El Clasico: Real Madrid vs Barcelona discussion

Real Madrid vs Barcelona discussion.

Sunday 23rd March.



H2H Past 5 meetings:

League - Away: 26th October 2013: Barcelona 2-1 Real Madrid

League - Home: 2nd March 2013: Real Madrid 2-1 Barcelona

Copa del Rey - Away: 26th February 2013: Barcelona 1-3 Real Madrid

Copa del Rey - Home: 30th January 2013: Real Madrid 1-1 Barcelona

League - Away: 7th October 2012: Barcelona 2-2 Real Madrid


Injuries/Suspensions:

Real Madrid: Arbeloa and Khedira.

Barcelona:



Barcelona last 3 league results:

Barcelona 7-0 Osasuna
Valladolid 1-0 Barcelona
Barcelona 4-1 Almeria


Barcelona current league position: 3rd.

1. Real Madrid - 70 points
2. Atletico Madrid - 67 points
3. Barcelona - 66 points
4. Athletic Bilbao - 51 points



Real Madrid players called up:






Real Madrid predicted lineup:

--------------Diego Lopez
---Carvajal--Pepe---Ramos---Marcelo
--------Modric--Alonso-Di Maria
----------Bale-----------Ronaldo
----------------Benzema





Ancelotti pre match:




Prediction:

Real Madrid 2-1 Barcelona

Barca can huff and puff and score 7 goals against Osasuna.
Quite a statement tho, let's be honest.
They hit top gear at the right moment

Benzema is doubtful for the game according to AS.

If Benzema isn't fit, I hope that Carlo will have the balls to start Jese upfront and not Isco.

Benzema is doubtful for the game according to AS.

Frack.

We will humblefully take a 2 goal difference defeat where you start to relax after the 3th goal and we score a late consolation goal. Winning in the Bernabeu is obviously a no-go for any team, let alone the thrid best team in La Liga. If Bale does not score a hattrick and Di Maria doesn't dominate the midfield too much and Messi doesn't pick up an injury I think I can live with that overall.

http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Actualites/Benzema-ok-pour-le-clasico/449880

Benzema cleared for the clasico. Won't play against Schalke... but who cares

Yeah   

Exactly hala, Osasuna win means nothing. Madrid can also beat Osasuna 7-0 at home if they want.

Bale against Alba is obviously a mismatch.

Pique is slow as a snail and Ronaldo, Di Maria, Bale vs. Pique is also a mismatch.

In midfield Godric vs. 34 year old part time footballer / part time pensioner Xavi doesn't need much explanation.

Alonso and Ramos will rough up Messi.

Barcelona concede about 1 corner goal per game. With Ramos, Pepe, Ronaldo, Bale, Benzema in the box you need max. 3 corner kicks for 1 goal, no doubt.

Nerman will play because of his fame and attempt circus tricks and stepovers and produce nothing productive.

Very pointless Clasico this. Hope you stop at 3.

Barca need to win, so I can't see Fabregas starting. Against Man City he played so they could retain possession, however here they will need to counter at times. I'd say it'll be the usual Messi/Neymar and one of Pedro/Sanchez.

Barca need to win, so I can't see Fabregas starting. Against Man City he played so they could retain possession, however here they will need to counter at times. I'd say it'll be the usual Messi/Neymar and one of Pedro/Sanchez.

It all depends on what lineup Ancelotti decides to come or with.

If he changes it and does something stupid like last time, then we're screwed.

BTW, do you really think all this reverse jinxing above is still funny? *sighs*

People start to get annoyed and report posts here, so I would like to advise you to stop with that as I'm neither a Madrid nor Barca fan and thus *I* get annoyed when I have to police stupid stuff like that and you really don't want to see me annoyed. In other words - you have been warned nicely and further troll stuff like that gets punished.

ah, yes, this game is important to us for so many reasons; not just in terms of the league, but it can also be a confidence booster for europe as well. Testing our strength against barcelona, a top tier team lets me know exactly what progress we've made so far, and keeps us prepared for europe where we will meet stellar opposition that are dangerous with the ball as well as in the attack....should be a good game and i hope for a win, a dominant win....and NO disappearing acts on our team. Hala Madrid

Shame. I think we could beat their ass bloody but I'm 99% sure Ancelotti will PTB.

I think a draw.

I think we have a damn good chance of winning..

For starters, we have home advantage

The 2nd best thing that we have is set pieces. Seriously. Barcelona try to man mark on set pieces and it goes absoluetly horribly. Even more, benzema has added headers to his game, and is a genuine threat in the air. CR, pepe, and ramos are scary threats in the air, as well as varane if he plays. Bale is also an OK threat in the air. Di maria sends a very good set piece in usually, and so does alonso and bale. We better be practicing these in training because there's literally a 25% chance we score from these when we play them. CR and bale don't even have to beat their man half the time. Just kicking it off the defender for a corner is a giant threat in itself for them.

3rd, again we have benzema. In the last clasico he was very threatening with his playmaking and outstanding close control. No one on the team has the ability he has to create in the final third. not modric, and di maria is way too inconsistant of a passer in that part of the field.

I'm only worried about neymar. Last time we completely nullified messi by giving him no passing options on the wing and double marking him. but we let neymar free and he completely raped carvajal numerous times.

Lmao Bill you legend

Anyway I think both teams have reasons to feel like they can win this game but the main question imo will be do Barca care about winning the game more than not losing?

No one at Madrid will like it but a draw would not be a disaster since it keeps the gap at 4 points. It give Atleti the chance to catch up but we'll be still ahead by a hair and will be in control of our own destiny.

For Barca a loss basically means game over, 7 points at this stage of the season is too big a gap since there aren't *that* many points left to play for.

This could potentially be a huge statement game for a lot of Madrid players. A lot of the guys on our squad have question marks surrounding them and I'm pretty sure they are aware of all of them.

I think regardless of whether we play like Lions or Gazelles if we show in intensity and impose ourselves we'll have a big chance. We'll also have a fully pumped up Bernabeu for this game which imo will be a factor.

My only concern is Mallenco, that clown could potentially influence the game. I'm almost 100% sure he's going to lose control at some point.

Bale/Carvajal should absolutely rape Alba/Neymar. We MUST focus our attack on that side... i know it means that CR7 will need to make backdoor movement. Tough shat. It's too big of a mismatch to ignore. It also forces Neymar to spend energy helping Alba.

sportsczy wrote:Bale/Carvajal should absolutely rape Alba/Neymar.  We MUST focus our attack on that side... i know it means that CR7 will need to make backdoor movement.  Tough shat.  It's too big of a mismatch to ignore.  It also forces Neymar to spend energy helping Alba.

Fully agree but we'll have to have a good chunk of the ball to really exploit it imo.I think we can do it.

Regarding CR, I actually think he's at his best when he makes off ball runs into the box. When the ball (and the defence's focus) is somewhere else Cristiano is an absolute nightmare to defend against.



So yeah I'd actually prefer if Ronaldo had less touches outside the penalty area for this game. I'd actually prefer him being the one to pounce when it's time complete the attacking move.

is benzema available?

if not, what would be the XI?

carvajal-varane-ramos-marcelo
modric---alonso---illarramendi
-bale-- ronaldo ---- dimaria

?

Benzema is healthy and has trained normally since Thursday.  Sill not 100% as the following image shows... but he'll play.

Ancelotti:

"Tomorrow's starting XI will be the one I've been repeating with Alonso, Modric, Di María…"