeloa (Real Madrid)
Dani Alves (Barcelona)
Victor Valdes (Barcelona)
Xavi (Barcelona)
Marcelo (Real Madrid)
Arbeloa (Real Madrid)
Dani Alves (Barcelona)
Victor Valdes (Barcelona)
Xavi (Barcelona)
Red Cards:
Raul Albiol (Real Madrid)
More great articles on the match here:
El Clasico seen through Diver & Aguilar’s eyes (great photos of the match)
Copa Del Rey (April 20)
0-1
Barcelona vs Real Madrid
To those who don’t know, Copa del Rey (or the King’s Cup) is an annual cup competition for Spanish football teams. Real Madrid has now won it 18 times while Barcelona won it 25 times.
Just like the 1st el clasico game, I also missed this one (only the Champions League is shown here). But apparently, Barca had a slow start. They found theirgroove in the second half but Iker Casillas was there to prevent goals from hitting the back of the net. They even dominated the game in terms of ball possession but after the 90-minute game time ended, both teams were not able to score a goal so extra time was needed.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s header finally ended the deadlock when Marcelo sends a through ball to Angel Di Maria who then sent a cross to CRonaldo and converted it to the only goal of the match.
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| Puyol stretchered off during the 1st el clasico match photo courtesy of espn.com |
Puyol Update: he was included in the line up as an unused substitute. He should probably rest up, I mean, being stretchered off from a game says a lot about your fitness.
Although for me, one of the highlights of this tournament happened after the match when Sergio Ramos drops the trophy in front of a moving bus. Watch it all go down in this video below:
Ramos jokes on how the trophy jumped to meet he fans. But I love the comment on the video that said “even the trophy wanted to go to FC Barcelona”.
Second highlight for me is Shakira consoling Pique after the match. No question now that they're an item.
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| photo courtesy of Dirty Tackle. Read full article here. |
So here are the numbers:
Barcelona | Real Madrid | |
8 | Shots On Target | 6 |
6 | Shots Off Target | 6 |
0 | Counter Attacks | 3 |
11 | Corners | 3 |
5 | Offsides | 6 |
69% | Ball Possession | 31% |
17 | Throw Ins | 21 |
10 | Crosses | 10 |
24 | Fouls Commited | 26 |
3 | Yellow Cards | 4 |
0 | Red Cards | 1 |
Goals:
103rd minute – Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
Yellow Cards:
Pepe (Real Madrid)
Pedro (Barcelona)
Xabi Alonso (Real Madrid)
Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Emmanuel Adebayor (Real Madrid)
Adriano (Barcelona)
Pedro (Barcelona)
Xabi Alonso (Real Madrid)
Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Emmanuel Adebayor (Real Madrid)
Adriano (Barcelona)
Angel Di Maria (Real Madrid) – sent off after 2 yellow cards
More great articles on the match here:
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