I was disappointed in the tactics used by Schuster against Roma, especially playing Raul as the lone striker. Espanyol were 5th in the league and were playing for possible CL qualifying 4th spot, but were with out mid field maestro De La Pena and star striker Raul Tamudo was on the bench who was only recovering from an injury. They would be looking at Luis Garcia for all the flair and also the goals.
Real did not look anywhere close to scoring and were almost a repeat of the Roma match when they had all the ball possession but no clear chances. Schuster still had problems in lining up a full team, of preferred players. He had Pepe back, but then lost Cannavaro through injury. Sergio Ramos was suspended for the match. It meant Pepe with Heinze in the center and Torres and Marcelo as wing backs. Surprisingly Gago was left on the bench and Schuster put Diarra in the defensive midfielder role. Baptista and Guti in the midfield to be joined by Robinho on the left wing and Raul to be partnered by Gonzalo Higuain. The former River Plate youngster got a start ahead of Roberto Soldado, and he did justify it as far as results are concerned. The last time the youngster started he scored a scorching volley in the Spanish cup match.
Iker Casillas who was playing his 300th La liga game for the Madrid giants made a superlative full stretch save against a Jonathan long range effort. If Schuster has not realized, Real either need to play two wingers, or the midfield has to be quick. Guti who has never been quick, combined with Baptista who unlike normal Brazilians need one touch too many and Diarra is extremely clumsy in his ball distribution. Espanyol took advantage of some ridiculous defending from an Espanyol corner, something which has been ever so common these days. I can think of atleast 4 goals conceded in the past weeks in similar fashion, when the marking has been terrible. This time around it was a short taken corner which was drifted in by Luis Garcia and Valdo headed in unmarked at the far right corner. On minute 29 it was 0-1 Espanyol.
But to their credit Real seem to play with much more confidence being one goal down, with their attacks much more complete in the final quarter. The response was almost complete when a Baptista took a good free kick from a central position but was superbly saved by Kameni on the top left corner. The highly rated keeper is being chased by a host of clubs including Spurs and he just showed why...
Marcelo, I should say looked much more confident in attack on the left wing and more importantly he was putting in a few crosses into the Espanyol box. He superbly dribbled past Valdo and then crossed right when a second challenge was coming in, Higuain probably blinded could only connect with his knee and that probably confused Kameni with his dive and in the following scramble Higuain ensured the ball had crossed the line. 1-1 Real Madrid on 43 minutes and it was to stay that way at half time.
Schuster was forced to make a change and that was to replace Robinho who it seems is fine, with Drenthe. Similar to Barca being full of flair and style when Messi is on the pitch, Real definitely need Robinho fit and well for the remaining 12 games in La liga. Real looked totally flat footed and with no flair at all when the Brazilian was out injured the last time around. With Drenthe slipping in to the left wing, Higuain and Raul still had to come back to the midfield, especially the right side. Torres was making some runs, but he is exactly not the best in going forward. It was a dull time in the game when Espanyol were limited to some long shots at goal, and surprisingly so was Real, with Guti looking more confident in controlling the ball and play.
Schuster finally put his man management cap on and saw that his midfield was slow and not creating anything, brought on Sneijder for Baptista. The Dutchman has been out for almost a month with broken ribs. He immediately brought in pace and flow to the passing game. His work ethic and his vision in first time passing is just superb. With Sneijder creating space Guti floated over to the left side of midfield and passed straight to Raul who made a good run into the box, with Jarque pulling and tugging at the Captain finally was successful in bringing him down inside the box. When we saw the replay i think the foul started outside the box, but in all fairness Jarque was stupid to continue it inside the box. Raul stepped up against Kameni and had the keeper jump the wrong way. The Captain fantastic in his 13th year at Madrid scored his 200th La liga goal. 2-1 Real Madrid on 73 minutes.
Raul Tamudo took the pitch in a bid to score an equalizer, but Schuster finally ohhh my God brought in Soldado for Higuain. Raul pushed back into a midfield role trying to recover balls and create plays on the right side of midfield. Soldado is an outright ST and its sad that Schuster is not using him more often. Ok Higuain scored a goal, but he was ineffective apart from that. This was the game when Schuster could have started Soldado or Saviola alongside Raul. Saviola just got back from an injury, so it maybe doubtful on how match fit he is, but Soldado not getting a full game is literally pushing him out of the club next season.
Real dominated the rest of the game and there were chances for Sneijder and Soldado even tried an over head kick to go ahead. The game ended 2-1 at full time, with more yellow cards including one to Raul Tamudo. He was stupid to argue further with the referee after the final whistle and he received an unnecessary red card which means he would be suspended for the next Espanyol game. 
Unfortunately i could not see the Barca V Villareal game on Sunday, but to La Liga fans this could be the end of the road for Barca. They lost 2-1 at Villareal at home which means that Real have an 8 point lead with just 11 games left. After 27 rounds of matches Real are chasing a record which was matched 20 years back, they have 20 wins, 2 Draws and 5 losses which was last done in 1987/88 season. As I had written numerous times Real have done extremely well at home with just one loss, and have defeated the likes of Barca, Atletico, Villareal and Valencia away from home which could be the difference to Barca's record of 16 wins, 6 draws and 5 wins.
As my friend Antony rightly put it with 11 games left and an 8 pt lead its light out for Barca. I am also planning to focus more on EPL with Arsenal making the title race interesting.
Man i was happy to see Portsmouth dumping Man U at Old Trafford 1-0 a win for Portsmouth in 50 years. FA cup night was smashing on Saturday as this was not the only upset, after their win at Anfield, Barnsley knocked out the defending champions Chelsea. It is really great to see the small teams matching up to the top 4 teams.
2 comments:
Was not an inspiring play from Raul.
Ya not one of the matches Real can be happy about except the 3 points. At the end of the season such 3 points could be priceless considering the fact that Barca lost to Villareal, increasing the lead to 8 points. Madrid need to start giving some starts to their bench warmers at least when the likes of Van Nistelrooy is injured.
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