Barcelona - Real Madrid anticipation thread (December 23rd)

juligen21 wrote:BTW In case I don’t post anymore Merry Christmas and Happy new year everybody

Happy christmas juligen

StevieG wrote:ronny should be out in the summer. bring in queresma

Tried that already - didn't work.

supermadrid wrote:imo Pepe was motm. i dont think he made a single mistake in the hole game.

"Pepe – 9: Absolutely superb from start to finish. Got the better of every Barcelona player, and even bailed Casillas out a couple of times. His best display in a Real Madrid shirt yet. Arguably his best display ever!"

So it appears as though he's won over the critics? At 30 million I still think Madrid over-paid, but he never was the $h!t defender everyone tried to portray him as.

The 'best display ever' comment is over the top however and really puts down everything he's done in the past... maybe if they'd watched him prior to his Madrid days they'd have something a little more sensible to say.

Still, he isn't good enough for Brazil.

What an amazing performance that was! Admittedly, this was probably the worst clasico in a long time but we won so I don't really care. We were simply much better than Barcelona and should have won by more goals.


Casillas - 7.5

Made some very good saves but fumbled a shot by Bojan near the end that could have cost us. Besides that he did nothing wrong.


Pepe - 9.5

Barcelona fans laughed at what we paid for him, but now we should laugh at them for what they paid for Milito. I had never seen any defender make Eto'o his bitch the way Pepe did tonight. Admittedly Eto'o is not match fit yet but he was amazing against Valencia. Pepe's performance tonight reminded me of a vintage Rio Ferdinand performance. Strong, quick, sublime in the air, and stopped everything that came his way. With every game I'm becoming more convinced that Pepe is the rock solid defender we've been looking for since Hierro left.


Cannavaro - 8.5

Once again, he read the opposition's plays like a book. He was the perfect foil for Pepe today. Didn't let anyone go past him either.


Ramos - 8

What's left to say about Ramos that hasn't been said already? The guy is 21 but he plays like he's 30. He nearly scored an amazing goal as well in which he went passed Abidal with a great backheel change-up. My only criticism is that he left an awful Ronaldinho go past him once or twice.


Heinze - 8.5

He may not have contributed too much in attack, but he was sublime in defense. Great call by Schuster to have chosen Heinze over Marcelo for this game.


Diarra - 8

Gave a couple of bad passes, but besides that he was excellent. His best game of the season for us IMO. I've always had faith in Diarra and his performance tonight has confirmed this. I lost count of how many dangerous counter-attacks Diarra cut off.


Robinho - 7.5

It was not his clasico as I was expecting but was a constant headache for the Barcelona defense. He was also unlucky that on 2 occasions that he got away from Puyol and was on his way to a scoring opportunity, he was immediately fouled after that. I also think that Robinho missed Marcelo's overlapping runs since Heinze did not help Robinho too much in attack.


Baptista - 8

I'm happy that this is another case in which I've been proven right. I kept saying that I wanted him to play this game over Guti and the results speaks for itself. Nevermind the golazo he scored, he started many dangerous counter-attacks and worked tirelessly in defense. We still need a creative midfielder, but Baptista deserves credit for the way he's fulfilling the role.


Sneijder - 6.5

His setpieces were always a danger and he had a few nice moves but disappears too often for my liking. He also messed up an excellent counter attack in which we would have been 4 against 2 by kicking the ball too far.


Raul - 4.5

I would even consider giving him lower if it wasn't for that amazing exchange he had with Ruud at the very end of the game. Once again Raul pulled the invisible act and he had a disgraceful challenge on Puyol that could have gotten him a red.


Ruud - 6.5

Amazing assist to Baptista for the goal but lacked sharpness in several counter-attacks. Should have scored at least twice tonight.


Schuster - 9.5

Once again, Schuster made Rijkaard his bitch. Made the right decision in playing Heinze and his tactics were spot on tonight. I really liked the fact that we often changed up our pressing at random times. Sometimes we would start pressing in midfield and other times we pressured Barca in their own penalty area and this had them completely confused. What an amazing start for this guy. He's very close to proving that firing Capello was the right choice (something I've believed from the start).



I'd like to see the big mouth Golsud over here after all the Cr@p he's been saying all week. Even funnier would be Puro with his 5-0 prediction
But I'm sure he'll say that by some strange coincidence he didn't bet any money on this game. (that's what he always says when he makes a wrong prediction)

Or he'll have suddenly changed his mind and bet on Madrid..and Barca's poor performance will somehow be down to them not playing Nobby Solano.

borocooper wrote:Or he'll have suddenly changed his mind and bet on Madrid..and Barca's poor performance will somehow be down to them not playing Nobby Solano.

I like the ratings of Torrente, but for me Ramos was the MotM the way he controlled the game was suberb. Midget was $h!t though...he should be sold next summer immediately.

I predicted 0-3 for this match..and it actually should have been that if the forwards knew how to counter!! I mean you can do that against teams like Barcelona..but when Madrid is gonna play the big boys those counters need to be goals.

I agree about the counter-attacks. The final ball was really dreadful at times. We could have easily won this game by 3 or more goals if we took our chances.

I don't think Sneijder was that bad though. He has gotten better in the last few games but I think he really suffers from playing in the wing. I'd like to see him as a media punta for a few games before making my judgment on him.

Black Magic wrote:FT. 0-1

Very professional display by Madrid to win that game. They got a lot of help from a Barca team that was very far from their best. Dare I say it, they missed Messi badly. With Eto'o in Pepe's pocket and Ronaldinho's rendition's of swan lake Iniesta was the only player who looked even mildly capable of troubling the R. Madrid defence.

The goal deserved to win the game all on it's own, immaculately weighted ball by horse face to the beast who then belted it into the roof of the net. You never saw it coming, Madrid weren't doing much attacking at all prior to that.

When Real scored I hoped that the game would come to life, alas............. twas a pretty boring game marred by rediculous diving and silly refereeing. There were times when I was adamant that there were 23 Reyes' on the pitch!

That piece of skill at the end from Iniesta was just magical, you'd almost pay the admission fee just to see that.

Whats this?

Torrente wrote: I don't think Sneijder was that bad though. He has gotten better in the last few games but I think he really suffers from playing in the wing. I'd like to see him as a media punta for a few games before making my judgment on him.

I agree. I really think he'll get better and better, especially now after this important match.

Also, I think apart from not playing in his usual playmaking position, he really gave a performance for the team. You could see him chasing Barca players whenever they had the ball, and making interceptions. This is something that was done for him by a DM at Ajax. It wouldn't surprise me if Schuster had asked him to support the defensive midfield a little more in this game.

Pepe and Ramos were fantastic. I think Baptista, as cliche as this thought might be, adds a bit of steel because of his physical power. I thought Heinze did really well which to be honest surprised me a little.

Overall it was a great team performance. Next game I'd like to see more of Robben, as he looked pretty sharp in the few minutes he played. Hopefully he hasn't injured himself yesterday...

Congrats Madridistas on winning te league...

What a disappointing game full of mistakes and very little real football. We fell into their trap and tried to match the speed of their football rather than dictating the pace.. very very stupid mistake since we didn't use our strongest weapon, the ability to pass our way out of pressure..

Ahh well.. I am depressed... see you all in a few days.. merry xmas..

AcciDrenthe wrote:

Torrente wrote: I don't think Sneijder was that bad though. He has gotten better in the last few games but I think he really suffers from playing in the wing. I'd like to see him as a media punta for a few games before making my judgment on him.

I agree. I really think he'll get better and better, especially now after this important match.

Also, I think apart from not playing in his usual playmaking position, he really gave a performance for the team. You could see him chasing Barca players whenever they had the ball, and making interceptions. This is something that was done for him by a DM at Ajax. It wouldn't surprise me if Schuster had asked him to support the defensive midfield a little more in this game.

Pepe and Ramos were fantastic. I think Baptista, as cliche as this thought might be, adds a bit of steel because of his physical power. I thought Heinze did really well which to be honest surprised me a little.

Overall it was a great team performance. Next game I'd like to see more of Robben, as he looked pretty sharp in the few minutes he played. Hopefully he hasn't injured himself yesterday...

I think he is turning out to be a bit different then what he was in ajax as far as i remember. he works alot for the team both offensively and defensively. he can still do better and if he does then people wont talk about guti anymore. so even though his contribution is hard to see always i know he does something for the team and so does Shuster.
tactically the team was close to perfection last night and Pepe is a clear MOTM for me. "The Man Who lives In Pepes Pocket" aka Eto didnt do a god damn thing.
I dont think we have won the league because if we get a bad start to the second half of the season it will cost us because we are facing good teams. if we get through the first 3 games with a 7 point lead then i will be more confident.

Congrats Madrid fans.

Merry X-Mas everybody!

Luso wrote:

supermadrid wrote:imo Pepe was motm. i dont think he made a single mistake in the hole game.

"Pepe – 9: Absolutely superb from start to finish. Got the better of every Barcelona player, and even bailed Casillas out a couple of times. His best display in a Real Madrid shirt yet. Arguably his best display ever!"

So it appears as though he's won over the critics? At 30 million I still think Madrid over-paid, but he never was the $h!t defender everyone tried to portray him as.

The 'best display ever' comment is over the top however and really puts down everything he's done in the past... maybe if they'd watched him prior to his Madrid days they'd have something a little more sensible to say.

Still, he isn't good enough for Brazil.

I think he has now. and i think the reason that the writer says its his best game is because everybody was look at this game to truly judge him. he had played some good games after his injuries and this was going to be his test and he passed like few has. Eto was in his pocket. we still shouldnt have paid 30 mil for him but he could become worth 30 mil.

Congratulations madridistas, I'm sure you had a great evening

White Christmas
Phil Ball

It was a foggy old night on the backroads of Kent, in south east England. Along the country lane down which I was driving, the visibility was down to fifty metres. With no street lights, it was tricky to see where I was going, but a glance at the instrument panel told me that the first half was coming to an end; I refer to El Clásico, a game that has rarely been played at this stage of the season, just before the winter break.


The village that loomed up in the distance had three pubs, in one of which I'd been told I might find a screen showing the game on Sky. Sure enough, on entering the pub and being ushered into a backroom by my English mate from Santander, also back in the UK for Christmas, I was greeted by the news that Madrid were winning 1-0, courtesy of a goal by Baptista.

How strange to be watching this game in England. Since moving to Spain eighteen years ago, I think it's the first time that I've watched the game from foreign shores. Stranger still to be the only people in the pub watching. The TV room was tucked away in a far corner, but no-one seemed to be remotely interested. Sky's commentary and presentation were fine, but I wondered how many pubs across England were demonstrating the same lack of interest in watching this game - arguably still Europe's biggest fixture.

I'll assume that we were the exception, because it was a gripping match, nothing like last season's goal-fest but interesting nonetheless in its demonstration of where these two sides stand, at the moment.

The game and the result reflected the opposing states of mind of these two rivals with alacrity, with Barcelona unsure of their approach, their present and their future, and Real Madrid playing to a pre-set game plan which functioned perfectly.

And now the league closes down for a fortnight and Madrid sit pretty at the top, seven points clear - not an unassailable lead, but a substantial one nonetheless, after only seventeen games. At this time last year, Madrid were also being written off, only to stage a remarkable comeback, so all is not over yet for Barça, but there were little signs of life from the home team, and little sign of optimism from their strangely subdued support.

Barça had apparently huffed and puffed in the first half, but Ronaldinho, surprisingly included in the starting line-up, made his main contribution to proceedings by fluffing a clear-cut chance, just minutes before his buddy Baptista scored the winner for the visitors.

After that, Madrid were enormously superior, the first time that one has been able to report that for a long time. They looked solid at the back, with Pepe again dominant, quick to break forward, and efficiently balanced in midfield. Barça looked like a side without a game plan, occasionally threatening through flashes of individual inspiration from Iniesta mainly, but Diarra snuffed out Xavi by harrying him mercilessly, and without Deco there was no-one else to orchestrate.

Schuster had done his homework, and decided to stop Barça from making those lethal connections in which they specialise, between their offensive midfielders and their attacking line. Time and time again their final pass broke down in the face of Madrid's greater work-rate at the back and the vertical speed of their counter-attacks. In truth it could have been 0-3 by the end.

This may prove to be a significant result in the history of Spanish football, for various reasons.

First and foremost, it confirms the shift in power, back from the east coast to the centre. Madrid finally seem to have calmed down and got their act together, and are looking the ruthlessly efficient if not the exciting side that Schuster promised. But they're not merely the pragmatic outfit of last year with a bit of flair thrown in. There's a real steel to the squad now, with interesting alternatives showing up all the time. Take any three from Gago, Guti, Sneijder and Diarra, and you have a decent midfield - not a wholly convincing one, but enough to scare the rest of La Liga.

There's an interesting combination of the combative, the organiser and the inspired, whereas up front the ever-reliable Van Nistelrooy looks comfy with Baptista, Raúl, Robinho or Higuian to play off. Baptista's return to the fold has given Madrid greater physical presence in the upper third of the pitch, which combines nicely with Robinho's more unpredictable fare.

Secondly, Barça seemed curiously subdued, as if they almost accepted their place as second best. Since Rijkaard announced that he was not staying beyond this season, some spark seems to have gone from the side. It didn't help that Messi was injured, but Eto'o, so often the scourge of Madrid, seemed unable to find the space he wanted up front and kept dropping off too deep where he is nowhere near as threatening.

If Madrid retain their title, they will look back to this game as the turning point of this current period, as the confirmation of their return to the top of the tree. For all their pleasure at regaining the title last season, there remained a feeling that Barcelona had thrown it away, as opposed to Madrid winning it.


Now they just look the better side, full-stop. They have got rid of the more problematic elements in their dressing-room, and Raúl, their king of kings, has slotted back into a less spectacular but paternalistic role, chivvying the rest on and lending a hand where necessary.

It has been an unlikely resuscitation, as useful to Madrid as Ronaldinho's behaviour has been destabilising to Barcelona. And most significantly of all perhaps, Madrid's post-galáctico period is bearing fruit, returning the club to its more traditional shape of work-fuelled solidarity, whilst Barcelona, incapable of reading the runes, have fallen foul of exactly the same over-reaching ambition that so sullied the Bernabéu, in the end.

The egos have taken over the Camp Nou, and although the squad is bursting with an unfeasible amount of talent, something is awry at the heart of proceedings. It might have taken this game to show Laporta that he needs to take out the broom. There's still time to turn the season around, but not too much.

After the big game, the second live match featured Athletic Bilbao and Murcia, a game that ended 1-1 but which was more significant for the amount of names the commentator managed to mispronounce than for the football itself. Exteberría gives English commentators nightmares, if not opposing defences these days. Murcia deserved to win, and can begin their Christmas break with some satisfaction.

As we watched the game, a chap from the huddle at the bar walked past and stopped to watch the screen, on his way to the toilet. 'Who's that, Sunderland?' he asked. I explained that it was Bilbao. 'They got their colours from Sunderland though' the man assured me, which was in fact correct. Even in a fog-bound Kentish village, trivia reigns supreme, and knowledge of La Liga is spreading.

'Did Madrid win?' he then asked. When I told him they had, he remarked 'It's all over then, bar the shouting'. I'm not so sure about that, but Barcelona will be hoping that the new year can bring them some fresh ideas and better vibrations, or the gentleman's statement may not be far off the mark.


I think he has some good points esp about how this side isnt just like cappellos side which was without any organisation in both the offensive and the defensive department. he is making the side cappello had set out to make and i think shuster can also add some flair to it if he and the team gets more time. If Gago takes advantage of Diarra playing in ANC and delivers then the team will be perfect in the middle. just need to loan someone in the time diarra is gone. the key will be that players keep emerging through the season. Higuain/Gago/Snejider/Marcelo can all improve and are young.

I'm I the only one who really dislikes Robinho. He is a 'chupón' of the highest order, everytime he gets the ball on the wing he would try one of his stupid step-overs rather than look for the simple pass or a cross - I wonder when he last managed to put in a cross in.

If Robben didn't have a glass ankle, I'd play him over Robinho in a heartbeat.

Luso wrote:So it appears as though he's won over the critics? At 30 million I still think Madrid over-paid, but he never was the $h!t defender everyone tried to portray him as.

The 'best display ever' comment is over the top however and really puts down everything he's done in the past... maybe if they'd watched him prior to his Madrid days they'd have something a little more sensible to say.

Still, he isn't good enough for Brazil.

Pepe is Brazilian??????????? Are you sure about that? Can he still play for us? Please tell me that he didn’t naturalized for Portugal?

Brazilian born Portugese international footballer.

juligen21 wrote:

Luso wrote:So it appears as though he's won over the critics? At 30 million I still think Madrid over-paid, but he never was the $h!t defender everyone tried to portray him as.

The 'best display ever' comment is over the top however and really puts down everything he's done in the past... maybe if they'd watched him prior to his Madrid days they'd have something a little more sensible to say.

Still, he isn't good enough for Brazil.

Pepe is Brazilian??????????? Are you sure about that? Can he still play for us? Please tell me that he didn’t naturalized for Portugal?

Have a guess.

TM wrote:Brazilian born Portugese international footballer.

f@ck OFF I am sick of those countries getting Brazilians because they cant produce their own players. This is not a grocery list. Oh I don’t have tomatoes today, let’s buy some to make a sauce.

Invest in your youth scout, go train kids, make changes, produce your OWN DAMN PLAYERS.

When Brazil didn’t produced new strikers I had to endure Vagner f@ck!!ng Love for almost a year, don’t have a right back wing? lets try anybody until we found someone, no good GK? Let’s change our training methods, bring people from others countries and start to produce our own GK. THAT’S HOW IS DONE.

Instead of blaming other countries, why don't you blame the player himself. I guess he had the option and choose Portugal. I don't know how long he lived in Portugal now but I don't see much wrong with it.

Since 1888 wrote:Instead of blaming other countries, why don't you blame the player himself. I guess he had the option and choose Portugal. I don't know how long he lived in Portugal now but I don't see much wrong with it.

I will blame this player, I will blame FIFA who is allowing this and the fucking Portugal Federation, who obvious prefer take way other countries players than produce their own. Brazil now produces not only “our national team” we are producing everybody national team. This has got to stop.

Brazil is still part of Portugal no? That's what colonies are for!!

Feynal Fantasy wrote:Brazil is still part of Portugal no? That's what colonies are for!!

Hummm NO, not since 1822. They already took a lot in their way out, so leave the football players at least.

I think Schuster performed a tactical masterclass on Barca. Baptista completely out-marked Xavi out of the game and with Iniesta wasted on the right the only way Barca managed to get the ball out into midfield was with diagonal balls from Marquez.

Upfront Eto'o kept running into Pepe whenever he managed to get past Cannavaro and Ronaldinho showed he's a shadow of his former self. IMO, in retrospect, the only place Schuster got it wrong was playing Raul as an attacking midfielder, maybe the pacier Higuain should have played instead.

Do people still think that Ten Cate wasn't the brains behind the outfit?

El Tiki Taka wrote:I think Schuster performed a tactical masterclass on Barca. Baptista completely out-marked Xavi out of the game and with Iniesta wasted on the right the only way Barca managed to get the ball out into midfield was with diagonal balls from Marquez.

Upfront Eto'o kept running into Pepe whenever he managed to get past Cannavaro and Ronaldinho showed he's a shadow of his former self. IMO, in retrospect, the only place Schuster got it wrong was playing Raul as an attacking midfielder, maybe the pacier Higuain should have played instead.

Do people still think that Ten Cate wasn't the brains behind the outfit?

I think his part has been a bit overrated. Barcelona werent built on tactical schemes. the difference now is that some of the players are more burnt out and rijkaard has not been good enough at motivating them.
I agree that shuster got it right and at a very important time too. he still has some mistakes though but he is learning.

AcciDrenthe wrote:Frankly, it is quite obvious that Barcelona is decling because all the Dutch players now prefer Real.

Here are the statistics:

Gio + Van Bommel = CL
Just Gio = the decline has started.
No Dutch players = second place in the league if lucky.

So there...

This could be the reason why Los Burros won, they had a Dutch player starting!

IMO also Milan needs more Dutch players bring back the GOOD OLD DAYS look how Los Burros were raped - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2gVBehaDtA

johan the baptist wrote:

AcciDrenthe wrote:Frankly, it is quite obvious that Barcelona is decling because all the Dutch players now prefer Real.

Here are the statistics:

Gio + Van Bommel = CL
Just Gio = the decline has started.
No Dutch players = second place in the league if lucky.

So there...

This could be the reason why Los Burros won, they had a Dutch player starting!

IMO also Milan needs more Dutch players bring back the GOOD OLD DAYS look how Los Burros were raped - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2gVBehaDtA

I warned you about that.