EL CLASICO 2016- Barcelona vs Real Madrid

Oh come on.  Madrid had:
-  24th minute - CR cuts in from the left into the box and gets a hard shot off that the keeper punches out
-  25th minute - Bale takes a free shot from the left side inside the box the goes high
-  30th minute - CR freekick that goes high
-  42nd minute - Benzema misses volley
-  51st minute - Modric shoots and is deflected by Bale in the box and luckily goes straight at keeper

It's just because we sat back and forfeited possession that everyone thinks we had no chances.  We had them.  Barca's possession was mostly sterile.  And let's not forget the Bale disallowed goal if you're thinking about complaining about Ramos not being sent off.

You are kidding me bruh.

Ronaldo's shot was straight at Bravo. Bale and Benzema missed by about 15 feet. And Ronaldo's freekick was nowhere near. I guarantee you at no point in any of those chances were Barca fans remotely afraid of conceding. Navas on the other side had to pull out WC save after WC save to keep it 0-0.

No offense crujff but you were watching a different game. its not an insult to say you're clueless when you are showing that you are.

Clueless to say Barca were the better team for 60 minutes? That's simply the truth. Madrid dominated for the last 20-30 minutes but you can't let that erase the first hour like nothing happened.

The fact of the matter is if Suarez could finish and Ramos had been rightfully sent off Barca would've easily won 2 or 3-0. I can agree to disagree on details but if anyone here truly believes Madrid was better for the first hour I have nothing to say tbh.

I have seen Barcelona dominate us, like really put us to the sword, that was not one of those times. I saw a good first half that fizzled out. Not your "60 minutes of domination" and I'm pretty open minded to both clubs.

That being said, Suarez should have scored and Ramos should have seen red (assuming you think Ramos wasn't fouled, which he was) and Barca were the better team in the 1st half.

Cruijf wrote:

CM Pep wrote:I concede, those chances are there. In which case, that really didn't work out either.

I mean whether he did it of his own accord or whether Lucho asked him to stay central, the tactic didn't pay off.

I agree it didn't pay off. But it was working for an hour and only stopped working due to fatigue. I wouldn't blame Messi or Enrique tbh, but if you are going to fault someone it has to be the manager. I can think of no other reason Messi would stay in the middle so diligently.

Disagree. Where was this 60 minutes of domination? We scored from a corner and I can't recall any sustained amount of actual pressure. If you count our chances then you have to see theirs as well, which clearly shows there wasn't any domination as such.

I won't call having possession as mounting any pressure - we kind of played into their hands with that. They wanted to concede possession.

Also, it's not beyond Messi to stay in the middle of his own accord. I wouldn't be surprised, really.

Cruijf wrote:
The fact of the matter is if Suarez could finish and Ramos had been rightfully sent off Barca would've easily won 2 or 3-0. I can agree to disagree on details but if anyone here truly believes Madrid was better for the first hour I have nothing to say tbh.

How could you use the word "fact" with a conjunction expressing a condition? Your entire argument is based on a scenario, that though could've happened, didn't.

Here's the fact of the matter: you had the bigger slice of possession, which was Real Madrid's plan all along, and you didn't dominate. Don't confuse possession with domination. You created chances, but so did Real Madrid. You even scored first, but Real Madrid came back. You had some wrong refereeing decisions called against you, but so did Real Madrid. And if you needed Ramos to be sent off in order for you to win, then my friend, you didn't dominate.

I've seen many clasicos where Barça dominated Real Madrid and deserved to win but didn't. This wasn't one of them.

There's no shame in saying that you didn't deserve to win. It shows you're not a biased fan and you actually care more about football than anything else.

If we disregard the score, IMHO the game was balanced and could have gone any way. But, RM deserved the win as they clearly stayed focused till the end, which we did not.

for reference i put both CR and Messi's individual highlights and you can analyze both their roles in the team. One (cr) is just a part of the team, another one is the whole team itself




you can also analyze what barca did when they got the ball and what Madrid tried to do. its clear to see that Barca were in energy saving mode. even blind man could see it. But Madrid gave their all

So why so much drama over a friendly match (for barca) ?

how is Messi a whole team ? Wasn't Suarez better than R9 and Neymar the next big thing ? Iniesta the best midfielder ever ? Busquets better than Rijkaard ?

Final score Barcelona 1 - Madrid 2
Focus on Atletico Madrid, i think they are more of a problem.
The league still gives you room for error, CL does not.

I kind of disagree with people faulting the tactics of playing messing centrally.
Messi's position gave Barca more control of the ball in the midfield. Madrid had 4 players in the midfield when they didnt have the ball. If you add Ronaldo and Benzema breathing down on Barca's Midfielders that gives you 6 players.
Messi on the right might have created the odd chance through his shear genius, but madrid would have had more control of the midfield and created more attacks.
With messi on the right, i believe we would have seem a high scoring game with both teams creating chances.

Another possibility is that madrid would have outnumbered the midfielders and prevented them from creating chances for barca'a attackers and at the same time, have more possession of the ball. More possession equals more counters which equals more goals.

Despite the criticism of messi, most of the half chances barca created were through him.

Barca just needs to go back to the drawing board and figure a way around this new problem called Zidane's Madrid.

Completely agreed shadexticos.

When I say Barca dominated, I don't necessarily mean they were cutting Madrid apart and creating chance after chance. What I mean is for the first hour Real were completely and utterly in their pocket. There wasn't one chance in the first 60 minutes where a Madrid fan could rightfully say, "we should've scored there". At no point were they even close to scoring.

Barca on the other hand had creating a fair number of chances, and as I've said and many Madrid fans have conceded, should've been 2-0 up and with a man advantage after 30 mins.

So really for the first hour there was only one team in it. Yes, this wasn't one of the great Barca performances where Madrid was cut open every 5 minutes, but they still dominated chances for the first 60 minutes, that's simply a fact.

To those accusing me of bias I'm not a Barca fan and don't really care whether they win or lose. Revisionism is what I don't like. Barca dominated the first hour and during the game everyone was recognizing that. I have said before Real deserved to win. But the fact Barca was torn apart in the last half hour due to fatigue does not erase what happened in the first 60 minutes and should not be the entire basis for the analysis of the game. Else you get to bizarre conclusions like Messi being completely at fault for the loss.

Valkyrja wrote:how is Messi a whole team ? Wasn't Suarez better than R9 and Neymar the next big thing ? Iniesta the best midfielder ever ? Busquets better than Rijkaard ?

by whole team i mean he is the heart of the team.not only passes and dribbles he also decides how attack will be build, who will run right who will run left. He will dictate the tempo will slow the game down. He almost decides everything there

CR gets the ball when everything is done and dusted.if its not inside the box they will pass the ball to marcelo but not cr. They use him in the box mostly

Suarez being better than r9 must be a joke. Neymar is possible.but you know it doesnt matter if you are best team or not. If you dont give 100% any team can beat you. And weak teams did it many times

shadexticos wrote:I kind of disagree with people faulting the tactics of playing messing centrally.
Messi's position gave Barca more control of the ball in the midfield. Madrid had 4 players in the midfield when they didnt have the ball. If you add Ronaldo and Benzema breathing down on Barca's Midfielders that gives you 6 players.
Messi on the right might have created the odd chance through his shear genius, but madrid would have had more control of the midfield and created more attacks.
With messi on the right, i believe we would have seem a high scoring game with both teams creating chances.

Another possibility is that madrid would have outnumbered the midfielders and prevented them from creating chances for barca'a attackers and at the same time, have more possession of the ball. More possession equals more counters which equals more goals.

Despite the criticism of messi, most of the half chances barca created were through him.

Barca just needs to go back to the drawing board and figure a way around this new problem called Zidane's Madrid.

I doubt Madrid would have had that much more of the ball, especially in the first 25 minutes where they actually wanted us to have more of the ball. Even if they did, it'd be 50-50, which is good because it opens up play and frees space for MSN.

Also, Madrid creating more attacks is actually good for us. It allows us to counter which plays to MSN's strengths.

Most of the half chances came through him because everything was coming through him. It's eerily similar to when teams figured out how to play against the false 9. On top of that, Messi didn't put in the right work ethic to actually play in the center.

Cruijf wrote:Completely agreed shadexticos.

When I say Barca dominated, I don't necessarily mean they were cutting Madrid apart and creating chance after chance. What I mean is for the first hour Real were completely and utterly in their pocket. There wasn't one chance in the first 60 minutes where a Madrid fan could rightfully say, "we should've scored there". At no point were they even close to scoring.

Barca on the other hand had creating a fair number of chances, and as I've said and many Madrid fans have conceded, should've been 2-0 up and with a man advantage after 30 mins.

So really for the first hour there was only one team in it. Yes, this wasn't one of the great Barca performances where Madrid was cut open every 5 minutes, but they still dominated chances for the first 60 minutes, that's simply a fact.

To those accusing me of bias I'm not a Barca fan and don't really care whether they win or lose. Revisionism is what I don't like. Barca dominated the first hour and during the game everyone was recognizing that. I have said before Real deserved to win. But the fact Barca was torn apart in the last half hour due to fatigue does not erase what happened in the first 60 minutes and should not be the entire basis for the analysis of the game. Else you get to bizarre conclusions like Messi being completely at fault for the loss.

I'm sorry but that's very different from the game I saw. Just curious, do you watch Barca regularly?

Regular watchers will know the feeling, the game-plan was generally off throughout.

CM Pep wrote:[
Regular watchers will know the feeling, the game-plan was generally off throughout.

This.
Whole match there was this feeling that it's not meant to be tonight. For me always there is one test that tells whether we gonna win or not and that is off the ball movement by our players and iniesta performance. Both were off from start sadly. And all this big talks that Madrid were in control from start is huge pile of shit. They started the game same shitty way as under Rafa and there were huge spaces for atleast first 25 mins (" we allowed you to dominate possession. It was all planned " pls go ) the moment RM realized we were toothless they started maruding runs to our half. Messi playing in center allowing Marcelo free pass didn't help either.
I was very impressed by this Casemiro guy. Always kept hustling our midfield like pissed off ex gf. Also kudos to Marcelo and Modric. But the player that was most frightening was Bale. That guy in form is literally beast.
Am not going to give excuse off we being tired or complacent because this is CLASICO we are talking about and these guys are professional athletes paid to do job and they bloody should no two ways about that. So we need to take it on chin and slide this one and concentrate on Thugleti.

sportsczy wrote:Oh come on.  Madrid had:
-  24th minute - CR cuts in from the left into the box and gets a hard shot off that the keeper punches out
-  25th minute - Bale takes a free shot from the left side inside the box the goes high
-  30th minute - CR freekick that goes high
-  42nd minute - Benzema misses volley
-  51st minute - Modric shoots and is deflected by Bale in the box and luckily goes straight at keeper

It's just because we sat back and forfeited possession that everyone thinks we had no chances.  We had them.  Barca's possession was mostly sterile.  And let's not forget the Bale disallowed goal if you're thinking about complaining about Ramos not being sent off.

Stop, none of those were actual chances except the Benzema volley

Don't get me wrong I thought Madrid was the better team (imo neither team was good), but don't play off like Madrid were killing us before the break. After about 60 minutes you start to have a point, in the first half it was a Barca dominating possession and not creating much vs a "sterile" madrid.

It's funny isn't it? Had Suarez burried that chance we would be discussing " should we sell Benzema or " what the hell is wrong with our midfield " instead now it's "strategic masterclass" or " it was all part of plan you know"

Doc wrote:I have seen Barcelona dominate us, like really put us to the sword, that was not one of those times. I saw a good first half that fizzled out. Not your "60 minutes of domination" and I'm pretty open minded to both clubs.

That being said, Suarez should have scored and Ramos should have seen red (assuming you think Ramos wasn't fouled, which he was) and Barca were the better team in the 1st half.

I agree with this right here.

Btw, my friends at work today are celebrating like they won the World Cup. Like ok calm down, your still in third place let's not get carried away here

I agree with CBarça. Both were bad, almost equally bad. It could've gone either way and neither Real Madrid nor Barça should feel thrilled about their display. Madrid were just a little tiny bit better, that's all.

I still rate Barça higher than Real Madrid, and I'm still not entirely convinced with Z or the team.

Valkyrja wrote:how is Messi a whole team ? Wasn't Suarez better than R9 and Neymar the next big thing ? Iniesta the best midfielder ever ? Busquets better than Rijkaard ?

What? You can't be serious or do you really gauge that match as the holy end all of what this Barca can do? Or am I missing something here

nazimali12 wrote:

Valkyrja wrote:how is Messi a whole team ? Wasn't Suarez better than R9 and Neymar the next big thing ? Iniesta the best midfielder ever ? Busquets better than Rijkaard ?

by whole team i mean he is the heart of the team.not only passes and dribbles he also decides how attack will be build, who will run right who will run left. He will dictate the tempo will slow the game down. He almost decides everything there

CR gets the ball when everything is done and dusted.if its not inside the box they will pass the ball to marcelo but not cr. They use him in the box mostly

Suarez being better than r9 must be a joke. Neymar is possible.but you know it doesnt matter if you are best team or not. If you dont give 100% any team can beat you. And weak teams did it many times

Dude, NO ONE is saying Ronaldo is better then messi.

I'm going to say this once and say this for the last time. Criticism on messi does not mean in any way, shape or form that CR is a better player then messi. Since most of your posts have been about comparing these two, I really doubt you think messi is better which is odd, because he definitely is.

Absolutely everyone, even myself, thinks that Messi is on another level then Ronaldo. You're really not posting anything new.

windkick wrote:

Doc wrote:I have seen Barcelona dominate us, like really put us to the sword, that was not one of those times. I saw a good first half that fizzled out. Not your "60 minutes of domination" and I'm pretty open minded to both clubs.

That being said, Suarez should have scored and Ramos should have seen red (assuming you think Ramos wasn't fouled, which he was) and Barca were the better team in the 1st half.

I agree with this right here.

Btw, my friends at work today are celebrating like they won the World Cup. Like ok calm down, your still in third place let's not get carried away here

Dude, we were that bad we're celebrating because now we know we don't completely suck

It can be a huge boost for RM. This victory if they don't get comfortable that is, but at the end it highlights a few negative things with us, lack of depth, before this game we haven't been playing good if we don't find ourselves soon will have issue going forward.

Lets see how we do against Atleti. Funny thing we always seem to beat them and RM here there seem to get the better of us and have been on the losing end to Atleti.

FennecFox7 wrote:

windkick wrote:

Doc wrote:I have seen Barcelona dominate us, like really put us to the sword, that was not one of those times. I saw a good first half that fizzled out. Not your "60 minutes of domination" and I'm pretty open minded to both clubs.

That being said, Suarez should have scored and Ramos should have seen red (assuming you think Ramos wasn't fouled, which he was) and Barca were the better team in the 1st half.

I agree with this right here.

Btw, my friends at work today are celebrating like they won the World Cup. Like ok calm down, your still in third place let's not get carried away here

Dude, we were that bad we're celebrating because now we know we don't completely suck

lol