Two months ago when the first knock out stage draw was made for the Champions league, Rafa Benitez and Liverpool fans would have been the first to jump up in joy for the relatively easy tie against the struggling Real Madrid. Liverpool were in top form having made one of the starts of the season in their premiership history. At the same time Real Madrid were a mess, with just not the numerous problems in the board, a new coach and an injury list as long as an old lady's shopping list.Two months later Real Madrid have cut down the lead Barca hold to 7 points and with the El Classico Bernabeu fixture still pending, they now can think that the La Liga is not over yet. New coach Juande Ramos definitely has what it takes to occupy the hot seat. People generally were skeptical on the chances the Spaniard, trophies out of the question and it was about how to stop the landslide. Ramos did that, went about making his formations click, bring the discipline back and grind out the victories. There were no complains from Madrid, on the injury list, and the problems in the board, they just went about winning. There was no pressure on them as almost the entire world maybe including the Madrid fan base had written off the chances of winning the La Liga for the third year running. With Barca having a 12 point lead it was not just up to Real Madrid winning, but they had to hope that the swashbuckling Barcelona would slip.
The last two weeks saw exactly the same, Barca dropped 2 points with a draw at Real Betis which itself was a point saved from a last gasp effort from Eto. To make the league interesting Real Madrid who were expected to have a tough match against the same Real Betis, fired six goals past them in the first half. Barca on the same day lost to Espanyol cutting down their lead to 7 points, and it was their first home loss in over a year. Real Madrid players eased the pressure on Juande Ramos from the fans and the media that though Madrid are winning they had become a totally unattractive unit to watch. With Robben, Sneijder and Guti coming back from injury, Juande still stuck to his formation, appreciation to him for his guts for playing 3 outright strikers, Higuain, Huntelaar and Raul in the hole.
The Gago-Lass combination in the center of midfield has for sure been the difference from December. Higuain opened the scoring when he was through from Raul's header and the cool finished showed why he is the striker whom Madrid will rely on this season. Huntelaar scored two goals, the first when the ball kindly fell at his feet from a Ricardo punch. The second was a tap in when his thunderous header was saved and put back at his feet by Ricardo. The Betis keeper who kept out the mighty Barca till the last few minutes of their encounter the previous week, was left with a lot to do with his defenders left all over the pitch. Captain fantastic who had recently become the leading scorer in La Liga just took over center stage when his first finish was a sweet left footed first time strike from outside the box, the second was a sweet flick over the advancing Ricardo when he was put through by Gago.
Sergio Ramos was having one the games of the season. Right from the beginning of the match the presence of Mark Gonzalez was not enough to put him in his side of the pitch and he was just terrific in his defending and his attacking contribution. He capped off a brilliant match with a fine diving header from a Madrid set piece. The second half saw Juande shuffling his team, by taking off Raul, Higuain and Cannavaro. Sergio Ramos slipped into the center of defense and still defended extremely well, Lass slipped into RB, Robben on the right and Sneijder and Guti in the middle. Right on the restart Sneijder put in Robben, but the Dutchman was a little too casual on his cut back. Guti showed that he is almost back to full match fitness as he was threading in a lot of his trade mark through balls.The problem for Juande when Real Madrid welcome Liverpool on Wednesday is to get the monkey off the back. Madrid had great success in the Champions League from 1998-2001, but since then have struggled to get past the first knock out stages. For a team of such pedigree these stats are often the reason for coaches losing their jobs even after bringing domestic glory. In coach Juande Ramos, he brings a lot of success in knock out tournaments. Liverpool on the other hand are struggling, having almost completely lost out on the chance to win the Premiership. Not only are they struggling to keep up with the defending champions but if they are to put up the same show they had against Man City this weekend when they travel to the Bernabeu on Wednesday, their good run in Champions League tournaments in recent years would be cut short.
For me the Real Madrid V Liverpool match will be a pleasant contradiction- most likely there would be more Spanish players in the visiting English team's line up than the Spanish capital city team. But since an English team is playing, there is a high possibility that the match would be on ESPN 2 with English commentary.......
