Copa del rey [ Quarter-Finals | 2nd leg]: FCBarcelona vs Real Madrid

BarcaKizz wrote:

free_cat wrote:Don't worry guys, bet everything you've got to Barça winning for 2 or more goals cause I'm going to the match.

It's done and dusted.

Immaculate_Mole wrote:

Immaculate_Mole wrote:Not a chance !

Freecat is Barca's version of Vibe, do not question the mystical magic of when Free Cat goes to the game just embrace it.

Freecat be prepared to suck his balls

Free

My response to Madrid fans questioning the magical power of Freecat

shadeslayer wrote:Free's going : no tactical analysis, no Pinto talk, no 3-4-3 vs 4-3-3, no discussion on Pepe, because it doesn't matter. Free's going, period.

Immaculate_Mole wrote:Hell might aswell play the B-Team it dont matter, because Free's going.

bazinga wrote:

The Lizard King wrote:

bazinga wrote:

BarcaKizz wrote:...What happened Free?

He got us through that.

The man needs to be applauded.

Seriously atrocious refereeing though....

Yes, and the key being that decisions WENT AGAINST BOTH *bleep* TEAMS.

The general section acts as if Barcelona got every 50:50 decision...

shinigami99 wrote:General section consists primarily of barca haters.......this is a known fact...btw, I think that the teams drew mostly due to us losing concentration than they actually overcoming us.

Butthurt goallegacy barca haters(which is everybody except barca fans-bar white_star and arquitecto) be hatin

The Franchise wrote:As for the game...strange..

First of all, 2-1 is a bad lead to have, we all know that. The team was somewhere in between pressing home the advantage and being cautious, rather then one or the other.

In the first half, we didnt do great, but I can already see people overrating Madrids chances.

They had for me, 4 legit chances.

1. Pique let the ball go, Higuain misses.
2. Pinto passes to Higuain, Higuain misses.
3. Cristiano on his left foot, half a chance.
4. Ozil with an amazing effort.

What else did they have? We gave them two of them lol

Anyway, AGAIN, we have an advantage and we play around with it. I dont think we stepped off the gas but we starting toying around with them, mocking them, by doing triangles and difficult moves. They looked great and worked fine, it was fantastic in the 2nd half.

However, the confidence of the 4-1 scoreline and those passing moves made us soft. We lost the ball too close to our own goal and Puyols positioning was bad which allowed Cristiano through. Pinto went down to the fake, something Valdes doesnt ever do.

Then, Busi taking too long on the ball and put us under pressure. Pique clears under that pressure and it luckily falls to Benz who is a fantastic player. Him and Ozil, as I already knew, are great and I tip my hat to them.

Of course now, the last 20 minutes we have lost all the flow and they have momentuum..they pressure us, but down the other end they leave spaces and Messi almost punished them and Pedro should of scored.

Overall, the lead we had caused us problems in the first half and Madrid pressing plus our lack of gameplan (because of the score) meant it was a difficult first half but we took our chances with a great Pedro goal. Messi obviously they cannot stop, he has him way with them. Then Dani Alves (with the help of the system of course lol) scores a wonder goal. Dani actually had a superb game, personally he was my m.o.t.m.

Cesc played some crap balls, but he did well combining in the triangles and surprisingly showed some excellent feet and dribbling in tight spaces. Xavi was masterful all game long, his touches and passes were fantastic and he was one of the few players who didnt change the way he played regardless of the score.

Bad for us, Busi who has defended and played excellently got sloppy for the second goal and Puyol who didnt really have the best of games got caught out. Abidal also had trouble with the tricky Ozil. He pounds him in the air, but had some trouble down the flanks.

Lass should of been off, thats obvious. If the ref wasnt a coward he would of gone and there would of been no comeback. That being said, our players got lucky, they could of gave away that 4-1 lead.

The cup itself dont matter to me, I dont care about it, but I was nervous before the game and had no shame in saying I was staring hard at the clock the last 10 minutes hoping it would speed up.

CBarca wrote:I hate to use this line but...

AS A REFEREE...

NO
NO
NO

That Busquets 'handling' will never ever in a million years be a penalty. His hands were clearly at his side. When you look for handling, you look for a couple things- is he trying to make himself bigger through the positioning of his arms (i.e. putting your arms way out like a basketball player), are the arms in a natural position, is he deliberately trying to play the ball with his arm to disrupt the natural course of the ball.

Busquets did none of these. You want to see a perfect non-call? That right there is it. Referee instructors, get a replay of that. His arms were tucked nicely right by his side deliberately to not get a penalty even if it hit his arm.

Well played, Busquets. Well played.

As for the game. Pretty poor game overall by Barcelona to be quite honest. There is certain arrogance to the Barcelona team, and I don't like it. Just because you are 2-0 up (4-1 aggregate) doesn't mean you can fool around. The only time that was ever acceptable was the 5-0...

Good on Pedro for a goal, hope that bolsters his confidence, the little guy shows up all the time when we need him. Cesc is still really below standards, and Alexis' other than his great movement was poor as well.

Madrid as always...nothing really new to say. Mourinho... how anyone can like him is beyond me.

Lionel Messi wrote:Didn't get the pleasure of watching the match after the first 25 minutes but

WE KNOCKED THEM OUT OF THE COPA!

The Franchise wrote:Ah, I forgot something.

Madrid changes to a narrow on Ozil's size 442 after their changes. Leaving Granero and Alonso in the midfield, Ozil rightside, Cellejon left, Benz and Cristiano centeral with movement and alternating.

I think Pep made a mistake in not countering the change by pushing Busi back to form a 3 man defence.

They were not playing with a number 10 anymore, just Busi could of gone to the back and been the spare man. It would of helped us pass our way from the back better and defend better.

Cristiano and Benz could now be picked up by Pique and Puyol without any fear of leaving space for someone else with Busi now covering.

Abidal and Dani Alves as wingbacks can track Ozil and Callejon no matter where they go. Now, this would leave their flanks open but Arbeloa cannot attack well and Pedro would have no problems following his runs with his work rate. Sanchez always a hard worker would of tracked Coentrao.

Deep in the midfield, I like our chances of Alonso and Granero vs Cesc, Xavi and Messi.

I think Pep didnt really react to their changes well, which of course is very rare for him.

Khaledbarca wrote:Well i'm not surprised from the result, i was expecting the Draw before the match.. there is something about this Barca [ this season], recently, whenever we have a lead in 1st leg going to 2nd leg, we don't play our best, we try too much to slow the tempo inorder to save energy [injuries/small squad, we have to play a match every 3 days], we lost concentration, which lead to lots of Stupid mistakes in the defense, its not the first time we lose a 2goals lead this season, vs real sociedad, realbetis at camp nou, 1-0 vs espanyol..

IMO, it wasn't Just about realmadrid or mourinho's tactics, yes they played a very gd game, compared to their performance in previous 2 clasicos at the bernabeu..
but the way people are talking about the match, as if realmadrid dominated the match with much more chances..

On the other hand we had 3 chances in 1st half, scored 2.. its called Efficiency not Luck! lol

Saying that Real Madrid dominated is bullshit, they were much better than the 1st leg, but didn't dominated !
------------------

So imo, the reasons why we didn't perform as usual is simple..
- we came to the match with a lead, 2 away goals..
- no enough motivation, Real Madrid had nothing to lose, played without pressure, & were much more motivated !!

- The real test will be in the Camp Nou, League match where Barca needs a win, & when we need a win, we give our best, while yesterday a draw was enough to qualify, which made us lose the focus especially after 2-0 lead [4-1 on agg.], slowing the tempo too much, and making stupid mistakes in the defense!

~ If u remember, after the super cup tie, & the very gd performance from realmadrid especially at the bernabeu, lots of football fans though that realmadrid finally can beat Barca.. but again, when it mattered [ at 0-0 ] when Barca wanted the win, they got & in the bernabeu !!
The Camp Nou clash in the League, will be Much different!

- Real Madrid are supposed to be the 2nd best team in the world behind Barca, so no surprise if we had an off game again them, especially after a big performance in 1st leg..
after all its the 14th match between the 2 teams in the last 3 seasons, Barca record (9W, 4D, 1L), having an off game is very normal, u can't win and dominate all matches, especially that your playing against the 2nd best team in the world.

Visca el Barca

Ordinho10 wrote:Where is this myth coming from that Madrid dominated? Similar shots on goal, similar scoreline, Barca more possession. Deluded much?

The Franchise wrote:They are so used to getting completely owned if the game is even, that means they dominated.

Its not just their fans, I seen "neutrals" say the same.

messixaviesta wrote:1. The Copa is not very important but every Classico is a prestige issue and a major one at that. Hence I agree with those who say no Pinto in Classicos. I can accept him playing all the other Copa matches and a few Liga matches as well.

2. I thought the introduction of Mascherano was very important. It's only after he entered the pitch that my nerves began to calm down a bit.

3. This is becoming a worrying trend. We are at our most vulnerable when we are winning comfortably. What we try to do then is slacken the pace and intensity of the game. When the opposition is as good and as determined as Real Madrid they use this opportunity to hit us fast and hard and catch us unaware. It's worth asking why we have this habit of slackening down when our best bet probably is to keep up the intensity and keep hunting for more goals. Some would suggest complacency but I don't really think so. I am inclined to think it's more of fatigue and I wil elaborate more on this in the next point.

4. Not many would agree with me but I think we have quite a few aging players in the first team who at times find it hard to play so regularly without getting any rest. Abidal, Puyol, D.Alves, Xavi. That's why when the intensity of the game becomes too much they are found lacking a little bit in pace and stamina. They do make up for it to some extent because they have so much heart but I fear one day this could go against us if we don't consider the problem carefully. The need of the summer is quality youthful reinforcements especially in defense.

messixaviesta wrote:

The Franchise wrote:
The team plays a high intensity game and when they see the chance to tone it down, they take it. Thats why they allow teams back in and thats why when games are not long important (end of season, 2nd leg of cups were we cruised the 1st leg) we tend to struggle.

I see dani. However if we face them in UCL and do this then I think this time it will be us who will get knocked out.