F*C* Barcelona vs Real Madrid C.F.|EL CLASICO|12.23.07[R]

1. pepe is worth every cent we spent on him. he and cannavaro look great in the middle. pepe is the athletic freak of nature while cannavaro is the wily veteran who organizes the defense.

2. our midfield is great the way it is with baptista, diarra, and sneijder in the middle with sneijder drifting a little right. when diarra leaves gago can and will easily fill his place and we still have guti.

3. robinho needs to stay on the field and we need to play robben and robinho at the same time maybe taking out RVN or sneijder. both of them can spread out the field and let raul run into their passes and crosses.

4. iker is the best in the world. iker > buffon > cech!

 

They can blame who they like, fact of the matter is, the writing is on the wall and it says

"7 points clear"

 

It was clearly reckless, but not deliberate, IMO. Raul deserves the benefit of the doubt.

 

FYP

 

That Baptista has been brilliant is not what is up for debate. But to suggest that "Guti conveniently picked up a knock" is scandulous.

 

Blaming the refree already...was expected....Ronnies next up on the list...

 

It's 7½ actually, since if they tie us we would still be on top because of this win. (or 7¼, 7¾, or 7,11111111.....whichever you prefer, just more than 7,0)

 

But the thing is armstrong and a few people at skysports are pro barcelona. Armstrong was the one who said we would not win anything last season and we proved him wrong and then you may have noticed that he stopped commentating on our games.

 

Ahhh yes, the lovely head to head rule !

 

Raul was the worst Madrid player on the pitch. But he was still good.


Hala Madrid

 

That was some game. One of the best defensive performances from Madrid I have ever seen. Credit should not be showered only on Pepe. Ramos, Canna and Heinze equally deserve it. They were great too. To sum up our defensive performance, I think we had better scoring opportunities than Barca, even though they were controlling the possession.

Canna/Ramos/Heinze/Pepe: Simply superb. I can't pick one guy up. They worked as a team. How many times did we see that they double teamed and stopped dinho or Iniesta on their tracks. Great job.

Diarra: The guy did a very good job breaking up plays, but his at times was horrible. But still, i think he played a vital role in defense today.

Baptista: This guy has an amazing ability to score spectacular goals. Once again he proves why he is on the pitch. Helped a lot defensively too. He sort of disappeared in the first 25 minutes or so and then there was the goal and we felt his presence more after that.

Sneijder: Hard fought game. Gave his all on the field, can't expect anything more from him.

Robinho: Always a nuisance maker, he was quite a handful. Repeatedly drew and won fouls in barca territory. Overall a good performance.

Raul and Ruud: I think they should have done better. Particularly Raul. They missed some atrocious opportunities and the chemistry between Raul and RVN was missing at times. There were some passes where Raul was supposed to be at the end of the ball, but he simply wasn't. RVN was better and many times he was simply alone up there, trying to hold up till support arrived. But he also gave some wtf passes at crucial moments.

Subs: Robben, torres and gago were all OK. Not a lot to infer from the time they got.

In retrospect, I think the absence of Messi was the deciding factor. It is clear that dinho is past his prime (or not in his best form, whatever) and without Dinho, Eto is not his usual self. This barca team heavily relies on Messi for their innovation and it showed on the pitch.

Also it gave me great satisfaction the way Madrid played as a unit. They bled and tortured farca throughout the 90 minutes, you could see the frustration in the Barca players and fans. They tried and tried, but as if they were hitting frantically against a "white wall". I am so so proud of this team.

A merry Christmas to you all.

 

oleee oleee oleee oleeeeeee madriiiiidd madriiiiiidd..... man came backfrom a real party after we won..... we had a great time ... but watta win i am overwhelmed..

 

Hungrier? It's hard to attach a meaning to a word in this context. I honestly cannot say I thought they were hungrier in the sense that they were taking the game to us. The only time we were pressed back in the first half was just before we scored our decisive goal. And only then could Barcelona create one decent goal scoring opportunity. Once we had our goal we had ourselves some new tactics. Tighten up, suffocate them and display our superior physicality, which we did. I can't be critical of our decision to play on the counter in this game. After all that great performance of theirs in the Bernabeu several years was inspired by the counter attacking system. OUr biggest downfall was squandering our better clear opportunities to kill the game off.

I can't recall Barca having any clear goal scoring opportunity in the game with the exception of the aforementioned Dinho chance. They were clueless, careless and downright wasteful in possession. In all honesty I can't recall Eto'o's name being mentioned in the second half. Oh except for when he moved our freekick back 3 or 4 millimetres and making such a big fuss about it. I thought it was us who had the much better chances in the game. Barca's failure to utelize possession is our gain.

I

True, but Pepe's performance was not glittered by clearing off the line, last ditch challenges. It was for his dominance of Barca's attack before they got remotely close to Casillas. Every one on one was snuffed out. Every header was won. Every sweeping challenge was won. Barca hada lot of the ball but they couldn't get past Pepe, not once, to cause any real heart murmours. Iniesta and Xavi had poor games, imo. For how they move the ball around game after game it was a really poor performance. We're not the only team, nor will be the last, to attempt to drown them in the midfield. And we did.

If it was any other player I would agree but I don't think I could ever convince myself that Raul created malice aforethought in that occassion. Puyol was milking it. One of the first signs of desparation when he was trying to get one of his friends sent off.

 

Courtesy of the Farca Forum...

LMAO

 

Hala Madrid!

 

I feel like repping this cule lol...ok i know its a crime

 

Wow! This was the first game in a long time that the defense played better than the defense.

Job done & I am enjoying the FCB sniveling.

 

I assume you mean defense played better than offense? I agreed, it was so awesome how Barca relies a lot on their pacy players, but Pepe matches their speed easily and betters it.

That was sooooo sooooo worth waking up for.

 

I was myself going to respond to adrian's post, but you did it already. You are spot on.

But again, it is unfair to say that Pepe was the only Madrid defense. He was the best no doubt, but we should give due credit away to Canna,ramos and heinze.

 

It's comical reading Farca's Forum....Cracking me up

 

SPEECHLESS!!! That's all. What a collective display of character by our beloved Real. No doubt Farca or POSERS played well, but we played better. It was in no way a Capello style football. We did rely on counter attacks a bit more but it wasn't like last year where they were just dishing the ball out and hoping for the best. Bernardo's boys are showing their colours and the scary part is we still haven't hit our peak yet. PEPE was no doubt man of the match along with Iker, it was that magnificent sace just before Baptista's goal that changed the dynamics of the game. And the goal was a gem. Its ture our forwards could've done better but the effort was there from them, and it was Ruudi's one touch w/ Baptista that got us the goal. Real is getting better as the season is progressing. WOW!!!!!! Pepe can play, loved it when Canna gave Ronnie an earful, it shows commitment and love for your team. Good for you Fabio, show us why you are the best defender in the world and one of the greatest leaders. Diarra didn't have his best game today but there were key moments when the man snuffed the life out of POSERS' midfield.

 

This is our second win in Nou Camp in 24 years ... Well thats what the articles say!

 

Lol, some guy posted the last minutes and player celebrations in the FCB forum. Gotta suck being a Cule right now.

 

One thing about this game came to mind, the ending!! It was such a anti climax!! The ref played 3 mins instead of 4, maybe his watch was a minute ahead so i dont know but man, all that emotion and then bang and suddenly u realise we won!.