Barcelona 5 - 0 Real Madrid: Match Report

Catalonia vs Castilla. Left-wing vs Right wing. The rebels vs the aristocracy. Guardiola vs Mourinho. Messi vs Ronaldo. The best youth team in the world vs the Galácticos. Second in the table vs First in the table. This match epitomises all of these and means so much more to the respective fans involved. It is of course El Clásico. And what a game it was.

Starting Line-ups:

Barcelona:

1 - Víctor Valdés

2 - Daniel Alves

5 - Carles Puyol

3 - Gerard Piqué

22 - Éric Abidal

16 - Sergio Busquets

6 - Xavi

8 - Andrés Iniesta

17 - Pedro Rodríguez

7 - David Villa

10 - Lionel Messi

Barcelona played with their familiar 4-3-3 formation which has been the mainstay of their team for many years. Abidal was picked in front of Maxwell, mainly because Pep Guardiola wanted to play with a quick left-back to counter the pace posed by Ronaldo or di María on the flanks. Messi continued to play in his 'false nine' role with Villa feeding off behind him.

Real Madrid:

1 - Iker Casillas

4 - Sergio Ramos

3 - Pepe

2 - Ricardo Carvalho

12 - Marcelo

14 - Xabi Alonso

24 - Sami Khedira

22 - Ángel di María

23 - Mesut Özil 

7 - Cristiano Ronaldo

9 - Karim Benzema

Gonzalo Higuaín was left out in favour of Karim Benzema as he was unfit for the game. Real Madrid also played with their usual formation, 4-2-3-1. Khedira and Xabi Alonso provided protection to the back four while also bringing the ball out of midfield. At times Ronaldo and di María swapped sides, particularly early on.

Opening Minutes: Barcelona Domination:

Barcelona completely ran over Real Madrid in the first few minutes, controlling 75% of the possession in the first fifteen minutes. Messi played the 'false nine' role he was employed in throughout this season, coming deep to receive the ball. Barcelona took the lead through this way as Messi came back to pass a diagonal ball to Iniesta, who in turn played a diagonal pass into the six yard box where Xavi pounced after a Pepe mistake to lob it over Casillas. 

Barcelona played a lot quicker while Real Madrid often dwelled on the ball. Both teams pressed strongly against each other, but Barcelona's superior first touch allowed them to spend more time on the ball and thus giving them a better chance of playing an accurate pass. 

David Villa was a dribbling presence on the left, feeding off the space vacated by Messi and he set up the second goal in the 18th minute after sending a hard, low cross into the six yard box where Casillas fumbled into the path of Pedro, who gratefully tapped the ball in. By now Real Madrid were deflated in their play and half time seemed to arrive too late for them and Mourinho.

Second Half Changes: Problems for Real

Barcelona simply out-passed Real Madrid in the centre of midfield, as Khedira and Xabi Alonso were no match for Xavi and Iniesta. The lack of a ball-winning midfielder also posed problems for Real, as neither Xabi Alonso or Khedira looked close to dispossessing Barcelona's midfielders. To combat this, Mourinho took off the ineffective Özil for Lassana Diarra, who would hopefully help Real Madrid gain possession in midfield and control the ball. 

This didn't solve the problem created by Messi, however, as the World Player of the Year continued to drop deep. This posed a problem for Real's centre backs. If they continued to mark Messi, they would leave space behind them. If they stayed back, Messi would be given too much time on the ball to pick a pass and suddenly with him in midfield, the three midfielders of Real Madrid would be outnumbered. 

For the third goal, the Real defence decided to follow Messi and he played a perfectly weighted pass for Villa to run on to and stroke the ball into the bottom corner. Real Madrid needed to chase the game more, so they pressed higher up the pitch and Real Madrid's centre backs stood off Messi. This gave the Argentinian time to play the ball through again past the back line for Villa who poked the ball through Casillas' legs. 

The last goal was scored in added time as Bojan emulated Villa and squared the ball for fellow substitute Jeffrén to put the ball in the net.

Tempers Flare:
Late in the first half Guardiola held the ball on the touch line. Cristiano Ronaldo wanted the ball given to him straight away, but Guardiola put it to the side of Ronaldo, who subsequently softly pushed the Barcelona manager. The rest of the Barcelona players overreacted, surrounding Ronaldo and exchanging words (probably unpleasant) with him. Víctor Valdés ran up to confront Ronaldo, incensed at his acts.

Just before the half time interval, Messi was behind Carvalho. The latter jerked his elbow back and his upper arm hit Messi's face. Messi fell to the ground needlessly and received a yellow card for his troubles.

In the last minute of added time with Lionel Messi nonchalantly dribbling through the middle, he was hacked by Sergio Ramos. The Real man then promptly proceeded to push Puyol to the ground, received a red card and put his fist under Xavi's chin while walking off the pitch. A red card on three occasions. Ramos does like to do things in style.

This El Clásico will live long in the memory and ranks up there with the 6-2 drubbing a year back. Real's great form into the lead up of this game will seem a distant memory as Mourinho will try to uplift his side and motivate them once more. This game was not only a victory for Barcelona, but also for their ideal, of short passing, movement and flair.

Statistics:

Barcelona                        Real Madrid

67%         Possession       33%

11            Shots              4

7             Shots on target 2

3             Corners            6

5             Offsides           2


Scoring List:
Xavi 10'
Pedro 17'
Villa 55'
Villa 58'
Jeffren 90+1'


Click here for highlights

Goals Galore in Germany

There was a total of 36 goals scored in the 9 Bundesliga games played over the weekend. That equates to an average of 4 goals in every game played in Germany's top flight in the past three days. Notable results included Kaiserslautern's demolition of Schalke, Borussia Dortmund's 4-1 victory over namesake rivals Borussia Mönchengladbach and Hamburg beating Stuttgart in a six goal thriller. But why have their been so much goals in the Bundesliga this season?


After a 3-0 win over Werder Bremen, Schalke must have thought they were on their way up after Raúl's hat-trick. However in hindsight, the result might have come about due to Werder's poor form than the Königsblauen's great performance. After all, Werder went on to lose 3-0 to Tottenham leaving them bottom of  Group A with two points and with no way of progressing in the Champions League. That said, Schalke probably thought that they had a good chance of getting all three points from the Fritz-Walter-Stadion. Kaiserslautern had over ideas. The 5-0 scoreline flattered Schalke as they had many chances to win over their more illustrious opponents. Kaiserslautern's first two goals both came from right-hand corners, with Christian Tiffert swinging the ball in for Srđan Lakić to power in the first and Martin Amedick heading the second past Manuel Neuer. Lakić showed great determination to get to the ball for the first goal, but Schalke's failure to pick him up left him on his own in front of the goal. Lakić went on to add another, coolly slotting home after a through ball from Christian Tiffert, which led to the former's second goal and the latter's third assist. Kaiserslautern added two more goals later on to humiliate Schalke and condemn them to 16th place.


While Schalke lost on Saturday, another Ruhr club won to keep themselves top in the Bundesliga. Yes, the youthful Borussia Dortmund side won again. It was the other Borussia that took the league, however, thanks to a wonderful goal from Marco Reus, a Dortmund native. For those that don't know, Reus is an almost carbon copy of a young(er) Marko Marin in terms of stature, style and ability. And the young German confirmed his promise by scoring a fierce strike into the Dortmund net. Dortmund came back into the game with a header rom Neven Subotić and took the lead when Shinji Kagawa rounded the 'keeper after a Mario Götze assist. The ages of the players mentioned in the last sentence: 21, 21 and 18 respectively. Jürgen Klopp does like to build a young team. Another young German player, Kevin Großkreutz, 22, scored the third goal for Dortmund, poking the ball in after a sublime back-heel from Lucas Barrios. The Paraguayan then added a goal for himself after being sent through by another Mario Götze through ball, who is showing signs of becoming a great playmaker.


The Bundesliga has overtaken the diminishing Serie A as third in UEFA's league coefficients and is fast becoming a major league. While the high goal scoring indicates a sense of risk taking (also resulting in the high amount of young German talents being given match action) it could also indicate poor defending. One reason why the Italian league is such a low scoring league is due to the high quality of defending. John Foot, in Calcio, says 'Italian teams have not been defensive. They have, quite simply, been much better at defending than other European teams.' The opposite can be said of German teams, with the attacking intent the teams are showing a result of the poor defending. One reason why Werder Bremen have been so poor in the Champions League is due to the comic defensive partnership of Per Mertesacker and Sebastian Prödl. There would be no chance that the two would play together in an Italian team of the same quality. Look at last year's Champion's League Final. While Walter Samuel and Lúcio were assured in Inter's defence, Martin Demichelis offered little protection at Bayern's back and remains a shaky player. So what are the reasons for lots of goals in the Bundesliga? A mixture of risk-taking, attacking intent and poor defending.


Round-up of the Bundesliga results:


                    Mainz 3-0 Nürnberg
    Bayern München 4-1 Eintracht Frankfurt
            Hamburger 4-2 Stuttgart
              Hannover 3-0 Freiburg
            Hoffenheim 2-2 Bayer Leverkusen
       Kaiserslautern 5-0 Schalke
Borussia Dortmund 4-1 Borussia Mönchengladbach
     Werder Bremen 3-0 St. Pauli
                          Köln 1-1 Wolfsburg

Barcelona and Real Madrid on form before the 'Clásico'

If there was any confirmation that there were only two teams with a shred of a hope of winning La Liga, Saturday evening was that. Barcelona thrashed Almería 8-0 away while Real Madrid easily overcame Athletic Club 5-1. Both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo scored hat-tricks in those games to affirm their status as two of the world's best players today. All eyes are now on the Clásico on Monday as L'equip blaugrana and Los Blancos will battle it out for the top of the table.

Which club side can match the flair of Barcelona's play, the creativity of their players and the fluid transition between players on the pitch? Many people will have to think back to the Ajax sides of the '70s, where Cruijff and co. established totaalvoetbal on a global scale following three consecutive Champions League victories. And it is with the help of Cruijff and Rinus Michels, the Ajax manager at the time, that the brand of football Barcelona advocate now, such as pressing, interchange of formations and manipulating the space on the football pitch, is in place. With the help of those two Dutchmen, Barcelona won the Spanish division in 1974 with attacking football, and have remained engraved in Catalan history. Johan Cruijff often sees himself as a Catalan; he was appointed manager on non-FIFA affiliated Catalonia in 2009; and is a fierce exponent of positive football. His and Michel's legacy is firmly in place in Barcelona, with them winning 8-0 over Almería with a magnificent, attacking display.

For as Almería can be embarrassed about their performance on Saturday, Barcelona can be equally pleased about the manner of their performance. They played short, precise football while waiting for the right delivery into the box, where Pedro, Villa and Messi were waiting to pounce on goal. The first goal was especially well-crafted, with Messi passing it to Villa, the latter flicking it back to the Argentinian, who then drived a fierce shot into Diego Alves bottom corner. If Diego Alves could do nothing about the first goal, he didn't exactly cover himself in glory with fourth and seventh goals. For the fourth goal, Diego Alves was slow to come of his line after a fantastic lofted pass from the young Andreu Fontàs found the feet of Pedro and the goalkeeper left a large gap for Pedro to slot the ball into the net. The seventh goal occurred after Diego Alves fumbled a long shot from David Villa into the path of Lionel Messi who gratefully grabbed his hat-trick. While Diego Alves had a poor game, Almería were abject. Their defence had no shape to it and the team looked degraded and slow in their reactions boosting Barcelona's confidence before the big game.

Real Madrid would have also had a massive confidence boost after beating Athletic Club 5-1, with poster boy Cristiano Ronaldo scoring a hat-trick. While Barcelona are slow and measured in their approach, Real Madrid play with such alacrity that opponents can't keep up with them. Ronaldo and Di María add a lot of pace down the flanks for Real Madrid, which resulted in a fabulous second goal for them. After a corner from Athletic, Ángel di María laid the ball forward for Gonzalo Higuaín who ran down the right flank, past the halfway line, and in turn lofted the ball towards Mesut Özil, laying in turn off for Cristiano Ronaldo to crash home. It was the perfect example of how Real Madrid play, dominating the game and pressing their opponents. Ronaldo also scored a free-kick and a penalty to complete his hat-trick, leaving him with  fourteen goals in twelve games, in front of Messi in the running for the Pichichi trophy, who is on thirteen goals for the season. 

The Clásico next week will be actually played on a Monday, for the first time in its history. The reasoning behind it will be to publicise games on Monday, as the Spanish public have mostly turned a blind eye to games on that day. The two best teams in the world will meet then, with the whole world watching. Will Barcelona overtake Real or will the Blancos hold on firm at the summit of the table? Will Real Madrid finally come out of the shadow of Barcelona's treble win in 2009? Watch on Monday and you will find out

Internazionale 0 - 1 AC Milan

In the Derby della Madonnina, Milan won 1-0 thanks to a penalty from Zlatan Ibrahimović against his former club. The match was a bad tempered one, with Ignazio Abate sent off for pushing Goran Pandev in the 60th minute.


Starting Lineups:
Internazionale:

12 - Luca Castellazzi
2 - Iván Córdoba
6 - Lucio
23 - Marco Materazzi
26 - Cristian Chivu
5 - Javier Zanetti (C)
4 - Dejan Stanković
20 - Joel Obi
10 - Wesley Sneijder
9 - Samuel Eto'o
22 - Eto'o Milito


Due to injuries to Júlio César, Maicon, Walter Samuel, Thiago Motta and Esteban Cambiasso, Rafael Benítez had no choice but to field a weak side, with players like Joel Obi being pushed into the senior side. Iván Córdoba was picked in front of Davide Santon, meaning there was no attacking presence down the right flank. Benítez decided to play a 4-3-1-2 formation, with Wesley Sneijder in the 'hole' instead of the regular 4-2-3-1 formation Inter have been using for the last couple of years.


AC Milan:

32 - Christian Abbiati
20 - Ignazio Abate
13 - Alessandro Nesta
33 - Thiago Silva
19 - Gianluca Zambrotta
8 - Gennaro 'Rino' Gattuso
23 - Massimo Ambrosini (C)
16 - Mathieu Flamini
10 - Clarence Seedorf
70 - Robinho
11 - Zlatan Ibrahimović


Massimiliano Allegri left out Ronaldinho in his team and decided not to risk Andrea Pirlo's fitness, so he instead played with three 'workers' in midfield, in Gattuso, Ambrosini and Flamini. The main width from the team came from Ignazio Abate and Gianluca Zambrotta running from defence, while sometimes Clarence Seedorf moved to the left flank to get possession of the ball.


Early Minutes and Milan Goal:
Milan were by far the more dominant from the whistle, with Zlatan Ibrahimović most influential in the game. Milan tried to play long through balls from midfield for Robinho and Ibrahimović to run on to, and it was through that tactic that Milan won a penalty. Ibrahimović ran on from a long ball from midfield and when he arrived in the penalty area, he pulled the ball back but was tripped by Materazzi's trailing leg. Ibrahimović confidently dispatched the penalty, firing it to Castellazzi's left. From then on Inter failed to get into the game to give enough support to Milito and Eto'o. Furthermore, Inter had no width in their play, with two fairly defence-minded full-backs (Córdoba and Chivu) and with no winger in their team. To fill in those spaces out wide, Eto'o pulled to the left, but that left Milito alone up-front and he was surrounded by Milan defenders. Ibrahimović meanwhile was having a great game, joining play by dropping deep when Milan were in possession, in essence providing an extra midfielder for the side. However, when Milan weren't in possession, he would stay on the offside line (which Inter were implementing horribly, especially as Materazzi was never quick as a young player, let alone as a 37 year old) to receive through balls. Milan would then put balls over the top of the defence for the two front men to make something out of. 


Half Time Changes:
Before half-time, Benítez put on Philippe Coutinho on for the injured Obi. Goran Pandev came on for the ineffective Milito at the break and in the 68th minute Jonathan Biabiny replaced the injured Marco Materazzi. Zanetti was brought to right back with Córdoba as a centre back, while Coutinho played in the middle with Stanković behind the trio of Biabiny, Sneijder and Pandev. Eto'o played as the lone front man. These changes enabled Benitez to play a 4-2-3-1, which is what the Inter players are used to and also allowed more width in their play with the introduction of two wingers. Inter took to the game and were helped by a controversial incident in the 60th minute. After a foul, Abate hurried to get the ball from Pandev's grasp. This angered the Macedonian, who pushed Abate to the floor, who immediately got up and subsequently pushed Pandev back. Pandev was given a yellow-card while Abate was sent off and the former was very lucky to stay on the pitch as there was no difference in the offence committed between the two. Despite the one-man advantage, Milan defended solidly and hung on to the precious three points to stay clear at the top of the table.


Statistics:
Inter                          Milan
57%  Possession         43%
10     Shots                6
3      Shots on Target  1
4      Corners             4
12    Fouls                17
1     Yellow Cards      4

AS Roma 3 - 2 Fiorentina: Match Report

On a rainy day in Rome, Roma secured all three points in a game they never looked like relinquishing,despite the close scorline, thanks to goals from Simplicio, Borriello and Perrotta. Siniša Mihaljović continues his fairly poor start to his Fiorentina managerial career with a lacklustre performance from his side.


Starting Line Ups:
AS Roma:
                                                                         Júlio Sérgio


                      Cicinho                      Mexès                                   N. Burdisso                Riise
                                                                          De Rossi
                                                    Simplício                                        Greco 
                                                              
                                                            Totti                         Menez
                                                                          Borriello
Roma played with a formation that vaguely resembled a 4-3-2-1 formation (Christmas Tree), however Totti's and Menez's positions weren't strictly defined, with Totti wandering into space and dropping deep to collect the ball, while Menez would flit from flank to flank, wandering his way around the pitch. De Rossi sat deepest of the midfield trio, winning the ball and spraying it out wide, where Cicinho and Riise regularly overlapped.


Fiorentina:
                                                                           Boruc


                   De Silvestri              Gamberini                                 Natali                  Pasquale
                                                        
                                                            Donadel
                                                                                     Santana
                              Marchionni                                                                 Vargas


                                                              Mutu                     Gilardino


Fiorentina played a 4-4-2 formation, with Donadel playing behind Mario Santana, a normal winger. Marchionni and Vargas didn't play out wide as regular wingers, but still ran down the right and left flanks respectively. Mutu regularly dropped back to collect the ball, leaving Gilardino out on his own up front.


Early Minutes:
Roma controlled possession from the off, passing the ball about with their midfield three, as they had an extra man in the centre of midfield. While this enabled them to have the majority of the ball, it also meant that they could not play with wingers, so they instead relied on width from the overlapping runs of Riise, and to a lesser extent, Cicinho. The Norwegian received much of the ball on the left flank in the opening twenty minutes, but the quality of his crossing was poor, often failing to beat the first man. Another way in which Roma tried to attack was by putting balls down the left for Borriello to run for. This resulted in a chance for Borriello to score in the 11th minute, but he dragged his shot wide. The greatest threat for Fiorentina was down the left flank, where Vargas, Pasquale and Gilardino connected well, playing little triangles. Vargas was particularly a threat to Roma, running right down the throat of the Roma defence, especially as Cicinho's positioning looked questionable at times. In the 27th minute, Santana's long range strike was fumbled by Júlio Sérgio and it took a good tackle from Nicolás Burdisso to deny Gilardino from tapping in an easy goal. 


Roma Breakthrough:
Roma gave the game a breath of fresh air when in the 45th minute, a driven shot by Riise from the left of the penalty area deflected of Borriello and found its way to Simplício, who simply tapped it in from close range. Until then, the game was played at a laboured pace, but now that Fiorentina had to score they pushed on in the second half which led to a more open game.


Changes in the Second Half:
Francesco Totti had a horrible game from the off, where in the second minute he miss-kicked the ball from twenty yards out. His passing was woeful, spraying them off target, which could only be described as resembling a sawn-off shotgun. Despite this, a fabulous cross field pass from Totti found Menez on the right flank, where he dribbled past Pasquale and squared the ball for Borriello to finish into the net. Roma started to sit back on their lead, but a substitution from Siniša Mihaljović changed the game in Fiorentina's favour. In the 60th minute, Mihaljović put on his compatriot Adem Ljajić for Vargas, whose influence on the game by now had diminished. Santana was pulled to the left with Ljajić replacing him in the middle. The player from Novi Pazar added a directness to Fiorentina's attack with his trickery and Mihaljović's substitution paid off in the 69th minute, where Gilardino side-footed a Ljajić cross from the right. Fiorentina's hopes of pulling level, however, diminished when Simone Perrotta scored a freak-goal in the 77th minute.


Boruc Mistake:
Phillipe Mexès cleared the ball from his own half, where the workman-like Perrotta chased hard for it. Boruc came out of his goal to clear the ball, but when attempting to kick the ball away, he miss-kicked it as the ball bounced underneath his foot. Its worth seeing on YouTube. Perrotta ran onto the ball and capitalised by slotting the ball past Gamberini into the net. Fiorentina pressed while Roma looked potent on the break, with Daniele De Rossi pumping the ball forward for Borriello to run on for. Fiorentina were also sloppy in possession in their own half, where Borriello often won the ball back for the Romans. Fiorentina pulled a goal back when D'Agostino scored a fabulous goal from a free-kick from 20 yards in the 89th minute. He curled the ball into the top corner, leaving Júlio Sérgio routed to the spot. However, it only proved to be a consolation goal as Roma held on for the victory.


Statistics:
45' Simplício Goal     1-0
51' Borriello Goal       2-0
69' Gilardino Goal      2-1
77' Perrotta Goal       3-1
89' D'Agostino Goal   3-2


Roma                             Fiorentina
60%       Possession       40%
15          Shots                9
8           Shots on Goal    4
6           Corners              5
2           Offsides             4
9           Fouls                11
1           Yellow Cards     3