Barcelona 2 Real Madrid 0

[Ridders]

El Classico. Deserves its own thread. On Sunday 11 April 5:45 am EST.

Will be at the Santiago Bernabeu. Always a special game, but made even more important by the fact that both teams are level on 77 points with 30 games played. Could go along way to deciding this year's La Liga champions.

Barca won their first match this season 1-0.

Both Zlatan and Kaka will be out for their respective sides. Abidal may also be out for Barca.

 

[Bulldog Force]

If Messi continues with the form he's in, we're in for one cracking match. I think the Ronaldo/Messi battle in midfield will be epic

 

[weasel]

I think I'll be waking up early for this, well I'll do my best. It's 5am Korean time, and I find it much harder to drag myself out of bed in the morning over here, I could get up with no problems at 4:45am in Brisbane even in the winter months but I don't think the northern hemisphere is the place for early risers.

As usual I'll be backing Barcelona, but I don't think it'll be a walkover like last season, Madrid are going to be fully in this contest.

Ridders, who, pray tell, will you be backing in the Atletico-Liverpool showdown? I'm taking you're an atleti man at heart but Torres is your idol, so it's gonna be tough. If you're having trouble deciding, let me remind you of Stevie Gerrard and his blatant cheating that denied Atletico top of their CL group last season. They deserve their revenge.

Feels a bit empty to see Valencia exit in a limp 0-0 draw, such an impotent manner of defeat.

 

[Ridders]

Yeah man will be torn. A couple of Torres hat-tricks and an Atletico win on aggregate would do me nicely.

I think Alonso's fitness will be really important. Real are just a much better side when he's there distributing the ball. Read that Iniesta will be fit to start.

 

[dogz08]

Real Madrid 5-0 would be nice

 

[weasel]

Are you crazy?

Anyway, Barca up 1-0. Just got on to a livestream at the 35th minute mark after I drifted in and out of sleep for a little while post-alarm. I think I barely missed the goal.

 

[Ridders]

No prizes for guessing who the scorer for Barca is.

 

[weasel]

2-0, could get worse if Madrid extend themselves too much trying to come back. Great through ball, couldn't really see who it was in the replay? Xavi I s'pose.

 

[weasel]

Full-time. Barca (and football) is the winner, 2-0. I wouldn't count Madrid out of the title race yet, have three difficult away games to come while you'd have to say most of Real Madrid's remaining games are easy three pointers, at least on the surface. Still, what may come it's hard to argue that Madrid, despite their extravagant purchasing, deserve to be compared favourably to this great Barca side yet.

Xavi the clutch player, I think. Two splendid passes for the two goals.

 

[Ridders]

This was built as Ronaldo vs Messi but it really was the Xavi Show. I remember saying in another thread that this Barca team was built around Messi. Was just too simple a way to describe how Barcelona play.

Xavi's passing was immense. Unless I'm mistaken, he layed the passess for both Barca goals.

 

[Ridders]

The ball from Xavi for Pedro's goal was awesome. Finish from the kid was nice as well. Thought Guti made a difference for Real. As soon as he came on, things started happening for them. Van Der Vaart missed a golden chance when Guti played him through and he was 1 on 1 with Valdes.

Messi was good throughout. Thought Ronaldo was poor tbh. Apparently Iniesta wasn't fit to start as he came on as a sub.

This was Raul's 37th Clasico appearance and will probabably be his last.

Barca now own the head-to-head matchup meaning that if both sides finish level on points, regardless of GD, Barca would win the title. Nice advantage to have.

 

[Ridders]

Full-time. Barca (and football) is the winner, 2-0. I wouldn't count Madrid out of the title race yet, have three difficult away games to come while you'd have to say most of Real Madrid's remaining games are easy three pointers, at least on the surface. Still, what may come it's hard to argue that Madrid, despite their extravagant purchasing, deserve to be compared favourably to this great Barca side yet.

Xavi the clutch player, I think. Two splendid passes for the two goals.

Yep. Real have all the parts to be a great side, just need to gel together. Having a manager stay there for more than a season or two would help.

This Barca team is just on another level though. I wonder how much of the credit Pep deserves. I mean they also played wonderful football under Rijkaard but this team is just so dominant.

 

[Bulldog Force]

Absolutely stoked about this win. Messi played well. Pedro played above his weight as usual. This guy is going to be huge in the future. Pitched in well while down some big names. Glad that we're now standing alone on top of the ladder. It's a case of 'don't look down' though!

 

[hybrid_tiger]

Great game. Barcelona toyed with them all night.

Would have been a more comprehensive win if Messi was capable of taking a game by the scruff of the neck, but you can't have everything I guess.

 

[weasel]

Yeh, seriously, Messi probably should have scored once or twice more. Can't fault him after that spectacular first goal which was superb from both him and Xavi, but he had at least three occasions to snatch another in the second half which didn't quite fall for him, although I believe Casillas saved each time.

Twice in particular he was put one on one and just shot straight away, I know people will say that taking a touch in those situations is the wrong option, but it's freakin' Messi, he has the technique to do it, but I suspect he couldn't really be sure if Casillas was looming down on him so you can't really blame him for just shooting.

Xavi's through ball for Pedro was just fantastic. Those kind of plays aren't raved about enough imo, as far as I'm concerned having the vision to play that kind of ball beats the hit and hope blasts from 25 yards that all too often dominate the highlight reels.

 

[Ridders]

Just an awesome midfield display from Xavi. Even more impressive given that Iniesta was on the bench, and even when he came on, he was playing in a wider role to replace Maxwell. Tbh Barca seem to play pretty well without Ibra. From memory their record without him is pretty good.

Ramos was lucky not to receive a second yellow after a reckless challenge on Messi as the ball was going out.

 

[Tommy Smith]

Xavi was incredible. He layed on Barca's two goals with beautiful passes and set Messi up for a couple more chances with equally fantastic passes.

He's an amazing player. People talk about how if you were building a team from scratch would you build it around Messi, Ronaldo or even Rooney; but with what Xavi contributes to your football team you wouldn't be silly to take him as the first player picked in any side.

 

[pennywisealfie]

pissed at foxtel for f**king me around with their stupid tv guide. somehow i managed to avoid the score until i got to watch the replay of the game at 8pm. Xavi f**king amazing. Pique did a great job trying to shut down Real Madrids attack and when he was beat, Victor Valdes was great cleaning up the scraps.

I still dont see any reason why Dani Alves should take free kicks.

 

[aqua_duck]

Btw Pedro should be going to SA

 

[Bulldog Force]

Btw Pedro should be going to SA

FFS... I love that guy!