Barcelona 2-2 Real Madrid | Clasico Review

By Mohammed Ifran.

Two Of The Best

El Clasico has never been short of mouth watering every time the giants of Spain clash between each other. This time this was no different. Both the teams have shared 175 victories among themselves with Real Madrid edging Barcelona by 1 match as the victories stand at 88-87 in the favour of Real Madrid. 

The match was held at Camp Nou. As always, the stadium was filled with supporters. 

Barcelona starting line-up consisted of no real ‘natural defender’ as the heart of the defense was empty with notable absentees. Barca’s skipper and long serving defender Carles Puyol was missing due to a nasty elbow injury which happened few days ago. Gerard Pique picked up a knee injury few matches ago to which he was recovering well but couldn’t make it to the playing squad. A couple of other La Masia graduates, Isaac Cuenca and Thiago Alcantara, were missing too. The former has been injured since the end of the last season and the latter has picked up knock which has ruled him out for well over a month. 

This was relatively a slow start for the Blancos. But they came with a lot of confidence brimming in them as they have already got the better of Barcelona on their last meeting in the league last season which ended 1-2. They had a healthy squad travelling to Barcelona with some players hoping to carry their scintillating forms along. Cristiano Ronaldo has scored half a dozen goals in his last 2 outings. And the 2007 Ballon D’Or winner Kaka, who is considered surplus to Jose Mourinho’s immensely squad, has shown that he was not finished just yet again with a hat-trick and a couple of assists in the Bernabeu Trophy. Angel Di Maria already has 4 assists in the league which makes him sit at the top of the assist charts.

Real Madrid were looking for an easy win to cut of the deficit of 8 points to 5 points and Barcelona wanting to keep their unbeaten run going. With the absence of Pique and Puyol, Tito Vilanova chose Adriano to partner Mascherano. Iniesta came back from an injury to his favoured position as Cesc was asked to start on the left of the final third. Despite Kaka’s and Higuain’s form, they were benched as Mesut and Karim filled in for them.

It was the typical Barca playing and moving around the in the whole field. But there was a gradual turn around as Mourinho’s men started pressing the already weakened Barca. Benzema was the guy who could have opened the deadlock within 13 minutes but shot the volley way wide after finding himself in the D-box unmarked. 

But it didn’t take them long to take the lead through Ronaldo. There was a lovely play among the few white shirts which left the Barca players clueless. Mesut Ozil started the play from the right wing and after a couple of passes before Angel found Benzema, who saw space for their talisman in the left flank as he shot the ball with his weaker foot in the bottom corner with such precision past the helpless Victor Valdes which made him the only player in the history of El Clasico to score 6 El Clasico goals consecutively. Sheer class.

'Calm down, I got this.'

After a couple of minutes, Khedira cut the ball in for Angel, who found an unmarked Benzema on the penalty spot and passed it to him. But the France international’s woeful form of the night continued as he missed a sitter - he couldn’t meet the ball properly and the ball hit the post only to be shot wide by Di Maria to whom the rebound fell. 

Tito’s men were playing in their own style; keeping possession for a very long time but couldn’t find the end product. They missed few chances too. For the first time, the Real Madrid defenders were put to test as Pedro was found by Xavi on the right flank as he went past one white shirt to pass it in the box just to be cleared off by Sami Khedira. Then came the equalizer, after a mistake from Real Madrid’s most trusted stopper, Pepe. It all started from the middle third. There was a neat pass past Marcelo by Iniesta to Pedro, who directed a low cross to which Ramos couldn’t clear off properly before it hit Alonso and rose up to which Pepe couldn’t head clear and Iker was completely beaten by Messi who shot home past the Real Madrid goalkeeper in the 6 yard box. 

Messi Equalising

Second half. Ronaldo once again was the predator. He angled himself to shoot a great overhead but completely missed the shot just to land on his arm and injure him. As the injury took toll on him, he couldn’t move his left arm throughout the match but his confidence and his threat was intact as ever. Ramos missed a pretty good opportunity as he got an accurate cross to which he headed just wide.
Just after an hour passed at the Camp Nou, the roar once again rose as the Nou Camp faithful were at the top of their voice when their #10 jersey clinch the 2nd goal. As Barcelona got a foul around 30 yards from goal, it reminded everybody of the goal Messi scored from a similar position in their previous meeting. The World Cup winning captain was once again in between the poles. As Leo shot the ball, the ball went in between the Real Madrid wall to end in the back of the net and Barcelona were leading for the first time in the match. Once again, Casillas was clueless and no one was to be blamed.

Messi Curling It In

However, it seemed like Messi took the ball 2 steps backwards, when the referee was busy checking Real Madrid's wall, which gave Messi the space to get the ball over the wall. A very immoral thing done by the Argentine captain. Nonetheless, it was a brilliant executed free-kick.

People might have thought that it was going to be win for Barca, but Real Madrid proved them wrong yet again as they clinched a superb goal within a few minutes. The previous goal could not be enjoyed for long enough as Ronaldo was the man again who broke the Catalans’ heart. 

There was a mistake from Andres Iniesta and they took the full advantage of it. Pedro Rodriguez chased for the ball to regain possession as Mesut Ozil was yet again the man to deliver a great pass between 2 Barca shirts to which Ronaldo cruised past Montoya to shot past Victor Valdes. This guy just can’t stop scoring, can he? 

CRISis-Averter Ronaldo

After a very good second half performance, Mesut was substituted for Kaka. Higuain came in for Benzema just after an hour as Michael Essien was exchanged for Angel Di Maria. Barcelona made a few subs too as Dani Alves was forced to be subbed because of a knock and Martin Montoya was incharge of the RB position - which turned out to be blessing in disguise a Barca's defense looked more organised since the young defender came on. Cesc was subbed for the Chilean Alexis Sanchez at 64 the minute.

Comparatively, this was a much neat match from both the sides as the referee didn't have to pick out the cards more than a few times. Pedro was penalized for a clash with Sergio Ramos as Pepe was shown a yellow - his 7th yellow in the last 7 Clasicos - for a foul on Messi. The other players to be shown yellow were Busquets, Xabi, Alvaro and Mesut. Gladly, there were no injuries which kept the players fit for their upcoming international matches. 

Barcelona had a sigh of relief as the referee, Carlos Delgado Ferreiro, called the match off. The match ended as there was no more goals conceded by any of the sides as this mouth-watering clash ended as a draw. The points were shared among them as the gap among the giants still remain the same; 8 points. This left the home side maintaining the top position with 19 points, the same as Athletico Madrid, the city rivals of Real Madrid. Real Madrid have now climbed to the 5th position after the point earned. After yet another marvelous performance from the goal scorers, Ronaldo and Messi sat on the top, along with Radamel Falcao, with 8 goals to their name each.

Media Hypocrisy Or Are Real A Bigger Club Than Barcelona?

By Isra Qassim.

In a Liga night of Saturday,  Barcelona met Granada in Camp Nou, where it is hard for teams like Real Madrid to get to result in, everyone thought Barca would win the game with ease as they are the stronger team on paper – and Granada's recent performances have been so poor that they were booed on their own turf by their own fans.

However it was far from reality, it was a difficult home game for Barcelona where they struggled for 86 minutes with a heroic performance from Granada's defense and hero of the night, Tono – their goal keeper. The game ended up with a win for Barcelona, anyway, as a wonder strike from Xavi and an own goal sealed the deal for them.

Barca's Saviour against Granada

 Now some might argue that the reason for Barcelona poor performance was missing Iniesta, leave this argument for another day. Now you might look at my title thinking what does this have to do with what is written so far. Well now I get to my point; Messi, who is the 3 time ballon d’or winner, had arguably one of his worse games ever. Perhaps anyway one of the worst recently. 

He couldn’t make assists or continue his dribbling to cut inside and score, lost possession – and that, on one occasion, almost gifted Granada a counter attacking goal had El Arabi taken his chance instead of shooting it straight to Victor Valdes.

Messi is a Human being and any Human being can have a day on the pitch. He was angry and frustrated – with himself and also with his team-mates.

This frustration resulted into Messi have a got at Villa, just before half-time, for passing the ball too late. He shouted at him 4 times, "Why didn’t you pass earlier, Villa?", Villa responded causing an altercation infront of cameras for millions of people around the World to see.

Villa Replies To A Frustrated Messi

Now isn’t this enough news for media or press around the world to go around speaking of a feud happening in Barca's dressing-room? But no, everyone jumped into the defense of Messi, how it is positive and how it motivates his teammates or it happens in games all the time.

I am not in any shape or form saying these things don’t happen in a game. I am a Real Madrid follower, I have seen Iker, for example, many times just screaming at his defenses to move or position themselves or even be angry at them after conceding a goal, these stuff happen.

However, let’s imagine for a second that Cristiano was screaming at Higuain for not passing ball in a game. Which kind of new inside civilized war will be in RM dressing room? Argentina vs Portugal or Higuain actually thinks that Messi deserved more of Ballon d’or and told Cristiano he isn't as good as Messi and that's why Cristiano screamed at him? Or Cristiano is just purely arrogant and a narcissist?

You think I am exaggerating? Well, Iker didn’t celebrate Cristano's winner vs City – Iker actually doesn’t usually celebrate in a crazy way unless it means something big and winning a home group stage game in UCL doesn’t come under the criteria maybe (but the real reason was that one of his faithful young fan died of a long term disease as mentioned by newspaper sources after all sorts of rumours were flying around) – however did this stop media from speaking about a feud and hate relation that is between Cristano and Iker? No it didn’t.

A Motionless Iker

 Ramos was dropped in ONE game for a technical decision, media went on stories how he is punished for going on against his coach and that Ramos is now in bad terms with Mourinho, even though Ramos has been average after the Euros. But no, let’s believe that Ramos hates Mourinho after all he invited his “support group” for lunch to complain about him.

People say that Real are a big Club and thus media always like to talk about them, so aren't Barca a big Club? Or is it because news regarding Real – like people more interested in Cristano accusing Iker on stealing his hair-gel trying to cover his bald spots on his head – sells more? Or is it just pure media hypocrisy that they just like to talk about Real?

(Talks of rift in Barca's dressing room were reported, but by very few media outlets - not as much as how the aforementioned Real-regarding rumours were talked about worldwide.)

Yes, Real have 2 outspoken personalities in Mourinho and Cristiano, but that doesn't mean that it should make them subject of unfairness – especially when both of them have changed to become more conservative than before.

So what is the reason for this double standard? Is it because Real are a bigger Club or is it because some hypocrite media outlets? I'll leave this for you to decide.

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Iker Casillas – Always There For Everyone In Their Hour Of Need, But Some Aren't There For Him....

By Umid.

In the hour of need, he is there. Whether it is by making a jaw-dropping match-winning save or as a shoulder to cry on; he is there.

Iker Leading Real To Their First La Liga Title Since 2008

Always.

Casillas introduced himself to the World like that: those eye-popping saves against Bayer Leverkusen in the 2002 Champions League final and being Spain’s saviour against Ireland in the 2002 World Cup Round Of 16 in the shoot-out – it was the beginning of something great, something epic.

And since then Casillas has saved Spain and Real Madrid many times with his astute goalkeeping.

But it was in Euro 2008 when we saw the true leader in him. Leading Spain to its first ever major championship triumph since the long forgotten 1964 European Championship conquest, Casillas showed to the World a side of his which many didn’t think he had: a leader.

Leading Spain To Glory For AThird Consecutive Time

Often accused of being too quiet and nice to make a good leader, Casillas has proven all of those critics wrong by leading Spain consecutive Euro and a World Cup wins. He also lead Real Madrid to their first ever league title since 2008 – these feats wouldn’t have been possible if Casillas wasn’t a good leader.

It is his personality as a Human, however, that makes him such a lovable person.

On Tuesday when Real Madrid were drawing 2-2 against City with just injury time to go, there was nervousness. Losing 2 points at the Bernabeu is never pleasing – and certainly not at all when Real are in the toughest group in this year’s CL.

Then, suddenly, everything paused. It was as if time stopped itself to witness that moment. That moment was when Cristiano cut inside from the left and shot…. Kompany’s presence blocked Hart’s view and the ball went into the net.

3-2 Real Madrid.

Every Real Madrid fan – every – were celebrating as if they just won the Champions League. Rafael Nadal, who was watching the game from the VIP box, jumped out of his seat in exhilaration. Jose Mourinho sunk his knees into the wet grass and slid on it, so did Cristiano – the scorer, the joybringer.

Extreme Joy For Mou And Cristiano

But there was one-man on the Real Madrid side who didn’t even move. Showed no emotions. Showed no thrill. That man was the captain himself: Iker Casillas.

A lot of things were written about it, a lot of theories, a lot of stories, some even doubting his Madridismo.

Unanimated Iker After Cristiano's Winner

But no-one knew the true reason. All of them were just assuming. And most of the assumptions were, in fact, proven wrong when the real truth behind Casillas not celebrating came out.

Iker didn’t celebrate because just hours before the Real-City game, his 14 year-old Polish friend, Dawid Zapisek, died after suffering from Spinal Muscular Atrophy, and he wanted to show the little kid respect by not celebrating.

Dawid’s ultimate dream was to meet Iker “before dying in peace” and his dream came true when Iker met him in Poland during the European Championship. Iker expressed his sadness via his Facebook page, posting "my most sincere condolences to his family; rest in peace, my friend" on his status.

Dawid With His Idol, Iker

Iker Casillas also articulated his grief on Dawid’s death via Real Madrid’s official website (which you can read here).

Iker didn’t know Dawid for a long time, yet he was touched by his death: this just goes to show what a wonderful Human being Iker is. Casillas didn’t celebrate at that time because he was paying homage to Dawid; whose body was beneath a willow drapery, whose soul was waiting for the boatman to get him across the slarlit waters where dreamscapes are golden.

The boatman has, by now, done that – which boatman wouldn’t do so to a soul who met a saint just before it released itself from the materialistic body?

This is not the first time Iker has shown what an amazing Human being he is. He has made several charities to the people in need, always been humble, always been modest, always been equal to everyone and always been a symbol of Humanity.

And yet, once again, some Real Madrid fans want him to be removed as Real’s captain, instead of being grateful for having a great person like him as captain, because he is too nice and kind – such sad is this World that kindness and being nice isn’t good anymore if you want to lead a team. But, well, Iker will prove them all wrong – just like he has done before.

Iker won't, and shouldn't, change himself just because some Madridistas want him to –  he will stay true to his identity; the identity which made him a symbol of Real Madrid, Spain and Humanity.

Iker Casillas was, perhaps, sent by God on this Earth to be there for everyone in their hour of need.

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