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