FC Barcelona vs Real Madrid | Copa Del Rey Final | April 17

Injuries for Barca - Pique, Valdes, Puyol, Jona Dos Santos (Bartra is 50/50 last I checked)
Injuries for R. Madrid - Ronaldo, Jese

Which Messi will show up?

Oh man, its not long now....too bad its freaking 3.30am kick off for me Probably wont get to watch it live.

That would means its 9.30pm Spanish time? ITs just amazing so many games are played so late!

Pique taking notes about headers from Bartra.

So after all that... Martino starts with Cesc and Nerman, keeps Messi on the right and doesn't bring on Alexis... he's got to go. Simply can't learn from his mistakes.

So i watched from 30the minute. This season was going ok while the strikers did not fail. I was wrong to think we improved defensively, because even if we did, the back-line is so thin, the injuries were bound to shatter that "progress".

Then to top up things Tata Fartino cant learn from his mistakes to save his life!

So all in all, we will get Pique back  and that will be like a new signing. Plus we have Song and Adriano  as backup so we are bound for treble next season.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:So after all that... Martino starts with Cesc and Nerman, keeps Messi on the right and doesn't bring on Alexis... he's got to go. Simply can't learn from his mistakes.

I agree. I can excuse him for trying something new, and it worked in big games, and he stuck with it. Now that its failing and sees how bad Messi on the right is, and how garbage Cesc is....and he keeps using that tactic?

Seriously that I can't excuse. He needs to gtfo

We need some new elections this summer. The entire board has ruined our club.

This was quite painful to watch, can only imagine how it felt for the players themselves. It was obvious that everybody was motivated and trying their best, knowing that this is their only realistic chance left for a title this season. But there was no plan whatsoever. 100% Tata's fail yet again.

Xavi was bossing the midfield, Iniesta was running up and down, Messi was desperately trying to find space and make plays, but there was nothing going on at team level, all our attacking efforts were hopeless improvisations that kept hitting a brick wall. The fact that we only managed to score with a header from a corner speaks volumes.

Can't blame the players for this. Not even Pinto who should've saved both goals, he made some other good saves instead and he's the backup keeper after all. We should have easily scored more than we conceded against this Real. And can't blame Bartra for being slower than Bale, not many aren't. Can maybe blame him for not commiting a cynical foul on him while he had the chance but that's inexperience and I got a lot more blame for Tata's defensive plan which was about as thorough as his offensive plan, to bother thinking about what young Bartra could've done better.

Grats to Madrid either way, we didn't deserve anything this year and it's nice to see football justice once in a while, even if it's against you. Funnily enough I'm not even sad that we lost this one. That god awful self proclaimed manager doesn't deserve to have his name associated with any trophy.

Ive gotta say after today, and so season without a trophy, and more importantly our state or play is just so poor now.... something is not wrong, with MEssi, with our defense, our strats, everything.

I want a new manager, sinc eI doubt Tata has something new to add.

Stejo u wot?U say the players are not to blame?

It's such a shame to see one of the most talented teams of all time be ruined by such Bad Management and Attitude.Disgraceful.

Agent Pinto and tata handing the trophy to madrid   

The players are definitely not to blame for tonight's defeat. They were spirited and tried the best they could. But they were playing without a game plan against a good team that had a plan. You can't win like that in modern football no matter how good you are. I'm actually amazed that we lost only marginally. Shows just how good these players are even without a manager guiding them.

I'd be really happy if Martino was fired tonight and we finished the season with Xavi as player-manager or something. Anything to not see his face again; he's a disgrace.

Last 5 games D/W/L/L/L. 3 losses in a row in 3 different competition.

Alves crosses are awful.

How does Pinto sleep at night? Disgrace of a GK.

Alves flop of the match without a doubt. Constantly gave the ball away, lacked creativity and delivering quick passes and his crosses were worse than United's vs. Fulham.

I also wanted to give futbol the benefit of the doubt when he claimed Pinto was better that Valdés but after recent performances all I can say is roflcopters

Valdes getting injured cost you at least 2 competitions.

jibers wrote:Valdes getting injured cost you at least 2 competitions.

lol even with a 100% fit Valdes between the posts, Barca were simply not good enough to win anything this season.

people can hate on alba all season long but in the end of the day, the fullback that flopped the most this year was easily dani alves.

I fell asleep before the game due to late kickoff. Just woke up, watched the first 10 minutes, saw the lineup, saw us playing like shit, paused, went to Whoscored to check the score, closed the video.

Barca midgets: 30 crosses
Real Madrid everyone > 6 ft.: 8 crosses

Too late now, no big games left...but I want to say that, like vs Atletico, in this game the centerbacks had to deal with basically 1 striker (Villa - Benzema) and another support striker making deeper runs (Adrian - Bale).

They really could of really used some help numerically. Obviously it wont be from Alves and Alba, they are trying to create numerical superiority in attack and their lack of balance has been well documented already.

In fact, this is what bemuses me regarding the post game chatter in relation to the first goal. Dani Alves lost the ball 70m from goal...this is usually not a big deal. However, Busquets got caught in no mans land..not pressing the ball, nor following the runner...once the ball went past him, we were finished.

It was games like this, Pep would of realised that Busquets had to become a centerback in the defensive phase. Also it would of helped tremendously that with apparently playing 4 midfielders, Busquets could of become a third centerback when building play up, Xavi drops into the holding midfield position and Iniesta comes back to his usual midfield role.

This would of greatly relieved pressure in both areas.

Of course Martino doesnt have this kind of ability, this ability to adjust. All the more reason he has to go. There is nothing special about him and we are a special club.