La Liga 2012/2013

Turtwig

miralize wrote: »

Pique has to get MoTM for me so far. He's been excellent tonight.

Agree, his reading of the game of tackling has been excellent!
Pedro . .. . .. . . .. . .. ...

Blatter

miralize wrote: »

Pique has to get MoTM for me so far. He's been excellent tonight.

I think Varane has had more to do and has been nothing short of sensational.

And now he just scores.

JaMarcus Hustle

miralize wrote: »

Pique has to get MoTM for me so far. He's been excellent tonight.

I'd be revising that opinion now. Varane for sure.

Turtwig

miralize wrote: »

Pique has to get MoTM for me so far. He's been excellent tonight.

I think Varane has it now. :pac:

elefant

Big couple of minutes. Thought Carvahlo should have been sent off there for that handball...

miralize

Good header by Varane unfortunately. Still, we have the away goal!

miralize

What a difference it makes a Clasico without Ramos and Pepe :P I jest. But it was a lot cleaner than others Clasicos of recent. Enjoyable!

Turtwig

Pedro will be kicking himself. How that game only ended with two goals is beyond me. Great to watch. Puyol, Pique and Varane, outstanding defenders. Carvalho cynical to the last. Should have seen red.

Think Madrid have the advantage to be honest. Barca leak goals like mad this season so you'd expect Madrid to get at least one at Camp Nou.

MD1990

Varane is going to be a great player
always been very impressed by him

gimmick

Carvalho should have been send off a number of times. Pure cynicism all the way.

Good enjoyable end to end match last night. I thought looking at Reals line up that they were chucking it, but they stood toe to toe all the way.

Real have scored twice in their last number of games to the Camp Nou, so the 2nd leg is far from a foregone conclusion. Hopefully a tole will be taken on Real by the sheer amount of tough games they have during that period - 2 claiscos and the CL tie Vs Manyoo.

On that note, Real have asked Barca to play the league Clasico on Fri March 1st to give them more prep time for the CL tie.

Sr. Pirotecnic

gimmick wrote: »

On that note, Real have asked Barca to play the league Clasico on Fri March 1st to give them more prep time for the CL tie.

The league said last night that it's on the Saturday.

MD1990

Barcelona star Lionel Messi clashed with Alvaro Arbeloa in the Real Madrid carpark last night, it has been revealed.
Punto Pelota says the pair taunted eachother throughout the Copa del Rey semifinal first-leg, which had finished 1-1.
With the mixed zone leading out to the carpark, as Messi was making his way to the Barcelona team bus, he spotted Arbeloa in his car - with his wife - and again fired a couple of verbal volleys at the Real fullback.
Arbeloa hit back before Messi was led to the team bus by a Barca official.
Meanwhile, Real's locker room were unimpressed by Messi's behaviour during the match. At one stage, Messi, grounded after a tackle, ignored a helping hand offered by Xabi Alonso which angered Real's players.

poor behaviour from Messi

gimmick

He gets kicked from pillar to post by the entire Real team for the guts of 5 years, and he is supposed to be nice to them? Screw that. Parking lot thing is OTT if true, but not accepting Alonsos hand is understandable.

MD1990

gimmick wrote: »

He gets kicked from pillar to post by the entire Real team for the guts of 5 years, and he is supposed to be nice to them? Screw that. Parking lot thing is OTT if true, but not accepting Alonsos hand is understandable.

yes but too insult Arbeloa in the parking lot in front of his kid & wife is very poor behaviour if its true
Alonso is a great professional & he should have accepted his hand imo

gimmick

Alonso is a great pro no doubt, but he is also a pro in the art of winding people up.

One of the oldest tricks in the book is to offer the hand, then crush or tickle the hand while the player is on the way up in order to get a reaction/further piss off your opponent.

Have you a link for the carpark incident out of interest? Seems awfully like some AS or Marca propaganda to me tbh.

BetterCallSaul

Is that the incident where Alonso cleaned him out of it from behind and then offered his hand?? Very bad form from Messi all right :pac:

elefant

BetterCallSaul wrote: »

Is that the incident where Alonso cleaned him out of it from behind and then offered his hand?? Very bad form from Messi all right :pac:

Ya, I remember that. Late tackle, just booted him with no effort at winning the ball.

MD1990

has been brought to the knowledge of MARCA that the Real Madrid squad is "quite angry" with Leo Messi in relation to the player’s behaviour both on and off the pitch. Incidents in Wednesday night’s 'El Clásico' clash proved to be the last straw for Xabi Alonso, who reproached the Argentine star on the field at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium on several occasions. However, the matter did not end on the field of play. Spanish website Punto Pelota revealed – which can be confirmed by MARCA – that the four-time Ballon d'Or winner went to the players’ car park in the Bernabéu in search of Álvaro Arbeloa after the game. Messi launched a tirade of insults at the Real defender – calling him "stupid", to name but one – leaving the full-back completely shocked. Arbeloa’s wife, Carlota – who is expecting a baby – was with the Spain international and was also astonished: "What’s his problem?" she asked her husband, according to witnesses at the scene. A Barcelona member of staff had to be called to take Messi to the team coach.
La Sexta television and La Cope radio also reported another incident involving the Barça goal-machine and another member of the Real setup - Aitor Karanka, which occurred in the tunnel to the changing rooms. The player is believed to have said to the Madrid assistant coach: "What are you looking at? Shut up. You’re just Mourinho’s puppet".

http://www.marca.com/2013/01/31/en/football/barcelona/1359648980.html

reported by Marca so can't really believe all of it
but Arbeloa's wife has confirmed Messi did insult him in front of his kid
very poor behaviour from Messi

dfx-

So one version is he was going to the bus and the other is he went in search of Arbeloa..

dreamers75

Some stupid reds tonight, Sevilla could have got something but stupid red cards.

carlop

dreamers75 wrote: »

Some stupid reds tonight, Sevilla could have got something but stupid red cards.

I thought Godin's re card was quite harsh. In one sense he probably stops a goal with his hand, but he knows very little about it and has his back turned to the action. A booking and a penalty would have been fair enough.

If Falcao was playing I think Atleti would have won by more. I'm a fan of Costa, but he's just not in the same class as a finisher. It should be a cracking second leg.

Lawrence1895

Athletic coming back from a 0:2 to get a draw at Valladolid, should have won the match though, they must be more clinical in front of the goal

Blatter

Ronaldo scores an own goal. Question is will Marca count it towards his Pichichi tally?

dreamers75

Espanyol game was decent, Levantes 1st was a cracking header.

Serious oppurtunism

Cienciano

Madrid really look like they don't want to be there. Zero interest. Wonder is Jose's half time speech can motivate them?

mike65

What is going on at that club? It is just letting time tick by until they can bin off Jose?

MUSEIST

Any chance jose would be sacked?

Turtwig

MUSEIST wrote: »

Any chance jose would be sacked?

All depends on the UCL, imo.

Jelle1880

Jernal wrote: »

All depends on the UCL, imo.

That's what people kept saying a while back, but Granada are 18th in the league, they won't stand for this.

I honestly think they'll get rid of him and gamble that it will be in time for their clash with ManU.

Turtwig

Jelle1880 wrote: »

That's what people kept saying a while back, but Granada are 18th in the league, they won't stand for this.

I honestly think they'll get rid of him and gamble that it will be in time for their clash with ManU.

Yeah but Madrid are struggling in every game where they dominate possession. Mourinho has them set up to be primarily a counter attacking team. In many ways, they're optimised to beat Barcelona. But if any team lets them have possession they have little creativity in breaking teams down. Basically, teams are using the "traditional" tactics you'd use against Barca far more effectively against Madrid.

In the UCL, with the exception of Man Utd and Celtic, every team will be able maintain good spells of possession against them and this is will actually suit Madrid more.

That said Madrid-Celtic would be a right auld laugh. If Celtic played the way they did against Barca I'd fancy them to get a result.

Think Mou's last hurrah will be the UCL, if they get knocked out of that then it's curtains for him.

Jelle1880

That said, I wonder what the odds are on Messi scoring two own goals tomorrow :pac:

Talib Fiasco

First game Madrid have lost in La Liga when Ronaldo has scored
:pac:

Professional Griefer

Valencia 1 up against Barca.

Andersonisgod

Slack defending. Banega getting back in the good books.

Hank Scorpio

Messi penalty 1-1, roofed the net

miralize

powerful penalty to equalise from Leo

Andersonisgod

Lethal penalty from Messi. 1-1

dfx-

Brilliant technique for that penalty. Same hit as last week against Osasuna. So easy to mis-hit that into the Mediterranean...

Davaeo09

Valencia have deserved to go in level at half time though. Barca need to drive it home in the second half, other wise this could be a very close encounter for the second half.

I feel a change is needed, Cesc seems very casual in his approach at times, players going passed him far too easily. Bring on Thiago and Villa I say, more than capable..

PhlegmyMoses

Valencia playing very well. Harassing the Barca team and limiting Barca's chances.

5T3PH3N

Great save!

RandolphEsq

What a filthy scumbag that **** Betis defender is, spitting in Costa's face. Does anyone know who he is?

Turtwig

RandolphEsq wrote: »

What a filthy scumbag that **** Betis defender is, spitting in Costa's face. Does anyone know who he is?

No clue, but Costa seems to get a few of those. :pac:

Andersonisgod

Real Madrid 2-0 up at home against Sevilla despite resting some players. Benzema tap in and Ronaldo wonder goal.

Man Utd are going to have to be truly extraordinary to get anything on Wednesday night because, despite their league form, this is a really great team.

Davaeo09

Andersonisgod wrote: »

Real Madrid 2-0 up at home against Sevilla despite resting some players. Benzema tap in and Ronaldo wonder goal.

Man Utd are going to have to be truly extraordinary to get anything on Wednesday night because, despite their league form, this is a really great team.

Hard to see the United mid-field being half as submissive as the current Sevilla one though.

Great save Lopez there... ironic

Andersonisgod

Davaeo09 wrote: »

Hard to see the United mid-field being half as submissive as the current Sevilla one though.

Great save Lopez there... ironic

Against an aggressive pressing game and a side comfortable manoeuvring the ball around the pitch Man Utd really struggle (games against Bilbao and Barcelona are good examples of that) you'd assume that's how Madrid will play Wednesday night.

Davaeo09

In that case it could be said Madrid really struggle against teams who sit deep and look to counter. It gives Madrid almost too much time on the ball, there own counter attacks are there strength.

I wouldn't be so fast to write either team off from this, Ferguson and Mou have had some very close games before. Obviously the situation is vastly different to before but with RVP and Rooney United will look to take there chances and many teams have created plenty against Madrid this season, sadly more have failed to take them, even Barca

Andersonisgod

Davaeo09 wrote: »

In that case it could be said Madrid really struggle against teams who sit deep and look to counter. It gives Madrid almost too much time on the ball, there own counter attacks are there strength.

I wouldn't be so fast to write either team off from this, Ferguson and Mou have had some very close games before. Obviously the situation is vastly different to before but with RVP and Rooney United will look to take there chances and many teams have created plenty against Madrid this season, sadly more have failed to take them, even Barca

Ye it's a team that is better suited to counter attack but I would genuinely be surprised if Man Utd knock them out. Madrid would either need to have 2 real off nights or show up with a dreadful attitude, going on their attitude tonight, the latter doesn't look like happening.

I'm not writing off Man Utd, they are a very good side, they are running away with the Premier League this season, but this is a great Real Madrid side, the reigning Spanish champions and I believe that in the big game they will show up and the gulf in quality will show.

Andersonisgod

There's that Real Madrid power play. There is no finer counter attacking side in world football. This has been the perfect tune up game for Wednesday night, a real warning of what to expect.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

Read somewhere, think it was Michael Cox (man behind Zonal Marking), saying that Real are a side set up perfectly to counteract teams that keep possession (i.e. Barca), and struggle against teams that don't hold on to possession, the cases in point being the recent Clásico and league loss to Granada. He was basically saying that there's 2 teams Real wouldn't be suited to play against (in the CL), and one of them was Man United, the other was Celtic.
Massive test for Madrid this Wednesday, United will let them have possession and try and sneak something on the break, which they probably will. Still fancy Real to go through though, Mou is the ultimate knock-out competition manager.