FC Barcelona booked their place in this year's Champions League final in Wembley with a 1-1 draw against their bitter rivals Real Madrid. The only draw back of what was a perfect night was the stupid goal we conceded. Pedro put Barca ahead early in the first half but Marcelo equalised for Real Madrid. Mourinho will be out tomorrow with his guns blazing with his new found nonsenses.Guardiola went in with a starting eleven as I predicted in the preview. The defense had Alves, Mascherano, Pique and Puyol. The midfield had Iniesta, Busquets and Xavi. The attacking trio was once again the Villa, Pedro and Messi. Real madrid lined up with Diarra, Alonso and Kaka in midfield. The front attacking trio was Maria, Higuain and Ronaldo. The defense had Arbeloa, Carvalho, Albiol and Marcelo.
Real madrid was not going to sit back and wait in this tie. They were looking more positive in the opening minutes compared to the last three Clasicos. In the 7th minute Puyol won the ball from Madrid defense in their box and slipped it to Iniesta, whose shot from outside box was pretty wide. In the 22nd minute we had our first brilliant chance with Busquets finding acres of space from a Xavi corner, but he heads it straight to Casillas. In the 32nd minute Lionel Messi went in a bit of a diagonal run and tried to curl the ball to far post, but Casillas did well to reach and hold that shot. In the 33rd minute Lionel Messi had a great chance when he received a cross outside box, skipped past a sliding Alonso and when he only had to put the ball past Casillas fired the shot wide. In the 34th minute Casillas made yet another save, this time pulling out a brilliant full stretch save to deny Villa. The very next minute Pedro shot wide from another promising position, he could have easily slipped the ball to Messi. In the 37th minute messi had another shot which was once again saved by Casillas. In the 40th minute Real Madrid showed how dangerou they can be on counter with Ronaldo sprinting on the left and sending a good cross to find Maria in the box, but Valdes read the move really well. The half ended with Real Madrid winning a corner which was duly collected by Valdes. Both teams looked happy with the scoreline at the break, but we were guilty oof wasting some good chances.
The second half show the rain pouring out real heavily. The match start was delayed by some stupid crack running across the pitch. It was becoming quiet tricky to control the ball with so much water on the pitch. Real Madrid was exerting all the pressure from the start of the first half and won a corner in the 53rd minute after Puyol gave the ball away. In the 54th minute Pedro put us ahead with a defense carving through ball by Iniesta and Pedro obliged that pass with a great finish. That should have killed the tie. Pedro hasn't scored in recent matches and what a bloody time to end your score drought. Real Madrid took off Higuain and brought in Adebayor to have more of aerial strength. Adebayor immediately started to putting on ridiculous challenge on our players. In the 60th minute Kaka was taken off and Ozil was introduced. In the 64th minute Marcelo equalised for Real Madrid after Busquets gave the ball away near our box. In the 74th minute Guardiola took off David Villa and brought in Keita. In the 75th minute Marcelo brought down Messi in the right end of the pitch and was rightly booked. In the 90th minute Puyol who made his 100th Champions League appearance was taken off and Abidal was brought in. Our left back is back, guys.
This match was perfect. We took any pressure that Real Madrid could bring on for the first 30 minutes, then unleashed ourselves for the neext ten minutes. Real Madrid had to thank our finishing and Iker Casillas for keeping them safe at that stage. We hit the nail on the coffin with Pedro's goal, eventhough they got a goal back it was never easy for Real Madrid to score two more. There were some nice moments with Iniesta and Puyol coming back to the squad. The former was a bit of rusty in the start but he still found that wonder pass to open up Real Madrid defense. Messi was once again the best player on the pitch and if it wasn't for that lenient referee, he would have got Carvalho send off by the half hour mark. Real Madrid ended out with eleven players on the pitch, but really was lucky not to have atleast three players send off. But in the end of the game, it didn't harm anyone. There will be more non-sense coming from Mourinho from tonight, we better should ignore those. Next up is win the league as soon as possible and make the players rested and fit for the final at Wembley.
All About FC Barcelona
AllAboutFCBarcelona.com is a Blog dedicated to the Most prestigous Club in the world, FC Barcelona by an ardent fan. Here I discuss about the Latest happening surrounding our Club and present my Views about the same.
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