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Well there were no pleasantries exchanged in this years El Classico between Real Madrid and Barcelona. Almost immediately Cristiano Ronaldo found himself firmly planted on his backside as Pique ran through him after the ball. Ronaldo’s play today was shocking, mostly for his trademark flair that bordered on the absurd at times, and possibly led to the first Barcelona goal scored by Xavi. Having gotten the ball in the middle of the pitch, Ronaldo must have done 15 step overs before he finally put the cross in to Angel di Maria. He waited so long in fact, di Maria could;’t even get a shot away before the ball was played back up the other end of the pitch ending on the toe of Xavi who put it straight into the back of the net. Only a few minutes later, he was guilty of the same type of selfish play. It seemed he actually stopped to watch himself on the big screen, glorying in his own narcissism, before putting in another harmless cross. However,r the most shocking scene was when he forcibly took the ball from the hands Pep Guardiolo, leading to a scuffle with several Barcelona players. A bit of argie-bargie on the pitch is all fair and well, but there was no, and can be no excuse for his pushing of an old man due to his own frustrations. I for one hope he receives a lengthly ban.
The whole Madrid midfield also looked terrible for the majority of the first half and were completely unable to contain Xavi or Iniesta. You can blame it on the torrential lane, but Real looked more like Blackburn Rovers than the terrors of Europe when pitted against the in form Catalan giants.
As for Messi, he had a cracking first half, though not one marked by the inspired finishing we’ve gotten used to. However, he did show hwy he so much more valuable as a player than the selfish and arrogant Ronaldo. He was invaluable as support for Pedro and David Villa on both of their goals. In fact, he played so well Sergio Ramos felt the need to take him out of the match at the end leading to further disgraceful scenes of brawling. Messi’s precise passing made the difference for Barcelona today and gets my vote for man of the match. The match was over on the 60th minute, and honestly Barcelona were only toying with them after that. In the end, it was the atrocious passing by Real Madrid that let the match get away from them. By the time they woke up, it was long gone.
Barcelona 5-0 Real Madrid
Written by: Matthew Wall, editor, soccerprose.com
