El Clásico: the biggest club match on the planet

Bubs101

eZe^ wrote: »

Didn't he only play like 20 games for Brescia? Was he a key player for them?

.

I could be very wrong here but he was key at the beginning of the season and played really really well. Brescia were massive surprises in the league and had baggio and Toni up front and then I think he failed a drugs test and they slipped down the league

What I meant by his spell at Brescia would do him good is that unlike previous coaches, Rijkard for example, Guardiola has experience at a great club who played free flowing football and at a club who had to grind out points in a Bolton-esque way

eZe^

I know what you mean, and you can see that he has instilled a thorough work ethic in the team now, and it means they are even more effective. Guardiola is my favourite player of all time, he was a pure footballing brain and was an example to players that you don't need to be pacey to be a fantastic player. I loved him as a kid.

Bubs101

eZe^ wrote: »

I know what you mean, and you can see that he has instilled a thorough work ethic in the team now, and it means they are even more effective.

Think that is something he may have gotten from Brescia. They were a really close team who at the time were thought to have no really outstanding players bar their forwards (they had Hubner as well for a while) yet the sum of their parts was so much stronger than the team itself and they always looked like they had fun. They were effectively a Hull who did it 3 times in a row

eagle eye

I watched the match last night and the one thing that was confirmed for me was the Casillas is by far and away the best goalkeeper in the world. I know he got caught out with the lob from Messi at the very end but only for him Real Madrid would have been at least three behind a lot earlier in the game. He was my Man of the Match.

SantryRed

Buffon is still better than Casillas lads.

An Citeog

SantryRed wrote: »

Buffon is still better than Casillas lads.

It's debatable tbh, especially Casillas' form last season. What is true though, is that both Casillas and Buffon are a class above any other keeper in the world.

SantryRed

Too right, Cech used to be in there until his head injury.

Now there's only two of them.

Bubs101

An Citeog wrote: »

It's debatable tbh, especially Casillas' form last season. What is true though, is that both Casillas and Buffon are a class above any other keeper in the world.

They're equals. Last year Buffon had such a shambolic defense to deal with that the figures don't do his performance justice, this season he has been injured all year more or less and the season before he was in Serie B, which is incomperable to La Liga and the only real comperable year was the one before that and that's before Casillas got that good. Both matches they've faced off against each other they've drawed

UnitedIrishman

Casillas is still the best for me and always was. I remember 3-4 years ago when Madrid were challenging Barca for the title with possibly the worst defence I've ever seen them have. It was a case of Casillas vs. the Attack and hope Raul and co. could carry them up front. He made save after save despite the likes of Carlos, Helguera and Salgado making cock ups.

His performance last night almost deserved a point in itself.

redout

eZe^ wrote: »

Got in from my mates 21st at 4am so didn't have time to post here.






Messi had a mediocre game,

.

You sure you were still not sloshed when you wrote that ? The guy had a good game without doubt. There was a sense of panic in the Madrid defence every time he had the ball. In the second half he was quiter granted but still played better than most out there. If he had of been kept out on the right he would have ended up leaving the Nou camp in the back of a ambulance.

All the Madrid players done was kick the chap all night. He completed at least 90% of his runs and got the pass away. Now most times the attack broke down soon afterwards but hardly of Messi's doing. He done his job in my opinion and took his goal with panache. The only player Marca rated higher than him in todays paper was Puyol with a 9. They gave Messi and Valdes 8 and the rest 6's and 7's. Just my opinion but I think mediocre is a bad choice of words.

eirebhoy

Raskolnikov wrote: »

To be honest, that's the problem for Real Madrid. Sneijder is a decent player, but he's nowhere near Messi's league. The same goes for the like of Drenthe and Higuaín. Decent players, but they're never going to set the world alight.

Sneijder's class imo. No Messi but who is? Park, Fletcher, O'Shea and others get regular game time for United. Real have the players.

gimmick

I only kind of saw the game, but am delighted with the result. It looked like Barca were going to destroy Real in the early going, but they weathered the storm brilliantly.

It was a great birthday present! Thought the game was up when Eto'o missed the spotter though. Wish I had sky plus so I can watch again, but will have to wait for the superlatives on revista.

Idu

UnitedIrishman wrote: »

Casillas is still the best for me and always was. I remember 3-4 years ago when Madrid were challenging Barca for the title with possibly the worst defence I've ever seen them have. It was a case of Casillas vs. the Attack and hope Raul and co. could carry them up front. He made save after save despite the likes of Carlos, Helguera and Salgado making cock ups.

His performance last night almost deserved a point in itself.

Two years in a row Casillas was the most shot at keeper, made the most saves and conceaded the least in the Spanish league. The guy is a god of a keeper

An Citeog

Just listening to Ballague trying to downplay Madrid's obvious targetting of Messi in the first half. According to him, Messi shouldn't be dropping back into the middle of the pitch to win the ball. Tbh, I thought it was disgraceful. It's no coincidence either the amount of times he was raked down the achilles!

eZe^

Sid Lowe made an excellent point on the harsh challenges. Seeing as referees give players one or two warnings before showing them a yellow, teams employ the tactic of 'each player gets one tackle in on Messi so no one person has to do all the dirty work and get booked'. Sid Lowe suggested that referees book say the third person who deliberately fowls him, regardless of how many fowls that person has committed, that way eliminating the dirty rotation of tackles on a single player.