El Clasico Champions League Semifinal 1st Leg Liveblog

New post up, folks

I have remained silent for to long.

Pathetic...how long must we be pacified by a Copa del Rey while Mourinho puts out a trivote at home to our biggest rival? I dont care about the diving, red card's or even how brilliant Messi was, Mourinho is a coward and he has showed that in his team selections. I could see attempting to stifle Barca with such a lineup in the away leg, but he has not done this in three matches, and should have lost all three. VETE YA!

Today I really hate football. I mean I really do. Fifa acts like a third world country, scared of developing for the future, ran by a bunch of selfish dictators who are biased.

Its 2011 and we still see these officiating mistakes that make you want to puke. Fifa shouldn't be called fair play.

Fifa needs to understand that the referee isn't god, he is bound to make mistakes sometimes. He has one hell of a job at hand and if they really cared about how Referee's were treated; let them have an option to review plays from screen.

I was reading an article on Real Madrid.com talking about the number of cameras in the stadium were something like 100+? So whats holding Fifa back in implementing this technology.

I'm shaving my head in support of Pepe.

Hala Madrid.

Don't you think Pepe did quite a bit of acting to get Mascherano booked? He rolled for a good ten metres and was barely touched.

Wow, I hate talking about this stuff. I think I may be done for awhile. Really enjoy your blog, keep up the good work Bassam, Corey, Andrés, et al.

Hello everyone, I've been following this blog for a while now and have always enjoyed reading all of your posts and comments. Andres, Bassam, Corey before, and all other writers have done a great job for this blog but more importantly, they did a good job representing the true values of Madridismo along the way. Pride, respect, and loyalty just to name few. I am 23 years old and have always been a Madrid fan. As far as I can remember. So its a pleasure of mine to talk to true fans like you guys and all other members of Real the offside.

As for today's game, it was a real joy killer after that Copa del Rey win last week. Khedira's and Carvalho's absences did cost us tonight. Lass looked lost to me, he didnt do half the job Khedira did in the last Clasico. He couldnt keep up with Barca's fast passing (although I give him credit for making couple of good long-range passes). But lets be honest what really cost us this game was the stupid referee who ruined what was supposed to be one of the most beautiful Champions league ties for this year. As for diving, Barca never fails to amuse me. Wow.

Also, I kindly disagree with some of the comments above regarding Mou's line up selection for this game. It is obvious that the only way we can neutralize Barca's midfield and limit their support in attack was to play with three holding midfielders and a deep defense line. And Pepe was a perfect addition to the double pivot of Khedira and Alonso. So why would Mou change it for this game ? If he did that and lost, then he will be the talk of the city for the next week (media and fans). Therefore, Mou had to play it safe since its a CL encounter and conceding a goal at home could make big difference. In other words, it was not the night to try new experiments. However, what I disliked about the game tonight was the negativity that was dominating our play. We didnt look eager to go forward and score. What I would have liked to see is our full backs pushing more. Marcelo and Arbeloa didnt do that tonight. Lass, Xabi, or Pepe could have covered for them while theyre doing that. Unfortunately, that did not happen. But what really pissed my off is that Mou didnt make any changes after Pepe was sent off and Messi scored once, Messi scored twice... and still no changes from Mou. Kind of disappointed to be honest ! Also, I dont know why Mou is sticking to Adebayor. I have said before the first Clasico of the series, and will say it again. This guy's game doesn't suit our game against Barca. He is good in the air, thats it. But it's not like we're the team who keep crossing the ball all game like English teams for example. Hence, he is useless. I really hoped he would prove me wrong tonight, but unfortunately, he didn't. All he does is slow down the counter attacks .Pipita would have been a better sub. Or even Kaka. But we didn't see that either. Sorry for the long post. Let's hope a miracle happens next week. Whenever a moment like this comes, I watch the highlights of the 2003 CL quarterfinals at Old Trafford when Ronaldo scored a hatrick and we advanced to the semis.. Keep your head up Madridistas.. The good moments are yet to come :) !

What I'm wondering is why the f*** were we trying for 0-0 AT FREAKING HOME!?!?! Did he not see the Copa game!? We CAN attack Barca without conceding.

Agree with you that we CAN attack Barca without conceding.

But this match is different. We didn't have Carvalho. This weakens our defensive quality somewhat, and reckless attacking will surely expose us to conceding more goals even before halftime.

If that's not enough, losing Pepe just before we execute our step2 of our plan really screwed us. We can't attack like the way did vs Valencia. This is Barca we're talking about. We'll be caught flatfooted the moment we lose ball possession in their third of the pitch, the ball will be pinged to Messi & gang in no time and before you know it, he'd have breached our backline and we'll be down another goal. As can be seen after the Pepe red card, Messi was free of the shackles that was Pepe, and sure enough he scored 2 goals. Whatever our defensive lineup we may have, without Carvalho and Pepe, it's game over for us - if our opponent is Barca.

That's because Moronhu is a waterboy/translator who is fooling the world with his huge ego and his 3rd rate tactics....I agree with Di Stefano.....this guy is an embarrassment to this great club; the sooner he's gone, the better...if you want to criticize, this guy has one of the most expensive collections of great players I can remember and what is he doing with them? Copa del Rey?

Uh..in now way do I want to see Mou gone. His tactics are usually correct and in some ways, genius...but today..not so much.

Nothing I say will be different or change anything, but I'm proud of Real Madrid fans, the club, its players, its coach and all other associates.

I know it stings for unwarranted calls like this to happen, but when I think of Chelsea, Arsenal and Inter Milan, I know we're in good company!

What I saw out there was a team that COULD win at the highest levels of world football, and for that, I am genuinely excited.

We may not have won this year, but there's plenty to be happy about. Let's keep our heads up high and look to the future.

*http://eircomsports.eircom.net...

I am sick and tired of watching my team go down a man due to the likes of a team that, when they can't dominate they resort to fouling, diving, and swarming the referee! When are Barca lovers going to wake up and realize they worship a team of prima-donnas that spend most of their time trying (and succeeding) to manipulate their way to victory. What I witnessed tonight was nothing more than Catalan SHAME! Cules wake up. Your team is absolutely pathetic!

Just occured to me that in the past 3 games, barca have only scored when we were down to ten men..hmm...

Andres they changed it already. And they all go, yeah we know Busquets dives but then when the coach of the team on the receiving end of his cheating ways complains they say he is wacko. God knows when that club goes down, I'll be there to piss on its grave.

From Wikipedia

" Sergio Busquets i Burgos (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈserxjo βusˈkets], Catalan: [βusˈkɛts]; born 16 July 1988) is a Spanish footballer who plays for FC Barcelona and the Spanish national team, as a defensive midfielder.

He was a relatively obscure player when he arrived in FC Barcelona's first team in July 2008, but eventually made a name for himself in a relatively short period of time, reaching the Spanish national team in less than one year after making his professional club début. Throughout his career, he has been troubled by spontaneous facial pain "

the last sentence is priceless haha

I am sick and tired of watching my team go down a man due to the likes of a team that, when they can't dominate they resort to fouling, diving, and swarming the referee! When are Barca lovers going to wake up and realize they worship a team of prima-donnas that spend most of their time trying (and succeeding) to manipulate their way to victory. What I witnessed tonight was nothing more than Catalan SHAME! Dani Alves is disgusting! Cules wake up. Your team is a disgrace to the game

You convinced me, I renounce Barça!

Well heres some more controversy for ur...Wolfgang Stark learned his trade from former UEFA referees committee chairman Volker Roth, the man who once famously branded Mourinho an 'enemy of football' when he was Chelsea manager. I guess his mentality comes from there as he hardly tolerates aggressive football.

The match was pretty dull and boring, I'm not going to discuss the referee, The way Real Madrid played tonight baffled me, Mourinho made it worse by getting sent off, He had some great attacking talent on the bench but he didn't use them, You'd think Benz, Higu, or Kaka would get a run in after the Valencia demolition, I have no clue why he kept Di Maria playing the 90 minutes, Subbing Ozil "Best Passer" for Ade "Target Man" meant more balls getting hit upfront with the hope of something good happening rather than building an attack.

P.S I'm a Barca fan

Well since guys like Rio so much I will quote him in saying "Messi saved that match from being talked about exclusively for all the wrong reasons"

lplpl

How are some people arguing Pepe red?? Its exactly similar to the one Ribery got last year albeit a few inches higher since Alves foot wasn't on the ground. You guys talk about our diving or whining yet you never mention the stamps you guys gave to our players. Keita on the ground kicked, Messi kicked on the floor, Pedro being injured because of a Marcelo stomp, even your papers AS are saying how marcelo should've been punished for that. Also please Muna send the link to where Stark said those remarks, as from my point of view the red card was building throughout the match as if you re-watch the match Pepe was making silly tackles on Alves even before the red card, which variously any one of those past fouls could've been yellow.

I wouldn't lie that our players pressured the ref or bought fouls, Busquets and Alves are our main divers but calling out Messi and Xavi diving is just ridiculous. Xavi only con is that he is constantly backtalking to refs and pressuring them similar to what Ramos does for you guys as through these classicos I have seen him constantly talking/questioning the linesmen. But I ask you this how is us pressuring the ref different from Mou pressuring the 4th official?? There was even issues earlier about how this guy from Madrid staff didn't follow orders from Mou in pressuring 4th officials. This match was only saved by 2 brilliant Messi goals otherwise I would put this game as one to miss since BOTH teams acted untold of their reputation.

Ribery stepped on Lisandro's foot, Pepe got the ball, not any part of Alves.

http://www[dot]youtube[dot]com/watch?v=G2oRXFRl6QE&feature=player_embedded#at=16

Wont dispute the quality of the goals,top shelf and makes up for many things, but this theatrics to send players off and pressuring the referee come a long way back and if memory serves me right it started around this time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Ya know for being the underdogs yall act like you were entitled to the win and the whole entire footballing assosciation did everything in their power to strip of you it. I think it's funny Barcelona has to beat you 5-0 in order for it to be a clean win.

you are not just slow you sound inadequate. Who said anything about deserving victory ?

cules are blinded and only see futbol one way and that is in their colors, just like pep they criticize the ref when they make the right call. they dont see how mou teams always end up w 10 players every game. or how they can only score when going against 10.

Are you reading our posts or are you slow ? where did you see anyone say that we deserved to win ? All people are saying is that your players are bunch of pansies and that we played pathetic football how exactly did you get the " we deserved to win" out of that ?

Funny enough, the ref just admitted that he didn't give Pepe the red card sole because of what he did to Alves, but because of his history.lol

So let me get this straight. He probably wanted to hand him a yellow card, or an oral warning, then all of a sudden, Pepe's incident with Getafe 1000 years ago flashed before his eyes, then he decided to go for a red? I don't see why Mourinho shouldn't complain. Three/four years in a row (and still counting), and the referees have to come to their rescue when it matters most. Not just against Mourinho's teams, but against Arsenal, and Ac Milan too (this just off the top of my head).

That aside, I think a lot of you have said it all. We lost, and apart from the idiocy of the refs, we must have done something wrong oursleves. We didn't hold the ball when we got it, and the high balls were not helpful.

But we held them to a goalless draw until the red card, and judging from Mou's comments, the tactics were going to change with Kaka coming in for Lass, and playing the no 10 role. Looked like a good plan, but it never happened that way. Now we're left with the ifs and what ifs.

Did anybody notice how in the first half, Barca kept on passing the ball around in their own half, and even frustrated CR once with all that crap? That's as negative as packing the bus tbh. They obviously didn't want to take the initiative, and were more interested in keeping us away from the ball. I fault our players for what they actually did when they did get hold of the ball. They did nothing, and they have themselves to blame for that. Sometimes, I think our players take to long to pass the ball. I'm looking at Alonso. He keeps on looking for the risky pass, when a simple pass to the player next to him will help relieve the pressure being mounted by the pressing Barca players.

In the end, I wouldn't say we didn't deserve to lose, but it would have been easier to accept our fate had we ended the game with eleven men. So far we've played 4 clasicos this season, and we've not finished any of them with our complete team. It's sickening. We managed to keep all our players until the dieing minutes in one match (CDR) and we happened to win it. Can't say the same wouldn't have happened today.

It was a good season folks. Let's hope next season is better. We'll manage the Copa (our consolation price) for now. This tie is over.

Ps: For those of you complaining about Mourinho's rants, I don't know what to say, but I can remember quite well that he didn't blame the ref for the 5-0 loss last year. That loss was fair and square, and he acknowledged it. But today, we had a key player sent off, not for what he did today, but because of what he's done in the past. It's more difficult to swallow this type of defeat.

OMG you're joking. I swear, refs are killing the game of football.

Waiting for link.....

The Barca trick are getting old! When Messi is at his best... playing against an inferior team or a team with only ten men. History will judge the Messiah.

Muna, you are joking with your first statement ? tell me seriously that he said that ! Are you kidding ?!

I kid thee not :)

Muna, do you have a link of that?

Could you please give me a link to the comments?

Okay so Barcelona played terribly, i was so appalled at their diving and whining. I never though a considered world class team would play like that. I knew that they were a *stupid team (madrid mind speaking) but to be so disgusting, i mean i have no words. Those two Messi goals were just uggh, and if i was in the stadium i would have run on the pitch and just put sense into those farca fools.
But also i didnt feel like madrid played well.. i dont know, i am not happy with the result, and more so i am not happy that people are going to go and yes Barca is the best team, cause they arent they are a shame to football.
Here is to a hopefully and pull into my religious side Insha'Allah amazing game in the Camp Nou and we win with a beautiful margin.

Look Madridistas if Dani Alves' foot had been planted on the ground and Pepe landed on it. It would have been a broken leg. Don't make excuses for the inexcusable. The hit was so hard that the cameras picked up the sound coming out of Dani Alves' mouth and the sound of the collision. It was a very heavy hit.

...and then all the universe exploded in a big bang!

yeah, the shout from Dani Alves mouth (lol). They must teach vocalization too during diving classes over there. We are talking about the same guy who rolled around and then immediately ran back to the field. Why don't you check Busquet's gif's above too and tell me how many decibels came out of his mouth too ?

Busquets made the same exact kinda play against Alonso in the Copa final ( he actually caught him ) and he didnt even get a yellow but i digress .

this sort of challenge is never a straight red , its always a yellow you are not going to convince anyone that it was deserved so give it up , you won go enjoy your victory and lets rant about whatever we want to rant about .

From the same club where the keeper whistles to confuse unwary attackers about nonexistent offside. Swindlers all of them. If there is justice in the world, Man Utd will win the trophy.

yea if we dont make it im rooting for United as well , Barca do not deserve to win anything in my book

I now find myself rooting for Man Utd. Rio Ferdinand to a shot at Alves' dive through his twitter account. That automatically made me a fan :)
I hope they win it, but I'll be surprised if they don't lose by three goals at least. They're just not that good.

what did Ferdinand say ?

This diving is a joke/embarrassing. When Pedro watches that do u think he'll think what was I doing!? Rugby players must laugh at football!
and
If u ever see me go off on a stretcher then run back on to play i give every1 on here the green light to hit me with a #2footedtackle !

We need more people thinking like this :)

LOL did he really say that , Awesome , consider me a fan of Rio

Adebayor said

"Football is a game of men," said the 27-year-old. "Whenever you play against Barcelona, whenever you touch them, they are on the floor crying like a baby. Whenever you make contact in a 50-50 they are on the floor, crying, putting their hand over their face, and their manager, their fans, they are always crying.

"Barcelona are a fantastic club, don't get me wrong, but they have to stop a little bit of that."

HAHA this is too funny

Yeeee go Ade!!!!

Madrid started the game very well; implementing a unique defensive formation crafted by Mourinho over the last several weeks. Stifling Barcelona's creativity, RM made it to the 60 minute mark before Pepe was sent off for a non-existent foul on Alves. At this point, the game opened up and Messi scored two goals, the last one a sublime solo effort, to put Barcelona 2-0 in the tie.

Madrid fans will be hoping to overturn this result next week, where they will be spurred on by the ravenous home support of the Bernabeu. This tie is still far from over.

ummmm what home support of the Bernabeu?? Madrid will be playing away next week in the Nou Camp unless you are just saying in a slick way that Madrd played in a way not befitting of a home team.

well he can be forgiven for thinking we were playing at the camp nou today lol

I would love to a 4-3-1-2 vs Barcelona in the 2nd Leg. Iker, Arbeloa, Albiol, Carvalho, Marcelo,
Lass, Alonso, Di Maria, Kaka, Ronaldo, Benzema

LOL! no comment

http://www8.pic-upload.de/27.0...

Disgusting :(

That was beyond funny. Thanks for putting a smile to my face after such a terrible game.:)

Yeah. And Mourinho is the worst because of his conspiracies ? I keep using the word shameful for their flopping because it is. If you try to hassle them off the ball and they jump like they've been shot, then how do you get the ball and do something with it ? And then on their blog they'd go on about di(ve) Maria. Fans of the club that raised Busquets into a footballer has the galls to call someone a flopper ?! Ridiculous.

oh peekabusquets. sooo classy.

All that can be said is LOL!!!! I don't see how people act as if Real Madrid play dirty, tackle, and dive but Barcelona don't???

@Benzema and madridista9: You need to score at least 3 goals .
0-1 We go through
0-2 Overtime
0-3 You go through
1-3 You go through
2-3 We go through
etc.

Thanks so much! Everyone keeps saying we need 3-0 so I was sooo confused abt everything. UEFA's website didn't help much either. It just made me sad.

Look Madridistas, when it comes down to who played football, we won. You guys defended and refused to play football in your own stadium. The deserving team won today. Barca came out and decided to play, not DEFEND.

I didn't know diving was part of football - I thought that was its own olympic sport...

Barcelona only looked superior once Real Madrid went down a man.

Last i checked, defense was part of the game. And the game is called football. If you tell an Italian that defense is not football, he will shoot you

hehe, true that.

But Real isn't Italian. And you have so many offensive power in your team, Kaka didn't even get a chance despite dismantling 3rd-place Valencia on his own.
When you look inside your heart, don't you feel that a little bit more offensive risk would have been a better approach to a CL home leg?

There is a huge difference between Barcelona and Valencia despite Valencia being 3rd...

what circus!
**www[dot]goal[dot]com/en/news/1716/champions-league/2011/04/27/2461388/barcelona-consider-reporting-jose-mourinho-to-uefa-following

serious question, not trying to troll - i'm not a cule - but how do you guys feel about the fact that a great historical club with fantastic players like real madrid has its coach spewing paranoia and conspiracy theories about their rival in the media? i know it seems like the ref decisions have not been going in madrid's favor lately but isn't it kind of embarrassing for the coach to go out like this, and perhaps even worse, declare that madrid's champions hopes are "mission impossible" even though there are another 90 minutes to play for? i like the way that casillas (who is always a gracious, humble and classy individual) and even cristiano ronaldo reacted after the match much more. trust me, i don't like barca's diving and i hate it when referee decisions end up being the primary topic of discussion and outshadow something like messi's second goal, but the way that mourinho expresses himself about this kind of thing comes off so pathetic to the neutral - especially because it makes it seem as though he had absolutely *no* power or agency over the game, due to UEFA's apparent bias in favor of barcelona. for me, it disgraces the good name of real madrid, and distracts from its football.

i want to add that i think barca have a thing or two to think about as well. busquets, pedro, and to some extent alves are very talented players but their diving was really over the top today. i also hate it when xavi and some of the others are always complaining to the referee; if you want people to pay attention to your football alone as you claim in interviews, stop doing that shit. and it's really annoying when they claim that "the other team did not try/want to play football," it comes off really elitist. so i don't think madrid/mourinho are the only ones who have some problems.

but the point is that the fingerpointing is getting really out of hand, and this mourinho conference just took it to the next level.

I'm a Barcelona fan. and I'm looking forward to the next leg even more now, because I know you guys are capable of a lot more than this. I thought there was no excuse for Mourinho not to attack in this game, but I guess I was wrong. You have to attack now, and with all the highs and lows emotions the past month has had for both teams, I say the last clasico will be the best of all. I'm expecting goals from both sides..and much less harsh tackling and diving from both sides!

Guys, this is wrong. You guys are all getting upset with Mourinho and how he decided to defend defend defend, but I ask you, what did you do when we won the Copa? All we did was defend in the second half, if this was 1-0 we would have all been smiling and being like praise Mourinho. Mourinho did what he could, let support our coach and wish for the best. Were out, we know that, but we will still be here next year, and we won a title for a pretty long time. Let's just be thankful we have a quality coach, players, president and just do what we can. Also, let's lose in honor, we lost, but the referee or whatever, let's just let that go.

Don't give up hope, remember, Hercules won 2-0 at the Camp Nou = )

Guys, I am a Barca fan. I was disappointed with the playacting by our boys (Busi and Pedro). I was disappointed that Pepe was sent off just because of the controversy it would cause..... If you look at the pic on As.com or marca.com, it was a pretty violent challenge with studs up....

I think you guys have an AMAZING team, by far the best group of individual talent assembled. I just hope Mous tactics of blaming the ref for all this doesn't divert attention from the fact that you guys needed to take it to us at your house and in the first leg of the CL!!!! That didn't happen, I don't know why. Just showing my respect the the other side after a pretty ugly game.

Well that was one heck of a ride. While it lasted, reliving our beautiful moments of Champions League glory. Allowing to think for one second, about the prospect of a la Decima gracing the halls of football's most prestigious club. But maybe it wasn't just meant be. It's been nine years since we won the CL. Maybe it was just fitting that we would win la Decima, the 10th, 10 years after we last won it. It would've been easier to swallow if we were playing with 11 or if we went out in style.

It seemed sort of anticlimactic when the referee pulled out the red card. The hope for Madrid was extenguished with a simple card.But maybe there still is hope. Three moments of magic and we win. But who am I kidding. Nothing is a simple as that.
But this match I truly did wonder where did Madrid go? Where is the team that beat teams 6-1, the team that scored goals effortlessly, one tap in after the other. That team hasn't come out yet. That team is a world beater. Fair enough, you can't play all attacking with Barca. But when we had possession all we did was hoof it up. As if scared by the prospect of gifting Barca the ball.

Maybe this match was good in the sens that Mou will HAVE to attack come Tuesday. The likes of Higuain, Kaka, Benz should get a chance to shine. And maybe, just maybe, we might find the real Real Madrid show up. The one that would make the opponent's hearts quiver in fear. In this game a saw a team with desire, that put effort into tracking back, but was too scared to try anything. Just because it is barca it doesn't mean we shouldn't try to string more than 4 passes together!

I would like to see
Arbeloa Albiol Ricky Marcelo
Granero Xabi
Ozil Kaka Di Maria
Ronaldo

Why won't we qualify if we win 2:0 or 3:1?

well said.

MADRID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I apologize for Busquets, I don't know why, but he really loves that move where he pretends he's been hit in the face. Especially in the Champions League. It's embarrassing. But you can't say you guys have clean hands in that area though either, can you? I wish it was a better match today, I thought both teams were bad. It's too bad.

My response to those who believe there's some sort of ref conspiracy with Mou always finishing with ten men - When you play a team that makes it their main goal to keep possession and does it better than anyone, and you respond by trying to stop them with physical play.......well, what do you expect is going to happen? It's a natural result that you'll be getting cards. Simple as that. Pepe has been living on the edge with that stuff these past couple weeks.

For one I tought it was a "soft" red...but I could even go to the extent of saying "deserved" if it wasnt for one thing: every time there's some theatrics all Barca squad gets around the refree pressuring for a card.If any player from any other team does the same they get a Yellow.
And I think when Mourinho was naming referees he was addressing ones that have shown him personally a red card...I can imagine why you're assuming another things since Ovrebo is named in there too.
Or could it be that Mou (and I) still remember Messi theatrics that earned a red card to Del Horno and probably threw Chelsea off the CL and most recently Thiago Motta/Inter.
So yes,theres a trend of some help to Barca in semi-finals.

And I agree it was a "soft" red.

Prediction: When we stop winning so much (and we will) all this talk about referee's favoring us and UEFA conspiracies and so on, in a huge coincidence, it will go away.