This evening at 7 pm bt,
Barcelona plays the 25th game of the league against Atlético Madrid.
Barcelona plays the 25th game of the league against Atlético Madrid.
Atlético squad list:
Coupet, Leo Franco, Seitaridis, Antonio López, Heitinga, Ujfalusi, Pablo Ibáñez, Raúl García, Maxi Rodríguez, Paulo Assunção, Éver Banega, Maniche, Miguel de las Cuevas, Simão, Ignacio Camacho, Forlán, Agüero, Sinama-Pongolle
Barcelona squad list:
Valdés, Pinto, Alves, Puyol, Márquez, Cáceres, Sylvinho, Xavi, Víctor Sánchez, Touré, Busquets, Gudjohnsen, Messi, Eto'o, Bojan, Henry, Hleb, Pedro
Read a match preview here
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Before (what are your expectations, what's your prediction, what should be the line-up,...), during and after the match, you can also comment on the game here.
Posts
52 comments:
I was looking at Messi's stats the other day and noticed that this will be his 100th official league game. I hope he gets himself on the scoresheet!
...mes que un result...hope barca defend their spot today...otherwise the door gets too wide to close it...ONE LOVE...BARCA FOREVER,EVER,EVER...!!!!!
For the second half:
1) We need Busquets for Gudi
2)May be later on Caceres for sylvinho and hleb for eto'o
3) the players MUST stop clearing the ball to the edge of the box!Clear to the sides...we are inviting Atletico to have a shooting party, specially with Valdes hesitation.
4)Valdes need to wash his face:)
Congratulations to Real MAdrid! They've won the league!
The team has completely lost confidence. Even Xavi looks out of sorts.
Confidence starts from the back and, in this case, has been lost at the very back.
As long as Valdes stays in goal question marks will remain in all heads (including the players') and the team won't get it back.
Therefore, someone else needs to start. Can Pinto really be that bad?
I am losing patience with Valdes. He has blown it again with his sloppy goal keeping. Also, I am disappointed with our defense and Eto missing clear goal opportunities today and in the Lyon game. we are fortunate that we had a 12 point cushion but we can no longer afford to slip up anymore. We must win the rest of our games and hope that Real lose some games. I will sick if we lose the league again this year. We will constantly be taunted by Madrid forever if we blow it this year. Let's get a really good alternative keeper to Valdes.
saying that RM have won the leafue is just ignorant. There still is a THIRD of the league left. There will be more slip-ups from both teams. Of course this game should have been the perfect boost that we needed to get back on track, but it´s still not the end of the world. RM will have a lot of difficult games left and as do we. So forget tonight...let´s crush Mallorca!
...mes que un club!!!!!...
The team is going down, we suffer in defence the abscence of Abidal and that idiot Valdes are our biggest problems right now.Also the luck of depth in the bench is an issue.
Shit... we're having a bad month.. they start shooting whenever they have chance because they know Valdes is the keyhole. RM must be celebrating with 4 points separating.
damn another bad game. i have to admit pep has no experience as a coach , its good when the team is upfront gaining advantage and have spirit,but now that we are on the downside what is pep doing? use your f^%$#^&# subs ,show that nothing has changed,in the last games its all messi/henry/eto and no subs ,release the players from their "madrid is catching up " pressure by using your subs,let bojan play for god shake.its not the end of the world ....... play like we played in the start of the league(by using all the players you have in your disposal) and we will get that advantage again ,use the rest of the squad and also bench valdes till he gets his pscych up.
i hate coaches that when the team is losing they do nothing,change the team.seriusly pep at 0-2 was celebrating like this game will be the title winner game.chill pep chill ,dont put pressure in the players.
call me mad,call me a bad barca fan,tell that i dont support the team when they losing.but i think pep has lost it,he needs to cool down ,or the team will colapse
Everyone knows that Valdes is a low level keeper and they try to take advantage of it.The bad thing is that Zuninho also knows that Valdes is an idiot and he will try with his clever shots to make a fool of him again.
Like i said last game i'll say it again, real won la liga, you guys say "we still have a third liga left", yeah of getting stomped on even more, face it you guys are in denial, its over and MARK MY WORDS real WILL win the league, pathetic blaugrana, barca can talk the talk but cant walk the walk, pathetic.....
it looks like we are falling apart...its not just the defense and its not just valdes. when i watch other clubs play defense, their midfield contest the attacks and their last line sweep up the bits. our midfield never tracks back and leaves our backline to play too many one v. ones. any back four in the world will eventually give when they play all those one v. ones. we need to play defense as a team! think, we scored three goals away from home. any elite club in the world and thats three points. we ask too much of our defenders. our frontline isnt defending anymore either. remember when we were winning, our front line would pressure the opposing defenders which would create to bad passes and counters. so its not just the back four and valdes. its everyone! we seem to have lost our confidence as well. pep has to do something! show the players tapes of how we use to play! we need to regain everything that made us play so well. our mentality means just as much. four point lead is still good, but it doesnt mean anything when the other guys(madrid) have more belief than we do
Hey Anonymous Real Madrid fan go F&*K yourself! Get the F&%k off our board! Barcelona still has the lead. We will see who wins the league when it is over. It is far from over and either team has a chance now.
Real is a lousy team this year and if they didn't have the referees' support they would be 20 points behind us.We don't care about Franco's team we care about Barca.
Horrendous. Ask a Barcelona fan before the season if they'd be pleased with a 4 point lead coming into March, and all would take it. But luckily a game is only three points, because Barcelona always manage to make the most spectacular of losses in the recent years.
Never going to be an easy game, just look at the first dozen minutes and to an extent the Forlan cannon, reminiscent of his Villarreal days, did not feel like a big damper to the prospects of a Barcelona win.
However, the naive Gudjohnsen attempt on goal in the first half, Marquez flicking Leo Franco's long ball for the equalizer, Samuel stuffing his head in the pillow, and Sylvinho's calamity showcase really... and i mean really went a long way in plundering the precarious self-esteem of this team's performance.
And really now, a team that, on it's best day can make the sport look so effortlessly easy yet time over time allow the pressure and whisper of crisis become self fulfilling prophesies.
It isn't going to be a cup final game or the top-team four game gauntlet that will be the true test of this team and Josep Guardiola. The true test is now. The fantastical obliteration of teams during the first half have given Josep & Company chances to flinch before difficult circumstances without sealing their own fate but at this rate they are quickly running out of chances to contain and reverse the damage.
AMUNT BARÇA!
I'm also furious with Etoo this guy is an amazing footballer but he is also a selfish ba***rd, he cares only for himself, he could have given the ball to Messi...
Listen too you guys, you sound like pathetic girls cussing at me and do i care?? Will that change the fact that real will win?? I wanna hear something that actually makes sense than little babies making stupid comments "oh madrid paid the refs" wat the hell is that?? Get real man and get back to me once u accepted defeat
Comments like pedro is true and respectable.
For those who missed the match here is an account.
First 10 mins: Atletico does all the pressing. Puyol follows Kun around. Finally drops the idea as Pep or someone realizes that with Sylvinho rollicking forward this leaves too much open space at the back.
Later Valdes causes Barca fans around the world to collectively spit in disgust as he allows in another goal which is luckily disallowed.
Barca scores from an incredible shot from Henry.
Barca's forwards rotate positions so much they totally confuse the Atletico defense and themselves. In midfield Guddy and Xavi try the same thing.
Messi runs through immobile Atletico defenders for a brilliant goal.
Messi makes another run and by now you figure Ibanez is keeping his legs stuck together coz his bladder feels leaky every time he sees Messi running at him.
Chances for Eto'o and Forlan at the other end make you think this is going to be Barca's day and that Eto;o should be taken off. And somewhere in between Guddy decides blasting the ball wide is more attractive than a simple lob over the keeper who was just about turning around expecting to pick the ball from the goal.
Somewhere in between Forlan scores with a nice shot taking advantage of Valdes' poor positioning.
Valdes keeps rushing out because Pep told him to be positive. That was just to pep you up VV. Stop thinking you can score a goal.
Eto'o finally makes a contribution by putting Guddy thro and he thankfully lays it off for Henry to finish.
Marquez takes a blast from Simao in the face which spoils his hairstyle.
Kun pulls one back, this time I don't think it was Valdes fault.
Toure is clearly injured. Why doesn't Pep take him off? And while he is at it Eto'o too and bring Bojan on???
Real Madrid clearly are saving money to buy Cronaldo next season as they have paid off only one of the linesman who somehow manages to convince the better positioned ref to give a penalty to Atletico which Forlan converts.
3-3
Take Toure off for Crissakes !! He cant move. Take Eto'o off he couldn't score if a hooker came and straddled him.
Caceres for Sylvinho who nearly has a heart attack making it to the touchline for the sub.
You knew it was going to happen, Kun again. Shouldn't he be home taking care of his girlfriend? Puyol decides to delicately touch a ball delicately past Kun instead of blasting it, gives it away and VV.... Forget it. That was just asking for too much.
Oh yeah we had about 5 more chances and Atletico had about as many themselves and VV made one good save.
I m sure I have got the events all mixed up but I cant think straight anymore. Pep.... yeah you could have done better. A team is allowed 3 subs in a game. 3 !!! The screw-ups on field are mostly from people who want higher wages. Laporta better be recording.
Madrid can go fuck themselves!!! We are still winning the title!!!
bye bye barca! league is over....
Pep, I made another fast analysis out there:)
Madrid fans if you want the league so much raise the paychecks for the referees because you still are 5 points back! You disgust me honestly you do...
barca have one last chance to save the league, cup n chmps leagu n that is at mallorca. if we gat a 3-0 or 4-0 win we'll b high in confidence.
abt todays game all i have to say is dat they dint score those 4 goals, we let in 4 goals. thanks to mr. valdes n our great defence. eto'o was a disaster n so was gudj. messi was great in 1st half...... we were 2-1 at half time. it was a good score.... the fact is that atletico realised that valdes was under pressure n satrted shooting blindly... the 1st goal.....
i'll end by saying that its never too late.. just bombard mallorca.. gt ur confidence n u r back. now for next 3 months we have to bear with valdes so lt us hope dat he doesnt cost us the league n let us stop critisizing him
Marco you are retarded if can't see that this guy is bleeding us!
And don't forget that he showed disrespect to the biggest club in the world by rejecting a 5 million renewal proposal!
hahah・・・i can't believe this result.
if we were the team till december last year,
we destroyed atletico 3-0.
valdes did make another silly mistake again!
marquez made horrible mistake too.
i really worried about barca.
kamikaze kontiki, thank you for the game summary.
And yes, Fuck Real Madrid.
we need players!!!!!
IN:Ribery,Aguero,LB and a very good DM(Sissoko/Essien)
OUT:Sylvinho,Hleb,Henry/Eto'o,Guddi,Pinto,
Marquez/Milito
what do you think???
what we need is to accept that we lost 8 points in the last 3 league games and that real madrid will become the winner this season.
this team has completely a different face in relation to the first half of the season.
we lost twice and we drawed twice. the last win is 5 games old. what pep did was destroying the winning series buy leaving key players on the bench. and so they lost their confidence.
i just can laugh about this stupid team. 4 goals within one game. this stupid valdes is not holding one ball. 4 shots means 3 or 4 goals for the opponents. and our defensce is becoming worther from game to game.
this is all a fu**ing nightmare. really, i'm so angry and disappointed. this year they will not win anything if they continue like that. manchester united is twice good as we are because they are not as labile as we are.
I just want to say that we are still 4 points ahead, and as fans that's the time when the club need as the most, i'm happy that after 3 bad results we are still top of the league.. it's Guardiola's first season and we all know that february is the most difficult month of the season specialy when you are playing on 3 compititions.. we have to remember that all teams has a bad period but it doesn't last for long, i think that barca will recover and that they cona finish the season much stronger coz we all know that this team has a lot of talent and quality but they need one thing and it's the most importent, a TRUE FANS THAT SUPPORT THE TEAM IN THE BAD TIMES.. 4 points means another 2 bad result from Barca and 2 good result for RM, i don't think it's gona happen and i believe that this going to be barca's last bad result in this season.. Barca fan foreveR
i can't understand posts like your, jester[HUN]... How will play together Ribery, Aguero and Messi?
What will do Essien? Why did Espanyol won last match against Barca? Look at Hoffenheim...Have they got a lot of stars? If you want team of stars you should buy fifa or football manager...and all your dreams will be realized...
Some ideas about match:
Summary possession was about 55%. For me it's answer to all questions. Barca's midfields gave lots of freedom to Atletico. Players looked tired, especially Xavi and Alves...Anyway Barca played good match, they scored three time and showed many interesting combinations..In this situation I hope Hleb, Caceres, Bojan will get more times.
P.S. I was really surprised with Guddy's performance. Carry on!
Everyone have their little bout of hyperventilating and then sober down. 4 points is 4 points and for the sort of match that we witnessed if it were any other season we would have just given a little sigh and said "Too bad we lost, good game though" and that would have been the end of the matter.
We are in a better position than RM in both La Liga and CL and we are 2 matches away from winning the Copa. This is supposed to be the rebuilding season. The team has shown more than great football, they have shown character and tenacity as well. We can remain confident these qualities exist in our players. This is a crisis but every team goes through a bad spell in every season and this one still has some way to go. The defense isn't that bad but they will suffer if a certain someone standing behind them continues to flounder. The offense seemed hamstrung but still came up with 3 goals and numerous chances. All criticism is understandable but there is no cause for dejection as yet. Barca's attraction is based on its unique playing style, the means we use to achieve the ends and that hasn't changed. So dont mope, cules we are still ahead.
to Anonymous
Is it so difficult to paste your nickname?
"i just can laugh about this stupid team." If you are so clever you must replace they? And answer, please. only two question: Why does this "stupid team" has +51 in La liga? and Why did they breake about ten different records?
i must have looked another game zeli. barca didnt have a good game and guddy was not on the field on the first half.....scoring 3 goals doesnt mean that we played good,henry and messi scored amazing goals but they didnt do anything else . our defence were alone (yaya's worst game ???),xavi never got on the field ,eto had bad luck and valdes is the usual valdes.
the thing is there were alot of tactical mistakes and pep did nothing to correct them,the first person to blame is always the coach (i dont say that the players are gonna left outside of this). but everyone is on the pep guardiola happy train and doesnt see his mistakes ,which were several in this past month(heck we strugle to win 2 months now-remember matches without messi?).
i am just worried that pep forgot how we took that lead,and now we are losing it so easily.offcourse i dont expect to go in atletico madrid and win or in bernabeu but those mistakes are really bad.you have 3 subs and very tired players in and you dont make a change ,how does that affect the mentality of the subs ?its like telling them they are useless
kamikaze kontiki
+1 !!!
to skanjos
I think, pep is not so stupid, and he knows about subs...
I just don't understand people like anonymous, who shouts after every draw or defeat and offers change all players. I don't want to see how Barca scores 4, 5 unrequited goals. And for me this match was good because it was interesting to watch...
First off fuck Man U, Fuck Real
Second why is it every goal conceded is only Valdes' fault? We have a shit deffence and no one is calling out Puyol or Marquez. Sylvinho wasnt great and neither was Alves deffensively. Valdes has bad games and i dont hear cries for puyols head. Aguero was dancing all over both of our CB and when hes one on one with Valdes its his fault?
Forlans goal was as lucky as they get. Hes probably the most overrated player in the league!
4 points hurts, but were still in 1st place. also I dont know why Bojan doesnt play. Pep better figure this out before its too damn late.
Gudi was a good choice to start, better than Busquets who has played like shit lately. Busquets and yaya dont play well together, we saw that in the previous two games. We have Henry and Eto'o up front and Busquets is always in the box. Why? hes not a playmaker, hes a DM.
bottom line our deffence lost this game for us. Blame Valdes all you want but it was mostly the D that let him down. Valdes saved us many times including in the Clasico.
Man U plays unattractive football they defend all the time and they wait for the penalties or the other team to get bored or something...
The point of football is to win by playing an attacking style and offering the fans a nice show and not defending all the time.
Whooah...
Sometimes I wished I had Peps job, it would be a dream come true. Coaching Barca, winning titles, hearing the fans chant.
But then, games like this happens, and I get a blunt reminder why I do not want it. Fans can be so short sighted.
Breaking the away wins record, most points after half the league, stunning football, breakthroughs from the academy, 100+ goals, star players owning the pitch, 12 (!) points down to the bitter rival.
All achived in the first half (almost) of the leauge.
Then... WHAM! You have a few poor games, wich is only natural in a season, and you are back on square one in most of the "fans" eyes.
God, I cant even imagine what kind of preasure the players and the coach have on them if they are not even allowed to have a bad day before their so called supporters start calling for blood.
Chill people. This is alarming, yes. This is not a disaster. It might be a wakeup call.
That said.
Yes, Im worried.
Yes, the recent two losses are simply not acceptable.
Yes, Pep has made some poor judgement calls
Yes, the defence isnt doing their job atm
But Im confident Pep and the guys will pull through here. Give them support, not hate. We are supporters after all. Be a critic. Point out the flaws, what needs to be changed.
But do not scream, swear and curse at OUR Club. Support!
im alittle calmer now... i think what everyone is most worried about is not the fact that we havent won in four games, its not that madrid are now 4pts behind us, its the uncertainty that we have in our team wondering if they can or how will they get over this slump and bounce back. we've seen this story before and none of us enjoyed the ending. but now this is a different team with a new coach so we dont know whats gonna happen. im confident in our team and staff and i think we have(this time)the mental strength to win it. nobody questions our talent, cuz these are the same players that were playing so well earlier this season. but its now our mental strength that will determine if we win the league or not.
i dont care if he is our captain puyol was crap and has been pretty slow the last couple of years. both puyol and marquez ruined the game for us. i also would of liked to seen eto'o, guddy and yaya come off in the game.
The midfield is struggling. Xavi is not on top form and when Yaya either plays really well or really badly. The Centre Backs and goalkeeper need to learn that sometimes there is no shame in kicking the ball away and getting it clear to safety rather than looking for a dangerous pass to someone closer.
Just like Betis and Espanyol I suspect Atletico will be awful against Real :-(
What's happening here it's exactly the same as last year.
To the history experts on this blog, kindly post fixtures and comparisons between this year and the past 2 years.
Thanks in advance.
common guys, when we are winning, we all talk that we have the best players in the world, but when we lose 2 games, you talk about changes, common, do you really think that we wouldn't lose if we had a Ribery or Silva as lw, or Kun/Benzema as fw, or lahm as Lb, common!! This is football and every team in the world must lose sometimes. I believe in Pep, believe in Valdes, believe in Messi, and I'm sure that we'll win la liga. Barca need our support and no, WE ARE NOT IN CRISIS, like I said thats football after all and you never know what will happen'. MARK MY WORDS- WE'LL CRUSH MADRID AT BERNABEU AND VALENCIA AT MESTALLA- Barca for ever
Absolutely brilliant comments kamikaze kontiki.
I totally agree with u.
Best comments on this page so far.
I have to say that i think the main problem in this match was an excellent piece of tactical play by Atletico: containing Xavi.
If you look at the game you'll see that the ball literally moves from end to end all the time, especially in the second half (which resulted in all the chances in this game). Xavi's main task (above being the creative brain in playing exceptional passes through the defensive line of the opponent) is to bring a certain rest into the play of Barça by dictating the midfield. That obviously never worked out yesterday. The play shifted so quick from goal to goal that you couldn’t speak of any kind of rest.
I think we can all agree that Xavi knows that in certain periods of the match it is better to just play keep ball and work the opposition around than to try and wreak havoc in the opposing defence all the time. But because Atletico contained him as well as they did he didnt get the time he needed to bring that rest into the play. You can also see it in the amount of possession Barça had in the game: normally like 70%, yesterday 53%. That is quite a difference.
The most things about Valdes have already been said here, but I'll give it a go to. I agree with the people that believe the four goals weren’t (entirely) his fault, well at least the last three goals. A better position would result in Valdes saving Forlans cracker. But the other three goals were mainly errors of a defence that wasn’t quite up to pace all night long (which could be a result of the decrease in confidence caused by previous errors from Valdes).
Puyol was caught out of position all the time (just look at the space Aguero had in the match).
Alves didn’t really made a good contribution going forward, was therefore frustrated which resulted in a poor defensive display (shouldn’t got a yellow card though). And if Simao played a bit better things would have got worse for us.
It was quite obvious Sylvinho lacks games. He left too much space behind him as he didn’t knew when to stop going forward. And he indeed looked like he got a heart attack when going off.
And for Marquez, well I haven’t really seen him on the pitch except for one error which led to one of Aguero's goals. Maybe should have pressed some more on Forlan when he scored his first goal, but then again, that was so far out that he could not risk leaving the space behind him for Aguero to exploit.
I also want to say something about Eto'o. I hate all the comments being made here about him. Come on guys he scored 23 goals already this season, if it wasn’t for him we had like 20 points less. But I do agree that he should have scored yesterday, he got at least two clear goal scoring opportunities and should have passed the ball to Henry immediately when they went at Leo Franco in the final stages of the game, a really poor decision of him.
On the whole this game has cost us (and Atletico) an enormous amount of energy. I am eager to know how Guardiola is going to solve this against Mallorca (maybe he’ll finally play Bojan?).
One last thing: anyone saying the linesman was paid by Real for calling a penalty should also look at the other linesman which could be paid by Barça if you like to think in ways of paying the officials. The goal that was disallowed (I think Heitinga scored it) was as legit a goal you'll see. This would have resulted in the 1-0 for Atleti.
Well these are just my to cents. I have gone a little over the top length wise, but I hope I said something useful. And by the way, I’m not trying to be a new Ramzi or Kamikaze, haha.
welcome again in 2007/2008
i can remember the rule that when a player takes a penalty and the ball hits the post, that it's a new situation and the moment the ball hits the post is a new situation for an offside check. so, if a player hits the post when shooting a penalty and then if he scores with the second try, it would be an offside goal.
nearly the same happend to athletico yesterday. first the ball hits the post and then athletico scored from an offside position.
am i wrong?
Last night i was cursing the players for not having a winning mentality. my girlfrined's a man u fan and i had to watch them win the carling cup. i hate them almost as much as madrid but i knew as soon as it went to penalties they would win. they have that mentality that we need. the last two seasons are history we need to forget them. pep has to install confidence in the players, they are good enough to beat anyone.
in retrospect we lost to espanyol and atletico madrid, two teams tat always really up there game to play us. as has been said mallorca game needs to be a convincing victory. this game we looked in control for most of it, yes it was open but we were the better team, if they didn't have jun they would not have won. game against lyon(benzema) and atletico (aguro) and one of them spanked us. if we go for one next season its got to be aguero, he was even an aerial threat in this match!
anyway forget next season this season get behind the team and especially get behind pep, inexperience can be overcome by confidence, confidence comes from support and praise. yes he should have made some changes but dont hate on now see if he learns.
and as for madrid fans writing on this blog, it says something about how interesting your team is if you have to go to your biggest rivals blogsite for entertainment, also check the fixture list for favouritism. they are right all the great barca teams have had to put up with the madrid bias, thats what has made them great, this team can do it if we get behind them.
hmmmmm. I just read all the coments above.. too tired to add mine (lenghty one).. But for the 1st time, I agree with my "buddy" MEMO. well said.. wink wink
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