Barcelona vs Real Madrid

My prediction for today, Madrid 1 - Messi 3.

And thus we are well on way to that trophyless season again!

Crazy that jovic didnt even make the bench but mendy not starting? Messi should be happy that he wont have to get out of first gear today

Rodrygo went back to Castilla where he was from the start of the season. I don't mind that, he's way too young for us to throwing our RW hope on. Let him develop in peace.

Really not sure why Marcelo is starting this. Wasn't sure why Mariano got called up instead of Jovic. These French managers can do some questionable things, I'll say that much.

Marcelo starting

Marcelo. Why tho??

Thibu keeping us in the game, and if we had proper forwards, we would be winning. We are finding the spaces, but our forwards are just completely useless.

It's so annoying. When Barca attack they attack with 10 players and when they defend they defend with 9. When we attack we attack with 3 players at most and when we defend we defend with 4 players. So annoying, Vini and Valverde have noone to pass to. We could do with a Mariano right now. I need to hunt with a dog not a cat

Yeah, the only time I saw Benzema run into the box for a counter, he put himself in between 3 defenders expecting Vini to all of a sudden pass like Iniesta or Xavi.

Heard a guy currently in the stands currently would have been loving these counter attacking plays.

All in all, Zidane's lad should be losing this but Conetois is doing quite well today. Though Messi and Arthur did nonsense with their chances tbf.

I don’t suppose Jovic has been so bad in his few appearances for us that he has no business playing in this match? Maybe he’s been poor in training. He’s not sick or injured, as far as I know

No way is he so poor in training that Zidane picked Mariano over him. Mariano! I was shocked he still was at the club ffs.

Zidane, like most French managers apparently, make weird player choice decisions. Really weird decisions.

Vinícius should be subbed, such a headless chicken.

I thought Benzema played well in the first half.  If anything, I thought our final balls were absolute shit.

Vinicius is an absolute shit decision-maker.

I think he has the right idea but his execution is terrible. I didn't see any bad decisions today just some really terrible final balls

Jovic hasn't been bad, but he hasn't been good either. I agree it's definitely not enough to not even call him up though.

I personally don't think he would've made any difference. We have said plenty of times before when he was subbed in and he would change the game but he hasn't. If anything he has been lazier than Benzema.

sportsczy wrote:I thought Benzema played well in the first half.  If anything, I thought our final balls were absolute shit.

Vinicius is an absolute shit decision-maker.

If Benzema was an attack mid, yes, decent stuff. As a CF, no. He's not where he is suppose to be for most of the half.

Agreed on the Vini stuff but that was suppose to be Hazard who simply is not dependable.

That's because our midfield is playing very low and the gap between midfield and attack would be an ocean if someone didn't fill it. Isco isn't filling the gap properly (he goes wide, not central; the gap is right in the middle).

Normally, Isco and Vinicius should make a run when Benzema comes up...because a CB follows. But our wingers don't know how to play the wing.

KARIM BENZEMA

Vinicius scoring
Kroos playing thru balls
Marcelo hustling to save us

What's going on?

Perucho21 wrote:Jovic hasn't been bad, but he hasn't been good either. I agree it's definitely not enough to not even call him up though.

I personally don't think he would've made any difference. We have said plenty of times before when he was subbed in and he would change the game but he hasn't. If anything he has been lazier than Benzema.

It hasn’t been laziness, from what I’ve seen. He hasn’t gotten himself into positions where his team mates are willing to risk passing him the ball, which has more to do with his inability to adapt to his team mates than it has to do with his lack of willingness to actually run.

Jovic is done here. Just give me more of Mariano.

What a finish.

What a finish by Mariano.
Super happy for him.

What a finish lol. Mariano got so lucky as he slipped at the last minute and just swung his foot. Love it. Jovic needs to talk to his agent, his time at Madrid is done.

Meanwhile, I love that Kroos had to literally tell Vini that you need to make the run. The lad really needs to work on his mental game, just not bright at all. Also, a fucking better 2nd half performance from everyone. Shit, even Carvajal looked like his old self today. Great win, really great and much needed win.

Ole Out.

Great game and tremendous result. At least now I can breathe a little easy knowing that we have what it takes to win the league.

Can you imagine if we had a reliable goalscorer? We would be running away with the league and City wouldn't have left the Bernabeu with a win.

Hope the club will do something about it this summer because it can no longer wait.

That finish by Mariano was unreal. To do that shot in a split second is top class stuff.


Meanwhile Benzema to play again for 99 minutes next match.


The defence still sleeps a lot. We were carved open a few time only saved by Curtois who again had an excellent match.

Carvajal, Casemiro were good as well.

Our attack was meh. It is unfair on Vinicius to have the entire burden on him at this young age.

Doc wrote:What a finish lol. Mariano got so lucky as he slipped at the last minute and just swung his foot. Love it. Jovic needs to talk to his agent, his time at Madrid is done.

Meanwhile, I love that Kroos had to literally tell Vini that you need to make the run. The lad really needs to work on his mental game, just not bright at all. Also, a fucking better 2nd half performance from everyone. Shit, even Carvajal looked like his old self today. Great win, really great and much needed win.

Ole Out.

I really laughed out loud at that.

I love Vini, but man does he lack lots and lots of things. I don't know if he'll ever improve, but I'm really starting to worry.

Grateful to him for the goal though, even if it was deflected by Piqué.

For once this whole season ZZ made perfect subs. The Marcelo gamble worked out too

Modric for Isco was the correct decision, Lucas fot the injured Valverde and Vini staying on.

Everyone gets 10/10 this game. They were all excellent. I am vety worried about Benz though, he's missing really easy chances yet again

If we'd played this line up against City we'd won 100% bar Mendy for Marcelo

ZZ has shot himself in the foot far too many times this season

Imagine if he'd started calling Mariano up when it was quite evident Jovic wasn't cit out for this. It was always like subbing Benz out for Benz in comatose.

Mariano is the less talented Ronaldo. He fights for everything round

Oh well, we'll have to scorr 2 goals against City. Doable if ZZ doesn't feck up again. It was a criminal offence to start Kroos on the bench, that guy runs our midfield