Barcelona vs Real Madrid

Wow...congrats to the boys and Zizou. I did not see this coming.
Very good second half.

Ramos is still Ramos. Will never change. Pepe too.

Casemiro made a huge difference in midfield, although he still can not pass properly but hey he did very well today.

I just hope that this victory gives us enough confidence to tackle strong teams in the Champions League.

So basically we won a game against a top4 team and the BBC showed up against a strong team.

7 points difference now...well we can not stop dreaming.

Kudos.

The best part is that now we know we can beat anyone... if you lose all the big games, you doubt your abilities against the elite. This win bodes well for the team in CL... huge confidence boost. It also makes players trust Zizou with his coaching.

very good win, very happy for the team and especially zidane .

benz was off most of the game but great finish to tie, cr really needs to chill with the ball hogging, crucial goal though and bale was decent ref robbed him obviously.

casemiro and modric were great, kroos took a while to get into it, this midfield needs to stick together can be something special come crunch time.

defense was alright, ramos is an idiot who can't keep his cool for shat, and needs to stop wearing the armband.

zidane great job .

Wolfsburg lost on Friday 3-0. Hoping we can beat them by the same margin

Also why the hell dont Barca put a winger on Marcelos side? He is like the most obvious weak link in our team. Barca make it so comfortable for him to attack and defend as he pleases

RONALDOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Regardless, hopefully we can build on this.
Defeating the barca menace puts us back in the CL front. Rivals now seeing what we did against barca will think twice before not showing us respect. CL is now realistic. We gotta fight for it. we can beat barca, we can beat anyone.

Zidane learned well from Mourinho and Ancelotti.

halamadrid2 wrote:Wolfsburg lost on Friday 3-0. Hoping we can beat them by the same margin

Also why the hell dont Barca put a winger on Marcelos side? He is like the most obvious weak link in our team. Barca make it so comfortable for him to attack and defend as he pleases

that is messi coming centrally for you ;/

Btw Zidane did a great job. Apart from the CBs every one defended well. Probably Navas's least busy game.

Benz looked hella rusty with the ball. But he got a goal. That's how class players separate themselves from good players.

CR made it possible for marcelo to attack like that btw. Put in a hell of a defensive shift

RealGunner wrote:RONALDOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

the mods finally doing their job to prevent Ronaldo trolls

Casemiro was great tonight, something that was missing for quite some time, some muscle in the middle of the park....

I like where we are going with this

Jese our super sub

BBC all scored, to bad the ref decided that being tall is an offence

4chan's /sp/ lookin hella funny in regards to our triumph.

I trust we keep Zidane for next season?

RIP James and Isco... They're never going to start unless Casemiro needs to rest, is injured or gets suspended.

Casemiro isn't all that good though. We can truly upgrade here in the summer.

casemiro isn't all that good? take him and put frence dm #12747683, you would be raving about it, give the guy his shine he can start for us, excellent game from him great passing,positioning and tackling.

Casemiro's issue is with the ball.  He can't hold it and his passing is average.  No issues defensively though.

But there are several 5s out there that are clearly better than him... namely because they combine defense with the ability to play the ball forward in good conditions.  Seen enough of the others that I can say this with absolute confidence.

Madrid was such a black hole defensively in the midfield that we're far better with Casemiro than another attack-minded CM despite the ball control issues.  But, if we're really looking to make the midfield top shelf, then we need to upgrade there.

So...
How was the shape today? Did not see the match, was getting my hair did and they were showing a T20 match instead.

Played a Mourinho style game Doc...  442 defensively with Ronaldo and Bale tracking all the way back and playing compact.  Let Barca tire out and then started attacking around the 60 min mark and took over the game.

Carlo did roughly the same thing except we positioned ourselves differently when we got the ball.  Benz is more a goalscorer in this setup whereas he was the playmaker under Carlo and even Mou.

I think CR's dropping ability has a lot to do with it.  We need more scoring from our CF compared to before.

casemiro is much better than your giving him credit for, so lets leave it at that, he has earned his place regardless.

zidane prepared the game like a veteran, learned well from carlo. we completely outplayed them. tight at the back, hit them on the counters. what impresed me most was the mental strength on our part. the boys reacted like a big team, no sign of panic. they stayed calm, concentrated and cold blooded. haven't seen fire like this in our players since mourinho's second season.

regarding the players, imo modric, marcelo and carvajal were the best. benzema, despite the goal, and pepe were sub-average. cristiano and bale ran their socks off. ramos was fabulous, he put in a captain perfromance despite the red card. he will never change, i accept that, but he was heroic tonight.

casemiro, while good, looked very nervous and rash. we can clearly upgrade. matic and kante should top our summer transfer wishlist.

Ronaldo AND Bale tracked back? In the same match?! DoC probably had a mini stroke if he watched that. My goodness. I missed that piece of spectacle. Sigh...

Ronaldo actually tracked Alba all the way back inside the box and likely saved a goal... it was impressive. It annoys me a lot though since i know he can do it and just refuses to.

Marcelo was funny... he ended playing almost at the corner flag of the right side on one play when he forgot where he was. Bale and Carvajal were like wtf are you doing here Ronaldo tracked back and play leftback on the play

benz was clearly rusty but lets go with sub-average, at least he ain't starting from zero, am i right? oh and clinical finish of the highest order

25 goals in 27 games (25 starts) in 1992 mins played (goal ever 79.6 mins)... I'll take that every day of the week and twice on Sundays. Only shot the ball 99 times so far too.

chad4401 wrote:benz was clearly rusty but lets go with sub-average, at least he ain't starting from zero, am i right? oh and clinical finish of the highest order

not really. in the first half he missed that volley which would have put us in front. we have 2 big months ahead of us, he has to get into form fast

Keylor's bad luck is his nationality. If he were German, French, SPanish, British whatever, everyone would have recognized his true value. Top lad .

Ramos has to be one of the dumbest footballers I have ever seen.  It's not the 1st, 2nd or even 3rd time he gets thrown out... it has to be close to 10 against Barca alone now.  How about you realize you're on a yellow and don't do anything stupid!!!  He's lucky he didn't get the red early in the 2nd half too with yet another stupid challenge.  Heck, if he didn't just barely touch the ball blindly on the Messi play in the first half, he probably doesn't make it to HT without a red.

Idiot.