Apr 13, 2010

FC Barcelona vs Deportivo Preview

FC Barcelona could Make Life miserable for Deportivo

After the exceptional night at Bernabeu, FC Barcelona will be hosting Real Club Deportivo La Coruna at the Camp Nou on Wednesday night. The euphoria surrounding the victory at Bernebeu has not yet settled but we can expect the players not to get carried away by that win. One of the major achievement of Guardiola is the fact that he make sure that his team remains focused regardless of the surrounding hype. The last time these two teams met was at the Riazor where Barca emerged victorious - Deportivo - 1, Barca - 3. Deportivo were lying at the fifth position at that time, but they looks like been in a downhill path after that loss. Deportivo arrives at Camp Nou with a six match winless streak, losing four in a row prior to last week. FC Barcelona on the other hand is brimming with confidence after dispatcing both Arsenal and Real Madrid in pretty dominant fashion. Ibrahimovic, who missed Barca's last two match against Arsenal and Real Madrid is expected to miss this one too. He and Abidal trained seperately yesterday.

Apr 11, 2010

Barca vs Real Madrid - A Tactical Review

Yesterday's 2-0 victory over Real Madrid is Barca's fourth consecutive Clasico win following the 4-1 disappointment at Bernebeu two seasons ago. That statistics alone shows the difference in quality between these two sides at this moment. This FC Barcelona is considered as one of the best in the history, made up of stars coming out of Barca's youth academy. It is ironic that yesterday's two goal scorers were product of Barca's youth academy and the assist to both the goals came from Xavi, another La Masia veteran. In contrast Real Madrid was trying to buy their way into greatness. This Real Madrid, one of the most talented side in recent past has been assembled at a cost of over 300 million dollars. Florentino Pérez's neo-Galactico policy has failed to guarantee victory over their arch-rivals and also demands a bit of introspection from the Chairman about his methods. But as we all know Perez is not a man who is going to change due to pressure. What we will see this summer is another spending spree, already there are a number of big names in which Madrid is interested - Rooney, Gerrard etc. Returning back to yesterday's game, what we saw was nowhere near a classic Clasico. It resembled at times a clash between two top English teams rather with chances at premium. In the end the quality of talents Barca possess and the fact that their team looked a more compact was the difference in the game.