Kuru wrote:That sounds....kind of fun..Happy birthday Thimmy!

Lets hope that this Thimmy kid scores a goal today.

MARCELO to start!

FROM suffering constant criticism for his defensive inadequacies to becoming an influential factor in our build up play Marcelo is truly an unsung hero. I have always admired this amazing athlete and am very pleased by his growth.

Looks like Ozil is going to start alongside Di Maria, it will be surprising if Kaka doesn’t have an equally big role. I think he will feature prominently in the 2nd half, but of course no one can say for sure what the coach’s plan is.

As usual Barcelona will command the possession but when our players get on the ball I expect to see strong and effective counterattacking what with two key elements (Pique, Puyol) missing from Barcelona’s back line.

BARCELONA: Valdes, Alves, Mascherano, Adriano, Alba, Xavi, Busquets, Fabregas, Pedro, Messi, Iniesta - subs - Pinto, Villa, Sanchez, Barta, Montoya, Song, Sergi Roberto ///

REAL MADRID: Casillas, Arbeloa, Pepe, Ramos, Marcelo, Khedira, Xabi Alonso, Di Maria, Ozil, Ronaldo, Benzema - subs - Adan, Albiol, Coentrao, Essien, Modric, Kaka, Higuain

i dont know about marcelo, hope he stays focused

coentrao may not have the minutes under him, but i might have picked him for this one

Benzema wasted chance #1...and the counter starts...

benzema, come on. take the chances

arbeloa is going forward like he is a striker, come one stay focused

Benzema missed chance #2..what a surprise, another missed chance.

Eh, made even better considering the equalized a few minutes later! good job Benz/

what is pepe doing just clear the ball, foolish.

clear the ball first and argue later! that goal is your fail

you can miss chances in front of goal but at the ball you have to be decisive just clear the ball

just me again just saying that higuain should have played again and once again i am right again just saying again. ugh.

and pepe wtf. although i give cristiano praise for the goal.. he hit it nicely. finally a good goal from open play from him that is not a strikers goal nor an open play fee kick nor a header.

although it is encouraging to see that this barca is not the same as the one under pepe... we are better than them. their equalizer was just lucky.

and why was alves subbed off? that was stupid.

oh and as soon as we were up 1-0 and i saw we were outplaying barca but then i remembered iniesta is on the pitch and they hardly ever lose without iniesta. then they scored off a play started by a nice iniesta through ball. we should focus on marking iniesta more than messi.

xavi is just 5 foot something, you are 6 foot plus, why are you jumping so early

you will get the ball just think

and higain should not have played

these away games where counter attacking is the key is benzema's game

he is much better that higuain linking up with other players on the counter, much more technical

though his finishing has not been great in the game he is putting himself in great positions

Cyborg wrote:xavi is just 5 foot something, you are 6 foot plus, why are you jumping so early

you will get the ball just think

and higain should not have played

these away games where counter attacking is the key is benzema's game

he is much better that higuain linking up with other players on the counter, much more technical

though his finishing has not been great in the game he is putting himself in great positions

yes.. since forever i have been saying benzema is the better midfielder and higuain is the better striker/finisher. i mean benzema assisted cristiano for the first goal then missed a sitter 30 secs later. that just proves it. but with ozil and di maria i think we have enough offensive creativity so finishing is more important. if we dont get 3 points today we are at a serious risk to lose the title.

that lame goal gave barca life. we need to attack more we are better than them.

The olnly thing ozil has done is lose the ball. He's useless

If Mou takes Ozil out we will lose.

Actually most of Madrid players played really well, yeah, Pepe might be at fault for the goal, but he also denied a lot of goals in the earlier minutes, I only wish can finish some chances.

-first half analyses;
-cristiano's goal.
-benzema 2 misses and 1 assist.
-dimaria miss.
-pepe's fault.

Scuderio wrote:The olnly thing ozil has done is lose the ball. He's useless

so ozil is the cause that we arent in front now right? come on

marcelo is letting pedro beat him everytime and he hasnt been able to properly block pedro crosses

pepe is just not thinking, why look for a call in the box. defend first and protest to the referee after

di maria running with his head down too much and not looking for enough passes

benzema missed a good chance that was created though ozil, yea, ozil linking up with di maria

so dont just say ozil is playing bad

im watching the game and yes players are letting me down, but dont call them useless

lol as soon as i give praise for cristiano for scoring a goal that is a goal a winger scores he gets gifted a strikers goal. haha. but i will take it. we need to attack aggressively. if we defend again barca might score. if we lose this game the season is pretty much over. not 100% but 80% over.

mourinho once again shows how much of a coward he is. playing defensive and wanting to preserve the 1 point instead of going for 3 in a must win match. all this when we are the better team and barca did not HAVE A DEFENSE tonight. how pathetic. we lost lost the liga people. lets hope for champions league now.

Raulmadrid4vr, you're hate for Ronaldo is getting boring.
I don't even know why I need to block fans from my own team, but then again, I see childish posts from "fans" like you, and I remember why I do it.
Anyway, good game from everybody, Cris proved to be a big game player yet again, and very mature play of him to play through the pain barrier.

I think Barca will from now on start thinking twice before meeting Madrid, and not take it for granted, even at their own stadium.

Overall, the draw was the fairest result for both sides.

Risk going for 3 and maybe lose all points

We didn't lose la liga. There are 5 points, not 8, because we will beat them in the Bernabeu.

ColoJunior wrote:Risk going for 3 and maybe lose all points

if the other team is better than you yes. but we match barca and tonight we had the advantage to win.... considering barca was playing with no defenders. and plus it was a must win game for us.

ColoJunior wrote:Risk going for 3 and maybe lose all points

Not to mention, that the draw was really important to get under Barca's nerves.

Kuru wrote:

ColoJunior wrote:Risk going for 3 and maybe lose all points

Not to mention, that the draw was really important to get under Barca's nerves.

yea.. they are shaking 8 points ahead of us. i really expected us to win since barca played without defense today. we will have a tougher time in the bernabeu.

What a match, we should have won, and probably would have if Ronaldo hadn't gotten injured, the first goal we conceded was so sloppy but it was made worse by the fact that Benzema could have put us two goals ahead.
Ozil made amends for a poor first half but Higuain failed to add anything to the game.

Man of the match no doubt was Ronaldo, he soldiered on even with a shoulder injury, I hope it's not bad enough for him to miss any match for Madrid, international break couldn't have come at a better time.

It's good that Ronaldo will rest for 2 weeks, but as we know he will probably play for Portugal... 8 goals in 3 matches