El Clasico in Copa del Rey, two legs drama 國王杯

My appreciation for blogger Sam Thompson for pictures.

I was planning to write about this as soon as the first leg is closed. Yet, a consolidated two-leg review should be more interesting.

The result is good, as for a Barcelona fan. Yet, the second leg really created some tension. Although I always trusted on Pep Guardiola on his decisions, I have to say sometimes I am really confused of his decisions. In the second leg there are some good examples I will speak.


First leg: Santiago Bernabeu (Real Madrid 1-2 FC Barcelona)

On Attack:
Barcelona's attacking tactic is simple. Control the ball and try to find the gap in the defence line. As I mentioned before, the summer transfer was quite successful, Sanchez and Fabregas prove their value through their consistent performance.

The score came in the least expecting way. One was from the corner freekick, ending with the header of Puyol! The other was the result of rapid passing, directly from the right end side to the left end, with neat final touch of Abidal.

For the first goal, we did little on the free-kick after Ronaldihno age. Occasionally, we could expect a high ball from corner or a decent free kick around box zone, yet we have more short pass open to fit  the tactic: control and movement! For the second goal, we switched attacking side from one end to the other. And the Madrid defence was so puzzled and simply could do little about it. Although I would expect Iniesta in that position, Abidal's persence made the night. (oh, his dance was certainly amusing...:P)

On Defence: Ronaldo made his goal through Barcelona defence. I would say all Barcelona player have done what they could do to defence Ronaldo. He is a world-class player, and a world class player can score in any difficult position. No one to be blamed here.

Second leg: Camp Nou (FC Barcelona 2-2 Real Madrid)

The second match for Barcelona should be quite relaxing. They do not have to do much extra, just doing what they are good at should be fair enough to eliminate Real. Yet, Mourinho is not someone who would sit and wait for that 90 mins passed away. Like a wounded and cornered animal, he would try any possibility to break Barcelona confidence and at least make the score.

On Madrid Side:

I would say, Real Madrid simply waste too many opportunities in the first half, especially the in the first 20 minutes. They could have done better!! One thing I do not understand is the reservation of Benzema on bench. He caused lots of troubles for Barcelona as I recalled in several games, at least in the first leg of this series.

The starting lineup of Mourinho has nothing fresh, I would consider RM side can do better if Benzema could have played the first half. Yet the substitution was quite brilliant and effective. They not only continuously pressed harder on Barcelona defence line, which looked messy and neverous for most of the second half, but also has make the ball move more rapidly, which create several excellent opportunities: and they capitalized two.

On Barcelona Side:

After a few bad situations, Barcelona come back to dominant the scenario. The goal of Pedro is brilliant and the the blast from Alves is another amazing demonstration of our diversified fire power.

Yet the second half is disastrous.

First of all, Mourinho made some good substitution. Bezema has a fresh power to sprint among the defence line and Callejon and Graneno make their defence line more compact. They pressed hard as they should be, since they have nothing to lose given the results in first half. Not sure if that is from confidence or from relaxation, Barcelona players did not respond to such pressure well. Typically, they would resume the control and retreat to back to deep the horizon of game, which make such pressure works in vain at the end. However, they conced the ball easily and eventaully that made them paid.

Secondly, I do not understand Guardiola on this point. Responding to Real's press, Mescherano would be my number one to put in play. A tough guys can interrput Real's attacking waves and ease up the pressure on defence. Yet, replacing Fabregas with Thiago means that we would have a rather young player in midfield, heavy the workload of Xavi and Messi, and weaken the organization of possible counter attack.

Some fellow Barcelona fan complained of the control in the second half, and attributed that to the early exit of Iniesta. (Off in 29 mins, Injured in this match) I do not think that is the reason, since we already played a fabulous first half without him. And the last 20 mins of first half present a strong dominance. We literally made Real players chasing us with a very good short-distant, high-speed accurate passing. We did not replicate that in second half. Partially due to the defence of Real; and partially because of the erosion of energy along the play. Hence, the substution decision seems important here.

Overall:

It is just pity that we lost two players in injury in the second leg. Although I always respect Real Madrid as opponent, yet some of their plays were really nasty. Check out th statistics and I think it speaks out naturally. Anyway, two good match, some nice tension, and El clasico is just a thing you must see!

Statistics for the first leg

Statistics for the second leg

中文簡版:
身為一個巴薩迷, 這兩年來可以說有不少好比賽可以看. 每年在例行的聯賽兩場對陣之外, 國王盃的盃賽甚至可能的歐冠比賽都有機會對上皇馬. 去年一共打了五場El Clasico (一場國王盃, 兩場歐洲冠軍盃, 跟兩場西班牙甲級聯賽), 今年在國王盃八強對上皇馬, 至少就會有四場El Clasico 賽事.

第一腿: 在皇馬主場的比賽沒有打出特別的亮點, 或者是說, 巴薩在這幾年的打法已經讓人相當熟悉, 而身為巴薩迷也會把這一切的發生當成理所當然. "歐 又是場美妙的比賽"

雖然我們先被進球, 但是我們卻又再次的主導比賽. 控球比是很漂亮的數據, 而且被進球之後一點都不慌張, 反而皇馬自己把自己的場面玩小了, 撤退到自己的防守半徑去想要在主場拿下這一分. 但是我們透過不常見的角球開入禁區的頭球和快速的兩翼互換(Alves=>Messi=> Abidal), 硬生生要他們吞下一場敗仗.

就像Pique說的: "當我們用自己的方式踢球, 沒人阻止的了我們" (When we are ourselves, nobody can stop us/Quan som nosaltres no hi ha cap equip que ens pari/Cuando somos nosotros no hay ningún equipo que nos pare)

第二腿:
(謎之音: 皮少, 但如果你用你自己的方式踢球, 你會毀了我們)

打完上半場總積分4-1的領先讓人家可以鬆一口氣, 但是下半場卻又打的完全不像樣. 被追到了4-3的總積分差, 那種差點就翻船的感覺讓人有種"現在到底是誰佔優勢押?"的困惑感.

有人說下半場的控制場面不好是因為Iniesta太早下場了, 但我卻不覺得這是問題主因. 在上半場我們就沒有Iniesta, 而Pep在Iniesta下場後換上Pedro是個成功的決定, Pedro的跑動一直很具有侵略性, 他雖然沒有像Iniesta一樣優異的中場控球能力, 但是在中場球員還有Cesc的狀況下這並不是太大的問題. 但是在下半場的換人就顯得令人困惑. 在還有Mascherano在板凳上的情況下, 撤換Cesc替上的是Thiago並沒有讓中場控制增加, 而在先前爭球過程中有點受傷的Alexi應該要更早下場休息. 我賽後想想還有那種兩種換人應該對掉時間比較合理的想法(先拿Mascherano換Alexi, 晚點在拿Thiago換Cesc)
打完比賽之後我必須說Mourihno 是個優秀的教練, 至少在換人跟壓迫的決定上他做了身為皇馬教練應該做的事情. 雖然他有些招式實在難以讓人茍同,尤其是拿牌好像拿不用錢的(黃牌以後應該改名叫做皇牌好了).