FC Barcelona vs Real Madrid | La Liga Matchday 28 | Sunday March 22, 2015 | EST 16:00 GMT 20:00 CET 21:00

Suarez great goal

neymar great second half

messi was meh the whole gome on and off

pique is back

alba should of scored

alves was great the second half

rakitic meh

iniesta was very off today so many misplaced simple passes.

mathieu is a rock.

Neymar's misses almost cost the game, again. But we are still winning, and when he again starts to score, we'll be golden.

Busquets coming on was big. He's the most pivotal player for Barca after Messi.

Our midfield was awful. These clasico games where we have an inferior midfield to Madrid

The missed chances

I'm not really happy with the performance but we got the win and that's what's most important

our midfield since the start of the season hasn't been that great we couldn't of expected us to dominate them in that area but we did take advantage of our counter attack

technical wise, lucho won today if we scored our easy chances (the two neymar shots) etc we would of won comfortably not to say madrid didn't miss either but we did almost everything right in terms of player roles etc.

now individually.. i doubt lucho told iniesta to misplace 3 easy passes in a row, or tell neymar to miss his shots or messi to lose it midfield etc etc.

we were controlling the whole game from minute 1-30 and 50-90.

It's abundantly clear that we need some sort of midfield overhaul not too far in the future. The fact that a not fully fit busquets and 35 year old xavi were needed to actually turn the game in our favour speaks loads to our midfield depth.

That being said, if our finishing was better at the end, it would have looked a lot better (though it wouldn't fix the problems). Our forwards need to regain their confidence in front of goal. Even though suarez scored today, he had a load of other chances (just like neymar and messi, who weren't hot either) which should have been buried.

Happy with the win at least, this gives us some breathing space in the league to work with.

Neymar had a goat second half tbh..

Neymar should've passed to Suarez in the one play and and missed two good chances he was active but not that good.

Busquets tho I love that man single handily dominated Madrid midfield when he comes on and I think he also dispossessed Madrid like 3-4 times.

Now everyone knows why Mascherano can't take his place I hope. Mascherano is good for Atleti, Chelsea, Argentina type of midfield not us.

tbh no one in the modern game can replace busquets

mascherano gets a bit underrated because of the large expectations we see when buscuit plays.
i wouldn't pick anyone else but mascherano to take his place, maybe prime xabi but even then...

The way Busq and Matheiu controlled their positions today might be an insicator Mascherano might be at risk of losing his spot

Neymar has been wtf for like a month or so now; could of iced that game along time ago

Masche is definitely losing his spot when Busquets comes back to fitness, but it should be pointed out that even as Busquets came on it wasn't for Masche but for Iniesta, as far as I could tell Masche was still DM.

Pique and Mathieu What absolute rocks I don't think I've ever seen such a dominant display from Pique. 11/10.

Messi was absolutely shocking. He looked disinterested and only showed his class at the very beginning or end, when the defenders were so tired they finally gave him some space. And with that space he created 3 good chances (one of which Neymar should have really done better on... ). But he had an appalling game. He made no effort whatsoever to move without the ball. Even very basic stuff like running into a position to make yourself available for a pass or keep up with your teammates as they run up the pitch, he didn't even walk at points, just kinda stood there.

Still nice to see that we are in a position where we can win big games even when he disappears. That would not have happened pre-Suarez.

Overall highly entertaining match that could have gone either way, but Barca were not dominant enough and our midfield needs a lot of work. The fact that Madrid at one point (around the 25th minute mark) passed the ball around 20 times without losing possession is shocking to me. I don't think subbing Busquets for Masche will solve all of our problems either, although he definitely lacks that "transitioning pass" that Busquets does so well.

Yea but I think it was because Lucho wanted our midfield to have energy ans Iniesta was starting to tire out. Masch was a great tank and was still chasing shit down

Btw this is our April schedule. We are going to play ALLOT of tough games very close to each other, and the games that aren't as tough might be still hard on us from the fatigue from the proximity of each match

4/5 : Vigo x Barca
4/8 : Barca x Almeria
4/11: Sevilla x Barca
4/15: PSG x Barca
4/19: Barca x Valencia
4/21: Barca x PSG
4/26: Espanyol x Barca
4/29: Barca x Getafe

Getting outpossessed by Mehdrid at home and playing on the counter
Says it all about Scrubrique's system.Midfield got completely dominated until Xavi came on and restored control.That tells us as much about Scrubrique's garbage system as it does about Xavi's genius and uniqueness as a player.

Not sure what Xavi had to do with it mind, you had already gained control long before Xavi came on. Busquets was the one who restored the control and put the clamps down.

Xavi had very little to do with anything.

I have to admit, I am very split on this game.

Half of me is very happy for the win, I celebrated at the end of the game and I was very proud of the team's work rate and effort in the second half, and proud of some individuals for either good performance or not giving up when it was going bad.

But the other half was frankly embarrassed to take the win in those circumstances. A set peice and a Alves miracle long pass? This is how we win games now? Im just being honest, when we scored the 2nd goal (totally against the run of play) I was delighted but not so proud of how it was.

I dont now where to start with the negative, so I will start with the positive.

First major positive is obviously the result, in the end I can see we are no longer superior and therefore getting the result is very important.

Mathieu and Pique were superb. Not since Puyol was carrying Pique around did two Barca CB's play so well together. They miscommunicated twice but overall alot of credit to them. Its also worth noting they were up against a fantastic player in Benzema and even though he played well they gave a great performance.

Xavi and Busquets had a calming influence on everything, they took total advantage of Madrid's fatigue and lack of ideas. A good, even if obvious sub from Enrique.

Neymar put his missed chance behind him and gave a good 2nd half and ran at the defence bravely.

Messi put in a ton of effort the last 25 minutes defensively, maybe I notice because he did nothing the first 65 but did work hard at that point and he was tired at the end because of it.

Bravo made a couple of fine saves.

Alves was inspired, he is losing his speed by the day (the old him would have simply got to ball ahead of Isco instead of fouling him for his yellow) but he pressed really hard, he put in tackles, won balls and in the end made a great pass to Suarez.

Suarez goal was something no doubt we couldnt do without him, or with Messi in the middle.


The negative...no control over the game at all. 20 minutes before HT I would have very gladly had taken the draw, same at HT and same up until the 2nd goal.

That last 15-20 of the first half was a horror show. Couldnt make a pass out from the back, the first pass to transition was constantly stolen...Alba all over the place, no midfield organisation, Messi standing and watching the game at the half way line while Marcelo runs riot and Rakitic is forced to run across and leave the middle with spaces.

We didnt even create chances in the first half. Everyone I can imagine was cursing Neymar for his miss (as Cristiano scored soon after), but to me thats a total irrelevance...that was the only real chance we had (and even that originated from a set play), Cristiano, Bale and Benzema all had just as good if not better chances they didnt put away...the chance is a side issue, the real issue is why is there no control over the game? Why cant we create chances? We are Madrid having alot of the ball?

After the second goal, Madrid wilted and as Carlo said ran out of ideas...their midfield stopped pressuring with the same authority, Xavi and Busquets did very well in linking the play together and we started to control the game finally.

But man, it could have been so different...I dont feel any better about our team or Enrique after this win. I didnt expect to say that.

I agree Franchise. The only positive that came out for me in this game was the win, Busquets importance and Suarez scoring which hopefully keeps his confidence up.

After this game and the last one,I hope free still doesnt think of Rakitic as a better passer than Alves,long or short.Both games, Alves passed fantastically and Rakitic was relatively poor.Just no way Rakitic is a better passer.We really need to offer Alves that contract.
Disappointed with Messi.After playing the way he did against City,he decides to go back to being Walkessi of the past 3 seasons.
And with Messi not playing well,we struggled which doesnt take a genius to tell.This is the problem with Enrique's system which marginalises the midfield and leaves playmaking entirely to the forwards and fullbacks.

very happy with the win. will be suprised if madrid can catch us even though plenty of games left.
from 30-60 mins , it was pure embarrassing. i felt we had been playing away...extremely lucky we did not concede goals this period of time. ofcourse credit goes to pique, mathieu and bravo for saving us this time.
we had a big game in the midweek, that can be a reason. but even had we been fresh, i doubt we would be that good with this midfield setup. Iniesta for large part of the game was awful. I agree suarez scored the goal that very few players could score. apart from it he was super awful with every touch and pass. his diving and whining pisses me off. i hope he learns to stay on his feet.
Messi had a very bad game. was not seen last part of the game, lost possession and mispassed unusually...

neuro11 wrote: I agree suarez scored the goal that very few players could score. apart from it he was super awful with every touch and pass. his diving and whining pisses me off. i hope he learns to stay on his feet.

My biggest two problems with Suarez behaviour is how easily he gets sucked into trouble. Every time a decision goes against him he gets agitated beyond what he should and it effects his next decisions, with the ball or making tackles or trying to get another player in trouble.

The 2nd thing is, he needs to stop that bs waving his arms in the air at Neymar when he doesnt receive a pass.

First of all, if thats Messi you know you aint waving your arms anywhere.

Mostly though, Neymar isnt a selfish player. He will pass the ball and try and make an assist, if he doesnt its because he made the wrong decision...not because he is inherently selfish and playing for himself. Suarez himself misses better passing options in selection of shooting.

The stream was shitty so I managed to watch only 20-30 mins of the whole game.
Midfield was off and our finishing continues to be bad.
What was worse of all though was Messi’s attitude.
I can understand having an off day but the guy seemed like he wasn’t even trying to me

The Franchise wrote:

The 2nd thing is, he needs to stop that bs waving his arms in the air at Neymar when he doesnt receive a pass.

First of all, if thats Messi you know you aint waving your arms anywhere.

Mostly though, Neymar isnt a selfish player. He will pass the ball and try and make an assist, if he doesnt its because he made the wrong decision...not because he is inherently selfish and playing for himself. Suarez himself misses better passing options in selection of shooting.

ohhh....thats a very good point. I was also afraid to see his continuous frustration when someone did not pass to him and eventually missed a chance. frustration in this case is nromal, but the guy goes mad. its like world has broken for it. I am afraid this can break the chemistry with him. today i closely followed. when Neymar did not pass and he was whining for it, Neymar did not care to look at him even for two consecutive missed opportunities, but it was normal for both Messi and Neymar (or say other player) to apologies to each other in this situation.

No way was Suarez awful.The hate is ridiculous.Easily our best forward and the only player apart from Bravo,Alves,Pique and Mathieu who played well on our team.

I think Suarez had a legitimate cause to be frustrated.I think twice Neymar went for the difficult shot when Suarez was in a much better position.
I dont think the opposite is true.Suarez almost never goes for the impossible option.If anything,he has been guilty of being too unselfish for us.He has often tried to set up Messi and Neymar when he himself could have tried to score.
The guy is a champion player with a champion mentality.

your bias knows no bound...you watched the game with a blind eye for him, thats all i can say. i wish i had the skill to compose the video his performance (not the cut but with every second of his touch) just to prove how utterly biased your comment is.

He held the ball up well,won the freekick for our first goal,had some nice turns and dribbles.Excellent movement throughout and pressed and defended well.
As with pretty much every other big game this season,we dont win it without Suarez.
Take Suarez out,we lose this game.Take Messi out,put a traffic cone in and we still win the game.
Continue hating while Suarez keeps helping us win games.

You guys are talking about different things. Neuro is saying "Suarez ' touch was awful" whereas Alex is saying "Suarez was out best forward". These are not mutually exclusive and you are both right.