What a performance by our team so far! It really should have been 0-3. I hope I am not jinxing it by writing this at half time but to play like this on our biggest rival's ground without Messi and be so much better than them deserves a lot of praise.

This is the match am going to tell about to my grandchildren

whoever said bravo was a useless buy
munir needs to get sold asap sucks so bad could of been 7-0 today lol

Bravo is a giant!

Munir just lost us a manita, but i am really fine with whatever is going with him.

I want to just celebrate and not look at the details

Lol bravo is amazing

Neymar Iniesta Suarez with the finishes Godberto Messi back

Will give detailed thoughts later but a great performance.
Dont think there has been a greater big game player in the history of the sport than Andres Iniesta. Guy is pure magic in big games.

holy cow

alexjanosik wrote:Will give detailed thoughts later but a great performance.
Dont think there has been a greater big game player in the history of the sport than Andres Iniesta. Guy is pure magic in big games.

Yes alex and obviously no one is more thrilled than yours truly. A goal, an assist and more importantly magical and unplayable right through. For a long time I have wanted him to give this kind of a man of the match performance, especially against a big team, with neither Xavi nor Messi by his side. Tonight I got my wish. To do it in the Classico at the Bernabeu makes it that much more special.

I remember before last year's UCL semi final you had said Thiago would dominate our midfield. Today before the match you said Madrid's midfield is better than ours and should dominate. Both times however it's Iniesta and company who dominated. Is there some kind of reverse psychology at work?

I have heard Luis Enrique talk about Messi, Suarez, Neymar and Busquets but I have never heard him say anything about Iniesta. Hopefully now he will say something.

I am going crazy about my hero but more importantly it was a great team performance. At a time when both teams were considered evenly matched and on their ground to outclass them to the extent that a manita could and should have easily happened is just phenomenal. We keep criticizing something or the other about our team but tonight all Barcelonistas world wide should be incredibly proud of this team.

About Madrid I don't think the squad and players are that bad but as I have said and thought for many years a big club appointing Benitez nowadays is akin to suicide. Not that I ever rated Florentino Perez high but I didn't know he was so stupid until he did this. He has committed harakiri in the past several times but this one was still unexpected. At one time Benitez was capable of getting the results in big matches, especially in knock out competition, but he was never a flair coach. Now he has lost his ability to get results which means he has nothing left. I don't see how and why he should ever get a job at a big team again.

I don't blame enrique for not talking about iniesta so much, we already know who and what he is.
he can retire tomorrow and will be barca legend up with xavi puyol, ronaldinho, cruyff, pep.

he talks about neymar, buscuit, because he knows sometimes they need that extra incentive, they seem to have a weaker mindset (not that it's bad)
buscuit in constant documentaries such as the world cup etc has needed praise and reassurance from his teammates and it helps him alot.
neymar is young and diverting any criticism is good for him
iniesta is established and hardly anyone will criticize him.

congrats, you guys built your team wisely...i've seen us lose 5 nil twice (cruyff and pep), 6-2 once and now 4 nil. the other three results i didn't harp on, different circumstances and learning curve. but this, this felt a little different for whatever reason, maybe just cos it was recent, but when i look at the market, barcelona's dealings over the last two or three years in neymar and suarez, and that we lost today without messi playing (granted he came on later, but you know what i mean), we only have ourselves to criticize...outplayed and outmatched.

Well deserved win my friends!
Congrats!

Nothing wrong with team imo. It's just that sorry excuse of manager who caused this embarrassment imo. Never seen real Madrid so poor and uncharismatic.

messixaviesta wrote:

alexjanosik wrote:Will give detailed thoughts later but a great performance.
Dont think there has been a greater big game player in the history of the sport than Andres Iniesta. Guy is pure magic in big games.

Yes alex and obviously no one is more thrilled than yours truly. A goal, an assist and more importantly magical and unplayable right through. For a long time I have wanted him to give this kind of a man of the match performance, especially against a big team, with neither Xavi nor Messi by his side. Tonight I got my wish. To do it in the Classico at the Bernabeu makes it that much more special.

I remember before last year's UCL semi final you had said Thiago would dominate our midfield. Today before the match you said Madrid's midfield is better than ours and should dominate. Both times however it's Iniesta and company who dominated. Is there some kind of reverse psychology at work?

I have heard Luis Enrique talk about Messi, Suarez, Neymar and Busquets but I have never heard him say anything about Iniesta. Hopefully now he will say something.

I am going crazy about my hero but more importantly it was a great team performance. At a time when both teams were considered evenly matched and on their ground to outclass them to the extent that a manita could and should have easily happened is just phenomenal. We keep criticizing something or the other about our team but tonight all Barcelonistas world wide should be incredibly proud of this team.

About Madrid I don't think the squad and players are that bad but as I have said and thought for many years a big club appointing Benitez nowadays is akin to suicide. Not that I ever rated Florentino Perez high but I didn't know he was so stupid until he did this. He has committed harakiri in the past several times but this one was still unexpected. At one time Benitez was capable of getting the results in big matches, especially in knock out competition, but he was never a flair coach. Now he has lost his ability to get results which means he has nothing left. I don't see how and why he should ever get a job at a big team again.

No reverse psychology jd. Just Benitez the supposed master tactician being outclassed.
Just pure numbers game. It was 4 against 2 in midfield. 4 of our midfielders up against Kroos and Modric. Both were at sea and got outclassed. Didnt help that Benzema just came back and didnt drop to add numbers.Whats even more surprising is that the supposed master tactician didnt introduce an extra midfielder the whole match. A blind man could see they needed an extra midfielder. James just is not one. Should have taken off one of BBC and brought on Casemiro which would have evened things up.
They only regained a resemblance of control once we took Rakitic off for Messi. Strange move on our part. Knew as soon as Messi came on that we would lose or midfield dominance but then he is too big of a name to leave on the bench.

Where is futbol and dani when you need em ffs

Ya waiting for them especially Futbol

Donuts wrote:I don't blame enrique for not talking about iniesta so much, we already know who and what he is.
he can retire tomorrow and will be barca legend up with xavi puyol, ronaldinho, cruyff, pep.

he talks about neymar, buscuit, because he knows sometimes they need that extra incentive, they seem to have a weaker mindset (not that it's bad)
buscuit in constant documentaries such as the world cup etc has needed praise and reassurance from his teammates and it helps him alot.
neymar is young and diverting any criticism is good for him
iniesta is established and hardly anyone will criticize him.

You do explain it very well.

Pirloisjesus wrote:Nothing wrong with team imo. It's just that sorry excuse of manager who caused this embarrassment imo. Never seen real Madrid so poor and uncharismatic.

Second half of last season against Atletico in the league they were horrible but this may have been even worse. They just looked so uninspired and clueless.

alexjanosik wrote:

messixaviesta wrote:

alexjanosik wrote:Will give detailed thoughts later but a great performance.
Dont think there has been a greater big game player in the history of the sport than Andres Iniesta. Guy is pure magic in big games.

Yes alex and obviously no one is more thrilled than yours truly. A goal, an assist and more importantly magical and unplayable right through. For a long time I have wanted him to give this kind of a man of the match performance, especially against a big team, with neither Xavi nor Messi by his side. Tonight I got my wish. To do it in the Classico at the Bernabeu makes it that much more special.

I remember before last year's UCL semi final you had said Thiago would dominate our midfield. Today before the match you said Madrid's midfield is better than ours and should dominate. Both times however it's Iniesta and company who dominated. Is there some kind of reverse psychology at work?

I have heard Luis Enrique talk about Messi, Suarez, Neymar and Busquets but I have never heard him say anything about Iniesta. Hopefully now he will say something.

I am going crazy about my hero but more importantly it was a great team performance. At a time when both teams were considered evenly matched and on their ground to outclass them to the extent that a manita could and should have easily happened is just phenomenal. We keep criticizing something or the other about our team but tonight all Barcelonistas world wide should be incredibly proud of this team.

About Madrid I don't think the squad and players are that bad but as I have said and thought for many years a big club appointing Benitez nowadays is akin to suicide. Not that I ever rated Florentino Perez high but I didn't know he was so stupid until he did this. He has committed harakiri in the past several times but this one was still unexpected. At one time Benitez was capable of getting the results in big matches, especially in knock out competition, but he was never a flair coach. Now he has lost his ability to get results which means he has nothing left. I don't see how and why he should ever get a job at a big team again.

No reverse psychology jd. Just Benitez the supposed master tactician being outclassed.
Just pure numbers game. It was 4 against 2 in midfield. 4 of our midfielders up against Kroos and Modric. Both were at sea and got outclassed. Didnt help that Benzema just came back and didnt drop to add numbers.Whats even more surprising is that the supposed master tactician didnt introduce an extra midfielder the whole match. A blind man could see they needed an extra midfielder. James just is not one. Should have taken off one of BBC and brought on Casemiro which would have evened things up.
They only regained a resemblance of control once we took Rakitic off for Messi. Strange move on our part. Knew as soon as Messi came on that we would lose or midfield dominance but then he is too big of a name to leave on the bench.

alex, Beintez was a supposed master tactician years ago, like when he pulled off the UCL away win against us and beat Mourinho's Chelsea to reach the UCL final in 2007. I think he is finished now.

As you said Luis Enrique's tactics were spot on and Benitez's conduct was strange both before and after the game. As you said the lineup was wrong. It was almost arrogant to play against the reigning UCL champions without a defensive midfielder. Even more astonishing was how little he did to change things right through the game. His substitutions were all pretty much meaningless.

As soon as Messi came on things changed so visibly. Iniesta who had been the best player on the pitch till then faded into the background and Messi took on the play making responsibilities. I thought Rakitic was taken off because he too was coming off an injury but as you said it's too hard to leave Messi on the bench for the entire duration of a Classico. Anyway no harm done. If we had missed the manita due to weakening our control it may have felt bad. We did miss it but for very different reasons.

alexjanosik wrote:Will give detailed thoughts later but a great performance.
Dont think there has been a greater big game player in the history of the sport than Andres Iniesta. Guy is pure magic in big games.

Agreed, he has never been disappointing in a big game. His record is impeccable and incredible.

Wow, what a win

Feels almost like the manita. Nearly cried tears of joy watching this game.

LE was savage as-well..
instructing Pique to run to the box to score the fifth goal lmao
taking out a midfield for munir.

I cannot be upset at Munir for missing that last chance because my joy is too much, but Pique was right there.

Pique scoring the fifth would have been incredible.

This is why Luis Enrique is the best coach of all times.

Also I don't understand how people can claim we're playing "hoofball" or not "according to the Barca philosophy", "not building from the back" etc. under Enrique.

http://twitter.com/barcastuff/status/668172452686622720

The first goal build up play is orgasmic

CBarca wrote:
Pique scoring the fifth would have been incredible.

I so wanted that. It would have been such a fitting lesson for the way he's been treated.