Barca drop further, Solid performance from Madrid and "Divine" Ronaldo

Everyone keeps talking on how well Man U play with Tevez, Rooney and Ronaldo on the pitch, but to give Rooney the "Man of the match" for the game against Aston Villa is just ridiculous. There was just one man on the ground and i hate to say this, but C.Ronaldo "is" without a doubt "the" best player right now in World Football. If 35 goals in 35 games as a midfielder is not super enough, last game was just one for the home video collection. I was not exactly impressed with Ronaldo because of show boating and also the fact that he was not exactly doing anything positive with his tricks. But over the past year he has done it all, headers, open play goals, assists, free-kicks (some stupendous ones), what more can we ask for from one single player?

This weekend was no different, inside the penalty box, the mind set to try a reverse flick at goal with his right foot and generate the power he did was just magical. If that was a fluke, more was to come from Ronaldo, he was literally skipping past 2-3 players with so much ease that you don’t even see him dribbling. For the amount of football i see, i would give anything to watch happened next, with his back to the goal he created a through ball to Rooney with a back heel. Creating a through pass for that distance with a back heel is just unbelieveble, but his vision to pick out Rooney on his blind side is just out of this world. Just one word- Divine.

As much as i dont like Man U, if i am to pick a winner of the CL this year, it is going to be them. For Ronaldo to get to that level they need to win this trophy. It is not just Ronaldo, each attacking move, I was amazed at the movement from Rooney and Tevez. Many actually overlook Tevez maybe because of his not so great bag of skills, but he is a very intelligent and big game player. The goal he scored, he started the move somewhere in the center of the pitch, passed it to Ronaldo, and his movement across the pitch was terrific, 5 seconds later you see Tevez at the far post unmarked and puts in a great header.

If last week Real Madrid put out a lesson to everyone on how to lose a game, it was they La Liga chasers Barca who took turn this week. They made the trip to play Betis. Rijkaard was not just having problems with the injured Ronaldinho (or is he?), Messi and Deco, Rijkard was also forced to re shuffle the back by moving Puyol over to CB and partner him with Thuram. They just were in the usual passing self and got the first goal on 14 minutes when Bojan showed some good composure when he got a rebound in the Betis box to wait before pulling the trigger. Samuel Eto scored the second Barca goal in the next minute and they went in at half time with a 0-2 lead.

At this point usually I start doing something else, but for once i felt there was something in store from Betis. They came out of the tunnel a different team. Their Brazilian midfielder Edu just took charge from there, when he scored a good header to make it 1-2 at 53 minutes. It looked just a brief charge when Edu failed to convert from the spot. His week shot was saved by Valdes with his legs. But a minute later from the right side of the pitch in the Barca side, Toure was turned inside out by Juanito and for a defender he unleashed an impressive volley to make it 2-2 on 75 minutes.

Probably Barca made the same mistake that Real Madrid made last weekend against Valencia, pushing a lot of men forward. With Zambrotta down the pitch, it was Edu one-one on Thuram and the old legs were running back with no tackles. Thuram probably was expecting some support from Toure, but there was no one to be seen, but Edu saw the goal and made up for missing the penalty with a super finish. This could be very important 3 points that Barca dropped in their chase to catch Real Madrid. It got worse, when Villareal dumped Atletico Madrid 3-0 to go one point ahead of Barca.

Real Madrid had the second successive home game fixture and on Sunday they welcomed Sevilla to the Santiago Bernabeu. Schuster had a lot of things to prove, very importantly the fact that he was the right man for the job and that he knew what he was doing. Stats were not in his favor as Sevilla had beaten Real Madrid in the past 3 meetings. The fans had turned in numbers and i was really surprised seeing 80,000 in the stadium after last weeks surprise loss. Schuster meanwhile again had to make changes, few forced and few tactical. This time I think he got it right. He was forced to replace Pepe with Heinze because of an injury. He took out Baptista and replaced him with Higuain to add the natural striker to the playing 11. Robben took the place of the Brazilian Robinho. Gago who has had phenomenal time in the second half of the season continued to get the nod ahead of Diarra. Sevilla had their problems, they had no cover at LB with Dragutinovic and the midfielder Maresca injured. Adriano the left midfielder was covering for in LB and Keita was in for Maresca. The main threat for Real would be the two big strikers in Kanoute and Fabiano, with Pepe out, Real did not have any big defenders to counter the size and holding play from Kanoute.
Real were playing some good football, with some good passing and creating play in midfield with Higuain coming back to collect the ball and create plays. Raul was staying up front more. Real did not need long to go into the lead. Sneijder put in a superb ball in a set piece from the left of the field and it was Heinze who showed good strength amongst some strong challenges to head it in. This was the Argentines first ever goal in a Madrid shirt. 1-0 Real Madrid on 7 minutes.
Sevilla gave Real, space sucking the pressure and hoping to hit the counter attack. There were several chances for Real, but the keeper Palop made a good double save after Higuain laid off for Raul and Sergio Ramos following up.

Real quickly covered back knowing that Sevilla would be out to get a goal, it was Heinze making a superb block on a point black strike from Kanoute. The Argentine again made a superb block this time a shot from Fabiano. I counted the key tackles that Heinze made during the game were close to 8 or 9. But Madrid were soon to make a mistake. With Cannavaro struggling to mark Kanoute it was Higuain given that responsibility inside the box in a set piece. Madrid could not clear the first attempt and it was headed back in at the feet of the Mali International, who made a cool finish on the turn. Higuain not the right choice to mark Kanoute for sure. 1-1 at 37 minutes.

As in the past many games, there is always an immediate response from Real Madrid when they go a goal down, and as always it was their Captain Fantastico Raul. But the creative play from Sneijder was just superb, he had as many as three Sevilla shirts in front of him and possibly no where to go he played a superb ball in to Raul inside the box. The Captain held up the ball from some weak challenges with two players on him and scored with a superb finish. Real Captain has equaled former great Santillana's record of 290 goals in a Madrid shirt. He is 17 away from the all time highest record by Alfredo Di Stefano who leads the pack at 307 goals. Raul is making a superb come back season when many thought that his career was over with a serious goal drought. He has scored 21 goals in this season 16 of which in the La Liga. 2-1 it was at half time.

Madrid came out in the second half and was making an evident effort not to rush or over commit and the Captain was leading from the front. He pushed back in midfield and started pushing wide right trying to run at Adriano. He was defending deep and supporting the midfield superbly. Gago was doing extremely well and Cannavaro was using his experience well not to stay tight on Kanoute. He let Kanoute win the ball but did not want him moving away from him. It was time for Raul's strike partner to be in the news, but for the wrong reason, he first received the ball from Ramos and missed, then followed that with failing to finish when Palop made a double save on him.

Guti was struggling with what looked like a stomach injury, but it was Sneijder again who made a superb controlled through cross ball to Guti on the right after turning 360, Guti made a cool first touch and made a superb pass with his left foot across the Sevilla goal and Higuain finally made the finish diving in. 3-1 Real Madrid on 65 minutes.

I was closely watching how Real would play this match out and they did the right thing. The defended deep, on most occasions having 2-3 men on Sevilla players. Fabiano kept missing chances including a sitter of an open header. There was also some good defending from Cannavaro, Ramos and Marcelo. On such occasion it was nice to see the spirit in the team when Casillas was just shaking Ramos grabbing his shoulder and Cannavaro going right upto him with a chest. Schuster also made some tactical changes, he brought in Diarra to add strength to the midfield, also Baptista and gave Robinho 5 minutes on the pitch. There was one fine moment when Sergio Ramos stole the ball from Kome, passed it to Raul one touch to Sneijder and back heel to Ramos and a cross ball to Robben. Robben really needs to watch how he handles himself on the pitch, he just gets carried away with each lose pass, each referreeing decision going against him.

I would probably have thought no one else but Heinze who deserved a Man of the Match, but yes there is someone, Wesley Sneijder who set up all three goals and looked to be the key in the Real midfield with his superb one touch football and his vision. This is what Real expected when they brought him over from Ajax.

Real held on to the 3 points in a well played and well executed game, and are on 65 points from 30 games. Villareal 6 points behind on 59 points and Barca on 48 points. It’s Champions League all the way this week....