Champions League Liveblog: Real Madrid v Juventus

By: Steve | November 5th, 2008

Hala Madrid! Alright Madridistas, we’re into the first of the return legs of the group stage in the Champions League and we’re hosting Juventus tonight at the Bernabeu. Tune in now to Match Choice 3 on Sky Sports Xtra if you’re in the UK, available through the red button. Check out Corey’s preview too, if you have a chance.

Interesting lineup for Real, brought on by a warmup injury to Robben. We’ve got Casillas, Ramos, Cannavaro, Heinze, Marcelo, Diarra, Guti, Sneijder, Drenthe, Ruud and Raul. Drenthe is starting only his second match since March, and he’s being called upon as a left winger, no doubt to the delight of some readers. Juve start pretty much as Corey predicted, though Legrottaglie is in the middle… couldn’t catch what else may have been different.

1min: And we’re off! Vamenos chicos!
3min: Ooh, Guti’s pass for Drenthe out wide is just a touch too far for the Dutchman. Woulda been in a dangerous position… Let’s hope Good Guti is here tonight.
5min: Poor touch by Ramos on a cross-field pass from Diarra… maybe the pass was a touch heavy. I think the players are a bit amped. Settle down lads.
7min: Ooh… good sustained pressure by Madrid, though the players are not finding the space to get clean shots off… Guti has had 2 shots blocked and had to resort to his unfavoured right foot. Marcelo is pushing up to attack, switching with Drenthe where necessary.
8min: Ugh, the second poor cross by Drenthe. They’re looping airballs rather than low, laser-like bullets.
9min: Still more pressure from Real, making Juve play some poor passes.
10min: Ooh, good low cross in from the right by Sneijder causes problems and Manninger bollocks it out for a corner…
11min: Wow, really good pressure and attacking by Real. The passing is much crisper than it was on the weekend against Almeria. It’s like night and day.
13min: Great defending by Cannavaro to step in front of a pass in the Real box… he’s looking a bit sprightlier today. I’m still a bit worried about Ramos though… He’s still not on optimum form.
16min: Juve is starting to look better now, maintaining possession for more than 10 seconds…
17min: Is it just me or is everyone slipping when they’re taking a mighty swipe at the ball? looks like the pitch is a bit slick.
17min: GOAL! Del Piero intercepts a lazy Guti pass and waltzes forward into the acres of space given by the Real Madrid defense before using Cannavaro as a screen to unleash a deadly curling shot just inside Casillas’ right post. Real Madrid 0-1 Juventus.
20min: Great free kick by Sneijder is just headed over by Ramos. It may have taken a slight deflection from Legrottaglie first…
22min: I think we’ve got Inconsistent Guti tonight.
24min: OH!!! PUT THAT SHIT AWAY!!! Ramos tries to boot a beautiful looping ball into the 6 yard box and hits it straight into the ground so hard it bounces over the crossbar. I’m SURE he could’ve dove and headed that in. Easily their best chance so far.
27min: Ramos is getting chances, so at least he’s getting into the right positions… defensively not too bad either… but he’s gotta put those babies to bed.
28min: Sissoko gets a yellow for a hard challenge on Drenthe.
29min: Wow, we’re up to our 6th corner for Real already… so they’re generating opportunities… just no real goal-scoring chances aside from Ramos’ miss.
30min: Argh… Ruud’s been anonymous tonight and instead of springing onto the ball in space, he dummies it, expecting Drenthe to be there. Instead, the young winger commits a yellow card offence trying to regain possession.
32min: Ramos definitely needs to work on his touch… given loads of space on the right against Molinaro, he manages to push the ball far enough ahead of himself that it’s a 50/50 challenge that he loses.
34min: Yellow card on Legrottaglie for a rash challenge on Ruud.
35min: Sneijder is playing really really wide on the left. Where is Drenthe?
35min: Guti gets a stupid stupid yellow card for punching the ball away.
36min: There’s Good Guti again, pushing forward and shrugging off a challenge to thread a nice ball for Ruud… the Dutch forward cuts it back a little and shoots, but it’s just over the bar.
37min: Good run on the left by Drenthe, but his cross, though lower this time, lacked the power to cut all the way through the box.
39min: Ugh, Bad Guti again, trying a fancy-ass backheel to nobody, after some really sharp buildup play by Raul and Diarra.
40min: ARGH! Drenthe could’ve sprung Diarra on a breakaway, but again his touch is poor, passing it too lightly and having the ball intercepted.
41min: Phew! Heinze loses the ball to Amauri who sneaks up behind him and nicks it away to go one-on-one with… Cannavaro, i think. Good panic defending though.
43min: Well, credit where it’s due… a good cross in by Drenthe this time.
44min: OOH! Exquisite throughball by Good Guti to release Drenthe down the left, but he hesitates just long enough to allow Mellberg to deflect the ball out for a corner.
45+1min: AHH! Another great cross from Drenthe, but this time it gets headed wide by Diarra who rises up unchallenged and probably unprepared. That could’ve been taken by Ramos too, who was flying by, just behind Diarra.
45+2min: Ooh, nice low hard cross by Ramos from the touchline, but it’s deflected away well by the Juve defenders.
HALFTIME: Alright, well, it hasn’t been a terrible first half, in my opinion. Real started really well and finished really well, but kinda let up in the middle of those 45 minutes, letting Juve back in the game… with guys like Del Piero, Amauri and Nedved, all they need is one chance, and they took it.
HALFTIME: We’ve got Inconsistent Guti tonight, with Bad Guti giving away possession way too easily, but Good Guti making some great passes.
HALFTIME: Drenthe came on like gangbusters in the last 8-10 minutes of that half. He’s always had great pace and he’s starting to get into good positions, but he still needs to work on the touch and decision-making. Still, a strong showing given how little he normally plays.
HALFTIME: Ruud and Raul have been awfully quiet. I think Juve have done a pretty good job cutting off any service to these two.
HALFTIME: With Robben likely unavailable at all, I wonder if Schuster will go with van der Vaart or De La Red as a sub… it doesn’t make sense to me, cuz Sneijder is doing pretty well out there and neither of the two subs could do what Guti does. But who else provides what we need? No one, unless you think Higuain can somehow find space in the Juve defense that Raul or Ruud can’t.
HALFTIME: I’ve just noticed the loads of comments, thanks guys for coming out. Just to remark on something… I don’t think taking Drenthe out for Higuain would do anything good. Higuain cannot play on the wing, he’s best in the Ruud role, inside the box. And without Drenthe, there’s no one else to play wide, unless you think Sneijder is doing it well.
46min: Oh! Drenthe takes on Mellberg, into the box and lashes one into the side netting… could’ve cut back for Ruud or Raul though, i think.
47min: Good pressure again to start the second half… keep it up lads.
48min: Argh. Marcelo tries to go through 2 defenders and loses it. Pass the ball, son!
50min: Drenthe now on the right… great cross into the box, just a tad too high for Raul. He’s really starting to settle down, that’s good.
50min: Hmmm, dodgy yellow card on Ruud, in my opinion… he got the ball first, and i’m sure he wasn’t intending his trailing leg to nip Nedved…
52min: Legrottaglie just leans on Raul in the box and pushes him down… the refs don’t give the penalty. That’s the second bad call in the first 8 minutes of this half, the other being a blatant push by Chiellini on Ruud.
55min: Wicked throw out by Casillas to start a fast counterattack by Guti and Ramos. Man, Real are running more this half.
56min: WHAT? No yellow card for that?!? Marcelo is dragged down by a Juve attacker absolutely blatantly and there’s no card.
59min: Juve are definitely getting away with being more physical, pushing around the Real players who are admittedly (aside from maybe Diarra and Ruud) not very imposing…
61min: The Sky commentators are remarking that the refs are giving loads of free kicks, but only for fouls outside the penalty areas… the two big fouls inside the Juve box? Nada.
62min: What was that? Ramos just lets Nedved take the ball off of him after being covered also by Molinaro… I know he’s got no help on the right, but the least he could do is try to boot it off one of them for a throw-in.
64min: No wonder Real can’t get anything going, they’re playing so narrow… What is Drenthe doing so central?
65min: Sneijder coming off for Higuain. Sneijder is not happy.
66min: Ugh, weak foul called on Cannavaro, who can’t take his leg away quick enough from Sissoko, who bundles over, clearly looking for the foul.
67min: GOAL! Del Piero takes the free kick and curls it around the near end of the wall into the same corner he scored the first time. The wall was not positioned properly at all… They should’ve been at least a yard more to their right. This one is on Casillas. Real Madrid 0-2 Juventus.
70min: OH! Great moves by Drenthe, splitting the 3 defenders he drew to him on the left and bursts into the box and sends a low square ball across the face of the goal, but Raul is too far, and Higuain is too late to put the ball on target.
71min: Madrid is just getting knocked off the ball too easily. The Juve defenders are closing down really quickly and the Madrid players look like they’re getting bossed around.
72min: Argh, good pressure by Madrid in the Juve box, finally, but they can’t get a clean shot off… they’re being blocked by the busload of defenders that Juve packs into the box.
75min: Why is Ramos attempting a shot from that far away? That’s like 25 yards out… reeks of desperation. It is NOWHERE near the target.
46min: Madrid need to get a goal quick, to make the last 10 minutes worthwhile.
78min: Mellberg booked for dissent.
78min: Great cross by Guti on the free kick, but no one can get to it.
79min: What? No yellow again!??! Chiellini lays out Drenthe (who’s the last defender by the way) with his forearm, wasting a 2-on-1 for Juve.
80min: Wow, Real attackers are outnumbered in the box probably two to one. No wonder we haven’t gotten another good chance.
81min: Saviola and vdV to come on…
82min: … for Heinze and Ruud. What? I understand Heinze, but Ruud?
83min: Amauri comes off for Iaquinta.
85min: I know Real is pressing hard, and the second half has been played mostly in the Juve half, but it really seems to me that the Juve players want the win just that little bit more.
86min: Great run down the left by Drenthe, but his cross is too hard and all Higuain can do is chest it down into a defender.
86min: Argh. well, at least we’re making Manninger make some saves, but it’s not saying much, given how weak or angled the shots are.
87min: OOH… Del Piero draws the ball back just a bit too much and misses his hat-trick. What a great player. Totally to Juve what Raul should be for us.
88min: Madrid are playing a really weird shape… 3-3-4?
90+1min: Great move by Drenthe, cutting in and drawing a free kick right on the edge of the box from Sissoko.
90+1min: Argh, weak free kick taken by vdV. At least we get a corner from it.
90+2min: And another corner, and another one… Juve could do this all night.
90+3min: Del Piero off for… someone. i missed it.
90+4min: And we’re done.
POSTGAME: Well, needless to say, that does not bode well. In the last 2 weeks, up to and including the loss in Turin, Madrid have gone on a run, a remarkable loss of form. A single win over Bilbao, a draw against Almeria and 3 losses, including the one in the Copa del Rey.
POSTGAME: I think Real is in full crisis mode now. We can’t beat clubs like Irun in the Copa, which we’re supposed to do with ease. We can’t beat La Liga teams like Almeria who shouldn’t pose such a big threat. And it’s clear now that we can’t play with the big boys of Europe. Those first 2 wins against BATE and Zenit weren’t much of an indicator of our quality.
POSTGAME: That said, we can still advance to the knockout stage of the Champions League if we can beat BATE and Zenit again. Actually, a win and a draw should probably do the trick. Juventus are already through.
POSTGAME: I’m being pessimistic, but really, we beat ourselves. We could’ve taken this match, given our domination of the ball. Take away a couple slip-ups, one on Cannavaro, one on Casillas, and we’re looking at a much closer affair, maybe a 0-0 draw, maybe more.
POSTGAME: Qualitatively speaking, i don’t think we played that poorly. Juve played their “park the bus in front of the goal”, so we knew it was going to be tough to score, but we created some opportunities and chances.
POSTGAME: Alright, let’s go to my player scorecards… First up, keeper Casillas. Brutal match. Not called on to do much at all. No chance on the first goal, but the second goal was definitely on him. That wall should easily have been a yard or more over to the right. I don’t see how he could’ve thought the wall was covering the near post. Del Piero didn’t even have to put the ball over the wall, he just placed the ball right next to it.
POSTGAME: Ramos was off and on. Decent going forward, not much to do at the back, but competent at least. Didn’t get beat. He had a couple good chances, needs to learn to put those away. Cannavaro played pretty solid except for the first goal. He played off Del Piero way too far. Heinze was surprisingly decent, but i think he got turned around a bit by Amauri. Marcelo wasn’t too bad either, he interplayed with Drenthe pretty well on the left. Then again, Juve didn’t really attack much.
POSTGAME: Diarra held up well under pressure from Sissoko, way better than how Gago fared in the first leg. Guti, as I mentioned at halftime, was inconsistent. Gave away the ball way too easy, but created some chances with some great passes. I’m ok with him on the team. Without him, it could’ve been pretty ugly. Sneijder, though not terrible, didn’t really add much that couldn’t have been offered by vdV or even De La Red.
POSTGAME: Ruud and Raul were both pretty anonymous, each having a couple half-chances, but not really much else. Drenthe was a bit crap at first, but really came on in the last 50-60 minutes of the match. I’m totally impressed by his showing tonight.
POSTGAME: Higuain didn’t do a whole lot after coming on, and even less could be said about Saviola and van der Vaart.
POSTGAME: Anyways, I’m sure Corey will have a wrap up that’s worth reading, so I’ll just stop here. Hit up the comments!