Things We Learnt From First Two El Clásico Matches

Two of the four are now over and with a draw and a win Jose Mourinho and Real Madrid have an advantage in hand a trophy to cherish that. The matches lacked the quality we hoped to see from this kind of a tie but the fierce match kept up the interest and the viewers were glued to their seats till the end of the match on both days. Here is a list of things that we learnt from these two matches. May be we knew enough of these even before the matches started but these 210 minutes of football made these more apparent and it is surely a time to take a look at this.

Mourinho getting more of the focus now!

• You can’t beat Barcelona at their own game… but you can beat them

The aura of invincibility around the Barcelona team has now vanished. Everyone knows that Barcelona will smash any team if they are allowed to play their own game. But if a team defends well, squeezes the team so much that disables their fluid passing and relies heavily on counter attacks, Barcelona can be defeated. At the end of the day its the result that matters and not the style of play. In the long run, people will remember Real Madrid finally defeated Barcelona after 5 loses and a draw. Helplessness Barcelona against defensive football and dependence on Messi became more apparent now.

• Don’t expect high quality football in clásico

In my previews and reviews for the previous matches I always hoped that with the class of players involved in the match, we will be treated with high quality football and love that. But after the first two I have lost my hope. The players realise that it is the result that matters and they want to have that in their favour in any way. Add to that the intense rivalry between the clubs due to their history and huge media coverage, and it turns out to be a fierce match. Looking at the previous two matches, no more hope remains for good football in the next two as well as no one wants to play well and lose.

we'll see more of these

• El clásico won’t end with 22 men

For outsiders who watch this match to see football, this may only be one of the biggest matches of the year but for people like Xavi, Pique, Puyol, Iniesta, Busquets, Sergio Ramos and Casillas and others who bleed for their team, it is a match of the lifetime. When they will reach the field all sportsmanship, friendship and team spirit for the Spanish NT will vanish into the thin air. The intensity of their rivalry will take its toll on the mentality of the players and their will be rough tackles and tough physical play. And this will led to more physical and desperate game and one or two red cards will be regular in this fixture.

• Mourinho learns from his mistakes

When Mourinho reached Real Madrid and faced Barcelona in his first el clásico, he tried to match Barcelona with the quality of players he had and wanted to play good football and win. The demand of good football by the Real Madrid has seen a lot of successful coaches being sacked from the post. But Mourinho realised in these few months that the desperation due to losing to their biggest rivals so many times has taken over the demand of good football and he took his decision. He realised that Barcelona can’t be beaten if they are allowed to play. Display of free flowing football will only lead to a respectable lose. And then he put Pepe as the game breaker in between Xabi Alonso and Khedira, who were tormented by Barcelona attackers in November, and that paid well. Three defensive midfielders did cut down the creativity but it did lead to Barcelona not getting enough space to play their game. And the responsibility of going for an attack was left solely on Ronaldo, Di Maria, Özil or Adebayor who used their speed and power to get the better of the Barcelona defence. And the result is in front of everyone to see. A comeback from 0-1 down with 10 men in League and a 1-0 win in the Copa Del Rey final.

• Puyol is indispensable in Barcelona defence

irreplaceable!!

Everyone knows this fact. The presence of Puyol in the defence gives Barcelona the much needed stability in the defence. Puyol, with his speed, power and height, outplays the opponents whenever needed. And the necessity never became so much apparent until Barcelona had to face a talented attack of Ronaldo, Özil, Di Maria and Adebayor without him. In the Copa Del Rey final, outpaced Pique and Mascherano many a times and Ronaldo scored from almost a free header when Mascherano was sticking to his body. Ronaldo has broken his jinx of scoring against Barcelona, but if anyone has noticed, both the times he scored in the last two matches Puyol was not on field. If Puyol is back to the team by the next match, Guardiola will be much more relieved in letting Alves, Maxwel and Busquets in supporting the attack.

• Guardiola needs to think out of the box to win everything

Guardiola’s Barcelona had become synonymous to invincible. In the last three years he has managed the team the quality of game play has gone to heavenly level and most teams are outplayed by the dazzling display of football his team has shown. But when teams started to “Park their buses” in front of goal, Barcelona found it difficult to penetrate with the passing the ball. The dependence of the team on one Lionel Messi became more apparent in these situations. (Interestingly enough, the term ‘parking the bus’ was coined by Jose Mourinho during his Chelsea tenure.) Guardiola needs to find out some other way to attack when 8-10 men are put behind the ball. Call it anti-football or strategic masterstroke, it has been effective against Barcelona in the recent times and Mourinho has showed this to the world more than once. It is for sure that more teams will start using the same strategy in the next matches they face Barcelona. If Barcelona want to qualify for the finals of the Champions League, Guardiola must bring in something more effective in these situation and for that he needs to think really out of the box.

Now two of the four el clásico are gone and Mourinho’ Madrid is in an advantageous position, its on Guardiola’s Barcelona to try and do something different to save their attempt on the UEFA Champions League. The things will get interesting in the two legged tie that we are going to see within seven days. Real Madrid will play the first at home on Wednesday and the problem regarding ‘long grasses’ will arise to cause some difficulty to Barcelona but they will have the advantage of playing the second game at home. And then only we will see which of these two, we will see at Wembley on May 28^th.