FC Barcelona 1, Real Madrid 1 (3-1 aggr.), Or, All Hail The Last Clásico.
By: Ade C. | May 4th, 2011Everyone… yes, that includes you looking at the screen… take a bow! We survived the Four Clásicos of the Apocalypse. We are amazing! WE DID IT!
And it wasn’t even a bad match…
Seeing this is worth more than a good match, anyway...
Now, it wasn’t the dazzling display of god-like football that Clásicos nowadays are supposed to be, but compared with the drab 1-1 draw in La Liga, the ultimately disappointing 0-1 loss in CDR, and the embarrassing –from both sides- 0-2 win in the first leg of the semis, last night’s match was a lot closer to the Platonic ideal of Clásico.
Pep went with the same old ‘Best Barça XI’ –VV, Alves, Piqué, Mascherano, Puyol, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta and the MVPs- which sounds impressive until you realise that we just don’t have the squad to play anything else; our bench was a hodge-podge of baby canteranos, players coming from injury, and SUPER ABIDAL, back when we least expected him.
Meanwhile, Mourinho, from his lair in a 5-star hotel, played Casillas, Arbeloa, Albiol, Carvalho, Marcelo, Lass, Alonso, Ronaldo, Kaka, Di María and Higuaín. Though with injury and suspension troubles too, RM’s squad is deep enough that they could afford to bench people like Özil or Benzema. However, Pepe’s suspension and Khedira’s injury –and Granero’s, um, I don’t know- meant that Mourinho couldn’t start with 3 DMs, making it a more attacking side.
As usual, the first fifteen minutes were crazy. Real Madrid went all out, putting crazy pressure on us from the midfield onwards, while Barça players were still getting their bearings and trying to understand why the ball never left our own damned half. A few creative clearances and much nail-biting later, the match settled down and the Barça players with it, regaining possession enough that we didn’t have to shout VV’s name every two minutes.
San Iker's halo is showing...
Conceding so early in the match would have been deadly for us. Against a team like Madrid, a two-goal advantage is preciously little. Holding on and weathering that first spell of pressure allowed Barça to wrestle back the control of the match from RM –who couldn’t keep up the pressure for long- and then do what Barça does best: playing tiki-taka until a golden chance to score comes along.
And golden chances were what we had: a great CK that saw a Busi header saved by San Iker –had he scored, Busi would’ve become the only player this season to score against both RM and Barça-, shots by Messi saved or gone wide, Villa shots saved or gone high… you get the point. It was Barça gone on the attack, like we hadn’t had the pleasure of seeing in quite a while.
Our defence were smart enough not to drift too high, though, because Real Madrid’s counters were fast and would have been deadly if it hadn’t been for the Amazing VV and a Piqué who is a million times better when he’s in the presence of Puyol.
It was 0-0 at HT, but there was very little disappointment. The match had been vibrant, both teams had had their chances, and while there was a constant stream of fouls befalling ‘pobre Messi’, the ref was doing an appropriate job at keeping the match from devolving into a brawl.
The start of the second half saw the first ‘zomg, controversial!’ move of the match. Higuaín scored, but the goal was disallowed.
People at the LiveBlog can attest that my first reaction -after, “damn it!”- was “Damn it, Masche, don’t /&#€$%$ dive! If they disallow this goal because of your &%&((/%$#@ dive, we’ll never hear the end of it!”. But… was it because of Masche’s dive? Or was it because of Cristiano’s dive that led to Masche’s –still reprehensible- dive? Piqué touched –touched, not fouled- CRon, who went down, which prompted Masche falling like a game of demented dominoes.
So, first to dive, first to lose?
You are only amateurs! Let me give you a lesson...
In any case, the goal was disallowed. Correct or not, that was the ref’s decision. If you don’t agree with it, let’s talk about the introduction of video-replays in football. If you think the ref did this to ingratiate himself with Barça, let’s ask Bojan –whose perfectly nice goal was disallowed last year by the same ref.
The goal, however, was a symptom. Real Madrid were again on the warpath, cranking up the pressure on a Barça that, damn it, better start learning how to play 100% from the first minute.
And then, VV to the rescue. Not only is he an amazing goalie and our best CB when Puyol isn’t on the field, but he’s also our first attacking player. From his great pass to Alves, to Iniesta, to Pedrito, to the back of Casillas net.
An uncharacteristic goal for Barça, perhaps, but a lovely goal all the same.
Of course, never are Real Madrid more dangerous than when they are injured. Adebayor came in for Higuaín –who’d played a very good match, considering how long he was out injured- and then Özil came in for Kaká –who, bless his heart, has had a more difficult return from injury than Pipita. Things got moving again, and this time they were going straight for VV’s goal.
DiMaría sneaked past Masche, hit the goalpost, caught the rebound and passed it on to Marcelo -again, past Masche-, who slotted it past VV.
It was coming. It was fair, although we all know that football is anything but fair.
It was enough to give madridistas hope and culés heart-attacks.
It was enough for Pep to make the closest thing to a defensive sub that our depleted bench can muster: Villa came off for Keita, meaning that Iniesta moved into the left wing. The 4-3-3 remained the same, but Keita brought a more imposing physical presence, necessary as once again fouls started to rain down on the smaller Barça players.
The game had broken down a bit, by this point. Real Madrid were aware that it was unlikely they would score the two goals they needed, so they concentrated on preventing Barça from doing anything at all.
And then, the Camp Nou roared hard enough to rattle windows.
Eric Abidal was warming up. Less than two months after being diagnosed with a liver tumor and operated the very next day, our Abidazzling defender was back!
Pep subbed him in on the 90th minute, on what was more of a symbolic gesture than a time-wasting technique. The time-wasting was the sub of Ibi for Pedrito on the 92nd minute.
And curtain!
On an aggregate of 3-1, FC Barcelona won in the Champion League semi-finals against Real Madrid and booked a place in the Big Final at Wembley on May 28th.
It was a tough match. Real Madrid have improved vastly since last year and they have a deep, high-quality squad. They have shown that they know how to beat us (Copa del Rey) and that they can hold us to a draw. We won, and deservedly so, but ‘manitas’ are now a thing of the past. We can safely say we’ve met our match.
(video via 101greatgoals.com)
VV: 9. I like him more and more every day; solid goalkeeping, an incredible asset in defence and now he has a part in our goals too!
Alves: 8. Someone gave him a stern talking-to, because apart from one or two overly-dramatic interpretations of a foul, Dani was pretty good last night.
Mascherano: 7,5. The dive. But, apart from that, and considering that he’s a DM hastily drafted to play CB, he’s doing pretty well.
(Cristiano said after the match that “Mascherano didn’t play like this at Liverpool, it was Barça that taught him to cheat!”. Oh, Cris, darling, whine me a river. If you never saw Masche do this at Liverpool it must have been because you were too busy diving yourself.)
Piqué: 8,5. The improvement on Piqué’s whole attitude when Puyol is playing alongside him is something that scientists should study. He’s a completely different, and much better, defender this way.
Puyol: 9. At a venerable age in footballer years, coming back from a lengthy injury, and our Captain throws himself into clearances with abandon. What a force of nature! His return has been one of the best news of this month.
Busquets: 7. Another one who got a talking-to about diving… and even so, he embellished his falls whenever he could. On the one hand, he’s a very good DM; on the other hand, he’s a bit of an embarrassment. I miss Yaya!
Xavi: 8. Calm and in control. He could almost pass unobserved, so discreet is his work, but we would be nothing without him.
Iniesta: 7,5. It wasn’t Don Andrés’s best night, with a few misplaced passes and such, but even when he’s not at his best, he’s still pretty good.
Villa: 8. This time, Casillas won their duels, but Villa had a few excellent chances and he absolutely pwned Arbeloa as many times as he wanted to.
Messi: 8. Kept out of the score-sheet by San Iker, he was nevertheless quick, inventive, and put in a lot of hard work between getting fouled enough to make ‘pobre Messi’ a Twitter Trending Topic.
Pedrito: 8. 610 minutes without scoring (since February, against Mallorca), and yet he was the one to beat Casillas. Well done, Pedroadrunner!
Keita (for Villa): 8. Did what he was brought in to do, help solidify our control over midfield.
Abidal (for Puyol): 10. MOTM. Just because he’s awesome.
Ibi Afellay (for Pedro): did he touch the ball?
And that’s it. The Clásicos are over –until summer, at least. We won some, lost some, drew some. We’re into the CL final, to meet either a ManUtd in search of revenge or a Schalke’04 with the well-known face of Raúl.
No more Clásicos!!!
Now, to focus back on La Liga… the Catalan Derby is coming on Sunday, and we know that Espanyol is never an easy team to play!
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