It was not an El Classico whitewash after all...

From the postings on my blog it is clear to many that i am a Real Madrid fan. I would not want to have the word "fan" in there, because i believe i am fairly a good critic as well. Having seen them play for over a decade, it is only natural that i write most of my posts on them. The reasons why i even started watching the great Whites in the first place have moved on, but still they somehow retain a certain class. On certain other days, the disgrace and the disappointment to their fans is just outright humiliation. I have been reading many articles, discussions and forums on predictions on the El Classico. You are looking at a Real Madrid team, who are struggling for results, a new Manager and half the team in the hospital playing a team who look the closest to some of the best football i have seen, almost the same as Man U in some of their best games last year. Naturally the weight of the past which we call as "form" was heavily supporting Barca and some of the polls were pretty interesting. 5-0, 7-0 or even 10-0 in favor of Barcelona were the poll results. One website that i keenly follow had their experts giving some really interesting predictions. All of the predicted that it would be a tight game with not many goals scored.

From my knowledge of Real Madrid, i knew one thing for sure, this particular game was not going to be a whitewash. Madrid somehow plays poorly when and in games that nobody expects them to do so, and they win coming from behind in games that no one gives them a chance in hell. El Classicos' never are free flowing games, some exceptions granted when a few years ago Ronaldinho lead a Madrid destruction and last season Madrid thumped Barca 4-1. Barca have had issues putting Madrid away at the Nou Camp in almost 2 years, and Guardiola had his best 4-3-3 team to do the job for him this time. Henry on the left, Eto in the lone striker role and Messi on the right meant that the Madrid defense comprising of an unproven combination of non regular first team players would need a lot of help from a recently suspect Casillas and the rest of the team. Juande Ramos had used Metzelder at RB and Salgado at LB in the match against Zenit and possibly this had nothing to do with the possible players against Barca. Ramos even continued to use Marcelo in an attacking midfield position on the left so that he did not risk Drenthe. Messi was sure to hang out on the right side of midfield and cut inside so that he can get a shot away with his favorite left foot, this meant that the game would be over in the first 10 minutes if Salgado was to mark him. Ramos played Salgado at RB to mark Henry and Sergio Ramos was to play at LB to mark Messi.

From the kick off it was clear what Juande had in mind, his strikers in Raul and Higuain were at the half line, the formation was compact and he basically made sure that Sneijder was on the right and which gave some extra protection to mark Henry. Madrid had everyone covering back and the first real ball possession from the whites came in the 18th minute when they strung a few passes. From there on to almost the entire game, the percentages of ball possession was to remain over 75-25 in favor of Barcelona. Sergio Ramos was right on Messi and as one should expect constantly ended up fouling him and got an early yellow card. It was not just Messi that is a danger for Barca on the right, we also have Dani Alves who though having to mark Drenthe was looking more to contribute in attack. His defensive frailties could have put the game to rest, if Drenthe could have made a calm finish when put one-one with Valdes by Raul, with acres of space and time. That was the miss of the match and also i knew that minute that Madrid are bound to have a lapse somewhere in 90 minutes.


At half time though it was Barca and Guardiola who should have been worried. Right after half an hour Ramos took out a laboring Sneijder and replaced him surprisingly with 20 year old B team player Palanca when he had Van der Vaart on the bench. The second half saw Madrid playing with a bit more ease and a much improved effort in spreading the play. Palanca noticeably had a good second half when he was a handful for Abidal and also tested Valdes with a stinger. But another area of question for Madrid was Casillas, the keeper who has come under a lot of criticism, i am no exception to this. Casillas almost as though enough is enough put in a herculean effort and was supported well by Cannavaro and Metzelder, the latter made up for his lack of pace with some real last ditch tackles on the floor. Salgado was not running back towards his goal for once and was constantly trying his best to have his old legs keep up with the long legged Frenchman.


A suspect penalty decision on Salgado for bringing down Sergio B and the penalty that followed was saved well by Casillas meant that Barca would have to try extra hard to keep up to the predictions. The heroes from Madrid could have walked away and possibly even come back in their hunt for the La Liga if they had a bit more luck on their side and a little bit more concentration. In the 83rd minute Metzelder was found lacking in marking Eto in a corner when Puyol headed it across goal and went in off the Cameroonians thigh. With a possible defeat on their face, Madrid threw caution to the wind and came out attacking, which resulted in a counter attack where Henry passed to Messi for him to finish, with a last ditch effort from Cannavaro colliding with the goal post. This scene at the end was unfortunately what a great performance came to for Madrid. A superb Casillas finally ended up conceding two goals and one of the better players on the night Cannavaro was seen lying on the floor writhing in pain.

Following the match, there was some good press coverage on the Madrid performance. Press across the world called Madrid the brave hearts though they wilted away in the last 10 minutes to non stop pressure from high quality Barca team. Juande Ramos has brought discipline back for sure and is making things easy by playing a 4-2-2 diamond formation. The new Manager was able to make his player believe in the concept that even the midfielders and wingers have to dig deep to help out the defense. From the zone marking during Schuster, there is an evident switch to man marking. During the second half of the match, when Messi moved to the middle and Eto onto the right so did the Madrid defense. Metzelder and Ramos did switch places to accommodate the attacking changes by Barca. There is no doubt in my mind that 12 points away from the league leaders that Madrid find themselves, now guarantees that barring a miracle they are not achieving their 3rd title in a row. But if they can put up 70% of this level of performance in their forthcoming matches they can finish runner up, which is under question now by the critics. Juande Ramos is known to be a knock out tournament specialist but with a depleted team, it would not be a smart move to focus only on the Champions League as many say.