Saturday, 2 March 2019 20:45 BARCELONA TIME BARÇA´S GARDEN M A D R I D PREVIOUS MEETINGS PAST 6 MEETINGS AWAY SCdR 27-02-2019 FT Real Madrid 0 : 3 Barcelona SLL 23-12-2017 FT Real Madrid 0 : 3 Barcelona SSdE 16-08-2017 FT Real Madrid 2 : 0 Barcelona ICC 30-07-2017 FT Real Madrid 2 : 3 Barcelona SLL 23-04-2017 FT Real Madrid 2 : 3 Barcelona SLL 21-11-2015 FT 1Real Madrid 0 : 4 Barcelona VISCAELBARCA
Enters game with 4 bookings: Lenglet, Piqué, Rakitic, Vidal Carrying 3 yellow cards: Suarez, Umtiti Upcoming Liga fixtures: J27 (H) Rayo Vallecano J28 (A) Betis J29 (H) Espanyol de Cornellà
More on that late ref change, also look who is on VAR for the match, Lahoz! https://www.sport-english.com/en/ne...ree-change-ahead-of-saturdays-clasico-7329344
Can't see Messi having back-to-back flat games in the Bernaleo (Not that he wasn't one of Barca's best players on Wednesday, just flat compared to normal Messi).
Something isn’t right with him . Was even missing some simple passes . I don’t think that last injury has recovered well .
Back to Camp 'beu! Wrote this Wednesday after the game on the Copa thread, will edit with some current thoughts (with italics off): Getting ahead of myself here, want to savor this big win, but already thinking about Saturday. As I said earlier, a draw is not bad on Saturday (though it likely lets Atleti within 5 points, Real stay 9 back and hard to see Real make that up). But I'm greedy, and want another win, and I think as little as one substitution and one big change up can get us there. The sub is Arthur for Roberto. And Arthur plays on left, unlike Roberto, Rakitic back on right. Then the big move is Dembele plays right wing, Messi more his false 9 role, Suarez as striker, and left flank is mostly left for Alba to man (I know that asks alot of him) with help from Arthur and Lenglet on defense, and all 3 forwards occasionally play a bit of left wing just to keep Real guessing and give Jordi a breather. Semedo plays a bit more withdrawn (than Alba) as a defensive fullback, but still gets forward too to help punish (and pin back) Reguilon and Vinicius and both are really punished and pinned back by having to mark Dembele. Semedo also gets defensive help from Rakitic on the right flank. So it can still be called a 4-3-3. Or you could even call it a 4-2-3-1 (but that works better if Arthur was spelled by a winger like Coutinho or Malcom, which I don't think is how we want to start, but could be a nice substitution, esp. if Arthur not ready to go 90 minutes and we are chasing a goal, or sub on Vidal if we are defending a lead). Edit: Could also call it a 4-4-2 as many were calling our line up in the Copa match. Basically Raki closer to Busi to help boss the middle (and Messi in front of them centrally), with Dembele a nominal wide mid on one side (i still prefer right side), and Arthur also wider than usual for him to support Alba on left side. Ahead of that 4 Messi, then Suarez, both pretty central, though both really given pretty full positional freedom to find their spots to best receive passes, run at Madrid, help on D, score, etc. Dembele also has some freedom to move around, esp. on attack, but is charged with more defensive responsibility to support Semedo, and to provide width on the right. This tries to capture it but it's hard to show Alba getting forward more than Semedo, forwards switching a bit, Raki playing a little closer to Busquets, etc. MAtS Pique-Lenglet Semedo-Busquets-Alba Rakitic-Arthur Messi Dembele-Suarez Edit, so the same 11 as a 442 is pretty similar but looks like this or this: basic 442 MAtS Semedo-Pique-Lenglet-Alba Dembele-Rakitic-Busquets-Arthur Messi-Suarez nuanced 442 MAtS Pique-Lenglet Semedo-Rakitic-Busquets-Alba Dembele---------------------------Arthur Messi-------- ------Suarez
Good question, Ramos will miss Ajax of course, so he plays against Barca. Varane however sure looks like he'd be better off rested for our game so he can feature against Ajax (though it mostly just looked like nasty flesh wound and bruising so he could probably play if not in too much pain). I really don't know their backups too well, but didn't Nacho get disciplined recently, maybe a 5th Yellow in Liga? Who else might need rest for Ajax, I guess the midfielders, especially the older ones Modric then Kroos, maybe Benz up front. But they were just embarassed at home by us, it's a Clasico, if they don't win they can kiss La Liga goodbye, and they may just be arrogant enough to think that having won in Amsterdam, they have the Ajax fixture "in the bag" -- I mean withness Ramos deliberately getting the yellow card. You don't do that if you think you might actually lose to Ajax at home... All of which is to say I think all starters not disciplined or injured are likely to start against us. Though obviously their Mister may want to try something different after the last result; plus we can sit back a bit more than in Copa as a draw is frankly OK to us (even a scoreless one, unlike in Copa).
#Squadgoals: 19 Murillo replaces Pena from last go round: Meanwhile in the Camp 'beu or Toilte 'beu: I was right about Nacho, but Varane makes squad so maybe no issue: The big news is Isco returns to the squad, but it's worth keeping in mind the midfielder is not one of Solari's favourites and could yet end up watching the game from the stands. Mariano also returns to the squad for now. Two players have been left out for technical reasons, though: Brahim and Odriozola. Meanwhile, defender Nacho Fenrnandez is suspended and midfielder Marcos Llorente is injured. The squad is: Courtois, Keylor Navas, Luca Zidane (goalkeepers); Carvajal, Vallejo, Sergio Ramos, Varane, Marcelo, Reguilón (defenders); Kroos, Modric, Casemiro, Valverde, Isco, Dani Ceballos (midfielders); Marco Asensio, Lucas Vázquez, Mariano, Bale, Benzema and Vinicius Junior (forwards).
So Benzema has played in 41 of Madrid’s 43 matches this season! Benzema!! And people think Barca are desperate for a #9 backup. Anyway, rumor is could see some significant rotation from LPB. No need for Barca to rotate much, of course. Weird stat: outscored LPB 8-1 this season without Messi doing much of anything.
Barcelona set to wear 90s-inspired retro shirt as worn by Rivaldo and Luis Figo in Clasico with Real Madrid as they mark 20 years with Nike https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...inspired-retro-shirt-Clasico-Real-Madrid.html The kit: The 1998-99 squad (edited for historical accuracy):
And you get to wear it without a sponsor's logo (beyond the Nike swoosh)! This is the very first Nike home kit (after Kappa). My first Barca shirt is a bad knock off of the third Nike home kit (2000-01) looks pretty similar but with the collar. Night market in Malaysia for about 5 US$. Pictured is a real one from that 2000-01, on ebay now but too expensive, when Puyol was #24.
---------------------TerStegen------------------ --------------Pique-----------Lenglet---------- Roberto------------Sergio---------------Alba -------------Rakitic-----------Arthur----------- --------Messi------Suarez-----Dembele---- -------------------------VS----------------------- -----Vinicius-----Benzema-----Bale--------- --------------Kroos----------Modric------------ Reguilon---------Casemiro--------Carvajal -------------Ramos----------Varane----------- ----------------------Courtois--------------------
Beaten to the lineup posting punch, so I will just sketch it out instead. First things we see - Roberto starts again OK but for whom, shit for Semedo, dumb, but at least Arthur is on. Everything else as predicted. MAtS Roberto-Pique-Lenglet-Alba Raki-Busi-Arthur Messi-Suarez-Dembele Or maybe we see Dembele on right, and/or maybe lined up as more of a 4-4-2. Time will tell: MAtS Roberto-Pique-Lenglet-Alba Dembele-Raki-Busi-Arthur Messi-Suarez Just a guess: Messi scores, Dembele scores, we win 1-2.
Craperto as RB hahaha , Vinicuis is going to tear him apart + this Ref and the VAR ref ... yeah this is not good ....