A lot of the barca players say the one player they couldn't live without is Puyol. Just seems to always put that bit of effort in that others lack.
Barcelona v Real Madrid
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A lot of the barca players say the one player they couldn't live without is Puyol. Just seems to always put that bit of effort in that others lack.
Do you have to turn everything into a negative?
Summed up perfectly for me. What an astonishing game.
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I am a Messi fan, but Maradona by all accounts won the 86 world cup on his own, where was Messi to be seen in the world cup? Messi is great but he is also surrounded by greatness, and has a freedom to play. For me Zidane still ranks above Messi from the modern generation of players.
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Didn't you see the game and ooze over it as a football fan? We should be encouraging players with technical ability to flourish and stay here, instead of hacking them to bits and scratching our heads every two summers.
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Well if Arsenal insist on making as many fouls and picking up as many cards as they do can you really blame opposition players for leaving the Premiership?
I know that he took them to the 86 world cup but if you took put messi in that team of 86 he would have done the same.
Football is much more competitive than ever before so against good teams its going to be hard to influence the game single handedly.
I personally view the greatest player of all time as being the most gifted footballer and in that light I can't see any further than messi.
Interesting comment on a match report got me thinking... someone said "does the football barcelona play have any relevance to any other team? Can they learn from it?" or something similer.
Honestly, is there any other team that has a set of players so perfectly in tune that they could do what Barca do week in week out?
Honestly, is there any other team that has a set of players so perfectly in tune that they could do what Barca do week in week out?
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Well if Arsenal insist on making as many fouls and picking up as many cards as they do can you really blame opposition players for leaving the Premiership?
We're giving as good as we get.
Hopefully.
My oh my oh my
....what a brutal scintillating footballing display by Barca 5-0
...just watched the highlights and i have to say Real were well and truly slaughtered like lambs out there...absolutely loved the Mourinhos face...was a picture to see
Messi although didnt score any goals was again immense...Villa's first goal was nicely set up by Messi.
But whats more hilarious is the way Real lost their heads...i guess Mourinho couldnt motivate them enough in the 2nd half.
Barca are something else with they way they ripped apart Real piece by piece.
....what a brutal scintillating footballing display by Barca 5-0...just watched the highlights and i have to say Real were well and truly slaughtered like lambs out there...absolutely loved the Mourinhos face...was a picture to seeMessi although didnt score any goals was again immense...Villa's first goal was nicely set up by Messi.
But whats more hilarious is the way Real lost their heads...i guess Mourinho couldnt motivate them enough in the 2nd half.
Barca are something else with they way they ripped apart Real piece by piece.
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It wasn't very relevant just because, I'm not sure thats how they normally play, infact the very last game I saw them play involved a not great but half decent defensive display and Barca passing very well and intricately IN the box with 6-7 Barca players in and around the penalty box. They didn't do that tonight, for two reasons, when they passed someone in behind there was no defence, so no holding players up and having Barca camp on the edge of the opponents penalty box as they usually do.
Barca won, easily, but the football wasn't actually THAT good.
Walk up to the midfield defensive line, 5 yards from the back 4, which for some unknown reason was consistantly pushed fairly high up the pitch. Have 3 people bend a run along the line , pass on any diagonal, watch the flat footed, squared on centre backs, and the out of position fullbacks do absolutely nothing.
It wasn't like they were creating the best one-two's ever to break through this solid defence, and they walked up to Alonso/Khedira as neither attempted to pressure anyone at any stage of the game(Alonso half tried in the final 5 minutes but was crap then aswell).
Barcelona produce much higher quality passing and defence breaking moves than they were at any stage required to tonight.
It was thoroughly entertaining, not least because of the way players reacted to it, multiple brawl type situations. But Barca barely played, they weren't required to defend, even the few corners were just woeful and hit the first man. One freekick that came close is pretty much the entire 90minutes from Real, the only decent kick of the ball from 11 players across what was about 95-96minutes is truly shocking.
I did think in the first 5 minutes, that Ozil, Benzema and Di Maria, new boys, inexperienced in a truly huge game might be a mistake and that some experience and fight would be better. Ok Benzema's not "new" but was shockingly bad last year.
Theres a reason other teams sit tight to their own box and don't allow those diagonal passes through the defence for others to run onto, what was criminal was playing a fairly high line and having both fullbacks consistantly ignore the runs, track none of them and have both CB's with not a chance in hell of catching most of them. I don't think Alonso/Khedira followed a single one of those runs into the box, they backed off, backed off, then just stopped.
As for having to turn everything into a negative, if you can find something positive in Real's performance I really don't know.
There were two teams tonight, much like Utd, Barca put on a show, but it was pretty much the absolutely shocking nature of the other teams performance that allowed it. Whats really strange is, Real were better in both games last year, Real were, I don't even know how to describe it, I don't think I've seen a performance that bad in years by any team.
I'm not being funny here DM, I normally read what you say and often agree with points you make.
I can't begin to describe how ****ing wide of the mark you are with this comment.
Stop reading at that. Sorry, you watched a different Barca to the rest of the world.
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Hmm, fair point DM.
Barca were a class apart tonight but that's always relative to the opposition. We shouldn't get carried away.
Barca were a class apart tonight but that's always relative to the opposition. We shouldn't get carried away.
Haha, I did exactly the same thing!
Commentator was annoying tonight.
"Barca are bossing the game, Madrid can't get a kick"..... at 1-0, as they are bringing it out from a corner that resulted from their keeper having to make a save.
"Poor pass from Iniesta"... towards the end of the first half, when Villa had started a run down the wing but then inexplicably checked it just as he was playing the ball, so the pass looked overhit but would actually have been a great ball down the line had Villa kept going.
"sublime stuff" after Barca strung about 3 passes together.
Thought the ref was fairly good, kept the game going. Certainly a far cry from the endless cries we hear from Premiership commentators whenever a foreigner appeals for a freekick "oh that might be a foul in Europe, but not here, welcome to the Premiership!". I didn't see any difference from how that game was being run to how games are over here, except maybe Carvalho would have off.
Personally whenever I watch Barca now I just can't stop chuckling to myself about the most ridiculous transfer in the history of the world, £37m plus Eto'o for Ibrahimovic. Yet Villa was around £32m which while a huge figure I was actually surprised they got him that cheap.
"Barca are bossing the game, Madrid can't get a kick"..... at 1-0, as they are bringing it out from a corner that resulted from their keeper having to make a save.
"Poor pass from Iniesta"... towards the end of the first half, when Villa had started a run down the wing but then inexplicably checked it just as he was playing the ball, so the pass looked overhit but would actually have been a great ball down the line had Villa kept going.
"sublime stuff" after Barca strung about 3 passes together.
Thought the ref was fairly good, kept the game going. Certainly a far cry from the endless cries we hear from Premiership commentators whenever a foreigner appeals for a freekick "oh that might be a foul in Europe, but not here, welcome to the Premiership!". I didn't see any difference from how that game was being run to how games are over here, except maybe Carvalho would have off.
Personally whenever I watch Barca now I just can't stop chuckling to myself about the most ridiculous transfer in the history of the world, £37m plus Eto'o for Ibrahimovic. Yet Villa was around £32m which while a huge figure I was actually surprised they got him that cheap.
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Do you have to turn everything into a negative?
Summed up perfectly for me. What an astonishing game.
Ignore him, DM just writes long winded drivel most of the time. Not just in the sports section.
Wanting to take nothing away from a superb victory for Barca , it still leaves me very uneasy the way they mob the referee for every decision and wave imaginary yellow cards about. 
Theres also the issue of simulation which seems to be getting worse in La Liga ?
Theres also the issue of simulation which seems to be getting worse in La Liga ?