I don't know if any of you Stoke fans got to watch the friendly against Madrid, but for those of you who didn't...
First half you sat off us far too much and gave Guti too much time on the ball.
Ramos had an early goal disallowed (not sure why...push maybe) but Raul (who's movement caused you a lot of problems) scored a nice goal after about 20 mins.
At this point you had little play up front and didn't really trouble Dudek.
Towards the end of the half both Guti and Granero should have scored and in truth 1-0 was a bit flattering to you.
Second half you came out a lot stronger. Your defence sat deeper to stop us playing balls in behind you, you cut down the space we had and certainly gave us less time on the ball. While the play was not as entertaining as the first half (we had changed 10 of our 11 at HT), the game became a lot tighter as you started to work our defence and cause us some problems and create some chances.
However after about half an hour you gave away a penalty for a tackle on De la Red (justified penalty for a clumsy tackle) and Soldado made it 2-0.
I think that perhaps the goal knocked you back a bit as the game seemed to die after that (though I think we should have had another penalty for a foul on Soldado
) and neither side created much at the end.
If you play like you did in the 2nd half you should have a good season as you had a good shape ,looked solid and strong, and managed to work some openings.
This was a good workout for us and the game was played seriously but in a good spirit.
Thanks for the game and good luck for your season.
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stoke city
next year were gettin promoted! 
We need to workout our kinks on the attack but I think our defense will be key this upcoming season. It's always a treat to play the likes of madrid or barca, hopefully this workout will strengthen chemistry and teamwork. I hope workouts like this will help us in a run for promotion! 
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