Real Madrid vs Hercules Liveblog

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Bassam, Alex's goal was my favourite :)

people dont get your hopes up remember what happen last time

Yeah you're right about the clasico. they'll change..at least I hope they will.
But I wasn't talking about the clasico I was talking about losing points to small teams...like almeria which can put us to 7 points again
Remember that we have to play Ath. Madrid next week, then Sevilla and we still have Villareal and Valencia I think

ok..got ur point wrong then..
sevilla valencia villarreal (game #37) ALL away

we need to take it one game at a time..u never know against which teams u might drop points..maybe games sandwiched between CL ties
it doesnt look very promising i agree but it could be worst!

regardless, if we can win CdR, make it to CL quarters (even better to the semis, depending on the draw we get) and keep the liga alive until its mathematically impossible to achieve..then i wouldnt consider this season a failure and none of us should honestly

the football has been good and improving except for few relapses..defensively we're better than ever and u win titles by building from the back..the team is young, hungry, has exceptional talents and we have one of the best coaches in the world..the future looks promising! we just need to keep some stability coz thats whats been missing the most

pfff..one must learn from mistakes..last year inter played twice against barca in group stages..they only grew stronger and beat them when it mattered most, the semi finals..and i know playin them before helped inter alot

we couldve lost 1-0 or 10-0, still 3 points..and yeah it was a big loss but if the players learned from it then its all fine if u ask me (unlucky score since it all went downhill after a fluke of a first goal..whatever im not goin down that road again)
the thing is accidents happen..i know RM have the character and determination to overcome this..they already proved it and now must do it vs barca

and never forget it was a very young fresh team (still is, little less fresh though) and barca have been playin together for years so one cant realistically expect us to just beat them right away at their home turf..

FFS, this is RM we're talkin abt, the best team of the XX century, not some small team..there were years when madrid would be winnin ligas and CL and barca were nowhere to be seen (man, im thinkin of CL semifinal in 2000 against them..great days) so in the end its all cycles and theirs abt to come to an end..

SO YEAH, WE WILL GET OUR HOPES HIGH NO MATTER WHAT!

HALA MADRID

Yer exactly. However it lifts there spirits so let em enjoy it.

Barcelona seemed to roll over Sporting and Sevilla earlier in the season, and recently they have struggled surprisingly against these two teams. Is there a pattern developing? Teams that get opened up by Barcelona learn from their mistakes and come back to teach them a lesson?

One can hope...

Hopefully I would like to see more teams go out and attack them. There are 2 effective ways of playing Barca, and i think 1 of them is all out attack, don't let there CB's play the ball out, hopefully more teams will do this.

It doesnt matter anyway, Barca still have to draw 2 more games or lose 1 + Madrid to win all their games for Madrid to have any chance for the league and I dont see that happenning.

Hey let's put it this way, 5 points is a whole heck better than 7 points. And the fact that Barca didn't look that great in the second half and Sevilla could have won the game was a nice sight to see.

Thats a good way of looking at it.

They still play away to Villareal!! Have some faith man!!

I doubt anyone giving up hope now could call themselves a Real Madrid fan?

so do we, and we have to play away to sevilla too

and RM have to win el-classico

please god, 5 more minutes! Make sure they don't score!! I can't believe Sevilla might do this!

YESSSSSSSSSS!!!!! Hala Madrid!!! Down to just 5 points! This is just the boost the team needs ahead of the CL game!

yes indeed bassam :) and more over the next league match

What a game!!!! Sevilla was just amazing in the second half! Honestly, Sevilla could have easily won the game in the second half if they didn't fudge up those shots. Great game.

Yupp! Sevilla could have taken the win! They did kick a lot, but to their credit, they also gave Barca one of the hardest games this season.

yeah they could have won... great match though.... and finally its sevilla taking pts of barcelona.. miracle!

Yer Sevilla normally don't fair well against them, lets hope it continues in future seasons.

Were they? That's good. For some time now I've not had nerves to watch Barca games. I got frustrated too many times. Every time I watched, they won. I missed Gijon game as was at a party, and now I switched off Sevilla-Barca after first half. And they drew :-)

you are hereby officially banned to watch barca matches esp classicos...

Your friend must have a party everytime Barca play!!

Real Madrid Castilla played a wonderful game against Pathetico B. Morata, Jesulo and Alex got on the score sheet. Morata went off limping and was replaced by Jese. The game ended 4-3 with a full Di Stefano stadium. Its a good result since Morata had not trained with the team for the week and the regular full backs were both suspended. Sarabia, who has been their best player, was injured and hence couldn't play the game.

Hala Madrid!!

highlights:

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

thx for the vid..great performance..hope the seniors emulate it next week (and before that wednesday)

the commentator looks like he's reading an obituary!! seriously he needs to change his tone or somethin

Castilla won today against Pathetico 4-3 we were up 4-1 but let them core twice in the last 15 min.. Also Jese got playing time today coming on for Morata! Great result and hopefully building steam to the playoffs!

Also who liked Adebayor's comments on cutting his hair? i thought they were pretty respectful, I would post the link but it will take to long to show up, he said that his new haircut is more appropriate for an institution like RM.

He obviously hasnt met drenthe yet as hes on loan.

Reminds me of Police Academy where 2 eager cadets walk in the police barber and say , "ok then go ahead you can take it all off" the italian guy next comes on and says a little off the sides please. "What you can do that" say one of the cadets.

Sure you can this aint the army you know says the barber. I wonder If Ade is regretting it now.

I need to watch Police acedemy i think. 80's comedy films like Airplane! are brilliant.

Surely you can't be serious!

You don't like Airplane!?

I do not think that it is easier for farca in terms of matches played in any given period. They have had the same packed schedule.

But is mourinho complaining that farca is getting better fixture schedule or is he saying that liga authorities are not that prudent in assigning fixtures as compared to other leagues.

Considering they have authority on both liga and CDR they can do better. A better schedule would not favor real but every one esp teams below us coz they have smaller bench strength.

What really did us this season is our draws in league sandwiched between legs of quarter finals against Atletico Madrid and Sevilla. Who did farca draw? Real Betis and Almeria. Still they were tired in Feb right? Plus they got away against Valencia and Bilbao.

Can you guys stop talking about the scheduling and start talking about the actual match, you seem to ignore the most important thing which are the games and just concentrate on a small thing he may have said to the press -who cares, if he believes that then he has a right to speak his mind same way you guys speak your minds in this blog.

What I really don't understand about Mou is his continuous hypocrisy. When he was in Italy and his Inter team were fighting on all 3 fronts he also complained about the tight fixture list he was getting then. In one interesting interview he said that in other countries such as in "Spain" or "Portugal" the challenging teams in Europe representing said Federations gets easier fixture lists to comply with the heavy work load.

Now he is in Spain complaining and moaning about the same exact thing he praised them for just a year ago. I really don't understand him in why he is making this a bigger issue than it really is.

I wonder if its more of a loyalty test?

I dont remember him saying that as Im a Inter fan

Much as I love Mou... you, me, and everyone else are wondering the same thing. None the less if it helps (?) the team I support it / him.

To elucidate further:
September: 6 matches in 17 days.
October: 6 matches in 14 days
November: 5 matches in 14 days
January: 9 matches in 27 days
Feb: 4 matches in 13 days.

Its difficult to get the statistic of how many times we have played 3 matches in a week coz consider the scenario of January when we played on Jan 3, Jan 6, Jan 9, Jan 13, Jan 16, Jan 20, Jan 23, Jan 26, Jan 30. How many times have we played 3 matches in a week?

Correction:
October: 5 matches in 14 days.
November: 5 matches in 16 days

@Bassam here are the facts not from sid lowe but derived from our fixtures. Complete list of our fixtures divided into days rest we got. 2 days means say a match played on saturday and again on tuesday.

Real Madrid Fixtures:
2 days(Played: 16, Won: 13,Draw: 2,Loss: 1)
Won: RSO (A), Esp(H), Aux(A,CL), Milan(H,CL),Murcia(H,CDR),Ajax(A,CL),
Levante(H,CDR), Villareal(H), Mallorca(H),Sevilla(A, CDR),
Sevilla(H,CDR), Lyon(A,CL), Racing(A)
Draw: Murcia(A,CDR), Almeria(A)
Loss: Levante(A,CDR)

3 days(Played: 14, Won: 10,Draw: 3,Loss: 1):
Won: Ajax(H,CL), Racing(H), Hercules(A), At. Madrid(H), Aux(H,CL),
Zaragoza(A), At Madrid(H,CDR), At Madrid(A,CDR), RSO(H), Sporting(A)
Draw: Lev(A), Milan(A,CL), Deportivo(A)
Loss: Osasuna(A)

4 days(Played: 4, Won: 13,Draw: 0,Loss: 0):
Won: Deportivo(H), Bilbao(H),Valencia(H), Malaga(H)

5 days(Played: 4, Won: 3,Draw: 0,Loss: 1):
Won: Sevilla(H), Levante(H), Hercules(H)
Loss: Barca(A)

6 days(Played: 1, Won: 1,Draw: 0,Loss: 0):
Won: Esp(A)

7 days+(Played: 4, Won: 3,Draw: 1,Loss: 0):
Won: Osasuna(H), Malaga(A),Getafe(A)
Draw: Mallorca(A)

Matches we draw or lost:
DRAW - Mallorca(A): First match of the season
DRAW - Muricia(A,CDR) : Sandwiched between our matches against Racing(H) and Hercules(A).
3 matches in 1 week. Plus poor performance by team though.
DRAW - Levante(A,CDR) : Sandwiched between our matches against Getafe(A) and Villareal(H).
3 matches in 6 days. Plus so many changes to first team.
DRAW - Almeria(A): Sandwiched between 2 legs of CDR quarter finals with At Madrid.
3 matches in 1 week.
DRAW - Levante(A) : Sandwiched between our matches against Espanoyl(H) and Auxerre(A).
3 matches in 1 week. Plus so many missed chances, bad luck. NEW TEAM
DRAW - Milan(A,CL) : Sandwiched between our matches against Hercules(H) and At Madrid(H).
3 matches in 1 week. Plus poor second half defending.
LOSS - Osasuna(A): Sandwiched between 2 legs of CDR semi finals with Sevilla.
3 matches in 1 week. Clearly tired looking team.
DRAW - Deportivo(A) : Sandwiched between our matches against Lyon(A) and Malaga(H).
3 matches in 1 week. Plus so many missed chances, bad luck.
LOSS - Barca(A): No excuse.

PS Bassam went on for ages about these Barca lads trolling around our site, why don't we do what he asked and just ignore them. There is nothing that incites them more than our indifference!

Fully agree

Not much to say about the game really - no injuries and rested players, but forget about Ronaldo dependencia, what about Xabi dependencia??? That guy going out to injury is a very very scary notion

Don't know about you guys, but I prefer Ramos as a CB; he was the dog's bollocks today!!!

I also have to say: Arbeloa can now cross better than Ramos. He was great today!

As for Benzema, I'm happy for him. He's starting to look the part. Let's hope he continues his form.

Hala Madrid!

im wondering if dog's bollocks is a good thing or a bad thing hahaha

Hunting with cats no more.

Valencia just lost 4-0 to Zaragoza, theres now a 16 point gap between us and them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 20 point gap between 1st and 3rd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! someone tell me La liga will get better one day

Oh god...someone tell me that zizou won't complain 1 day? The best team in the EPL was just slaughtered by the best team in laliga the other day. Never in the history of the champions league has a team failed to get 1 shot on goal. Arsenal, against Barcalona, failed to even get 1 shot registered. Notice, i didn't say they failed to get a shot on goal, which they did. They didn't even have a kick of the ball which could be registered as a shot of ANY KIND! On or off target, no shots in the ENTIRE GAME.

Barca had like 700 completed passes, Arsenal had like 100. Arsenal had 2...count this...2 touches in the opponents box! 2 touches of the ball inside the Barca penalty box, 2!!! They played worse than a 2nd division laliga side and there can be no doubt about it. I have never seen utter domination like that.

This is from the best team in your pride and joy EPL. Get over it, the EPL is only "competitive" because all the top teams are horrible. Man United just drew 1-1 against Marseille. Valencia who just lost 0-4 to Zaragoza, went into England and at old trafford had a 1-1 draw with Man United.

Do i need to bring up the facts again of how much laliga has destroyed the EPL in international club competitions over the last 10 years?

You need to stop blaming the rest of the teams in LaLiga because the top 2 teams are so good. Barca is the best team on the planet and Madrid in my opinion is the 2nd best team on the planet. And 3rd place, is not close. They would be the top 2 teams in any league in the world/

100% correct, top teams in EPL cannot compare with barca and RM but the only team that could beat barca is chelsea with their anti-football.

There is much to complain about when it comes to the state of La Liga.

How are Arsenal the best team in the PL? they haven't won it since 2004. And you can't judge the Man U game on the first game as I could say Arsenal beat Barcelona ( which they did). Lets see what happens in the 2nd leg when they are at Home.

And no you don't need to bring that up as I would agree with you which you don't seem to understand.

Valencia couldn't beat Schalke, there is still 3 English teams left in the CL. How can you say Madrid are the second best team in the planet? we haven't got past the last 16 for 7 years.

not if this is going on

EFN - Cómo funciona la LFP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

You've been advertising this all over the offside :) unfortunately there is a bit of a language barrier there for me.

It's actually very funny, it's about how RM and FCB get together to get rid of these pesky teams that keep ruining their liga - one idea they come up with is to make them play at 4.30 in the morning with ad breaks every two minutes.
It starts off with one asking who they've got next match and he says Racing, and you? -Zaragoza. And then they agree that playing those teams is such a damn inconvenience, and one says - Did you know they also actually play each other? And the other rep replies - No! really! and who and earth is gonna bother to watch that.
Well that's the feel of it, without translating the whole thing anyway.

Yer i'm sure it is, i've seen people's reactions to it on other blogs who obviously know Spanish and they find it funny.

thank for commenting on the video

for those who are interested, Granero completed 50 out of the 55 passes he attempted today. A drop in numbers than when he partnered Xabi, but still the most in the squad even though he was taken off at the 70th minute mark.

Xabi made 18 passes out of 20 attempted in 20 minutes, which is awesome!

Good game guys..nice to see benzema scorin goals..bring on lyon!
Btw just noticed we play wednesday and then saturday vs atletico..not the time to moan abt things but WTF!! Isnt there someone in charge who should be questioned or defend his decisions n explain why this VERY unusual choice..dont get me wrong, we will play and prevail but seriously its not normal to not say anything..are fifa/uefa/rfef etc always right and its not evem allowed to question that autority

Heres an extract of what FP said in his speech to real madrid:
"For many years, this institution has showcased what we've come to define as 'class'. Class is earned by acknowledging the merits of our opponents, but also by defending what we believe is just. Class is also earned by denouncing irregular behaviour both on or off the pitch. It is also an example of true Madridismo to defend Real Madrid from what we believe to be unjust, irregular or arbitrary. And that is exactly what our coach, Jose Mourinho, does. What Jose Mourinho says is also an example of Madridismo."

Its really not complainin talkin abt this situation when its so blatant coz then the people doing it will just go on and on..someone needs to speak up and apparently madrid choose mourinho to do that..but im pretty sure perez and valdano are pulling some strings in the back to figure out why such irregularities are allowed to happen..

Here is the exact statistic:

"Over the course of the season, Barcelona have had to play after just two days' rest 18 times. That's twice more than Real Madrid. Barcelona have had to play three games in just seven days six times; Madrid only three."

From Sid Lowe's article. I don't like Sid Lowe as i do think he is biased, but i looked at the facts.

Less concentrating on complaining in the media and more focusing on the task at hand, please! True champions show their strength by dealing with whatever adversary they face. Let the players do the talking on the field not in the press

well, to believe any data, id have to go over it myself..regardless, i know what ure sayin
its the media that control this but it shouldnt be like this..i dont care when barca play, it simply doesnt make sense to play on wednesday than saturday when u can simply play on sunday! its not like we're sayin play them on monday or cancel the game altogether!

its just not logical..thats all im sayin..and somebody should point it out..if someone does u wrong once, u can shut up and continue normally..but when it becomes redundant, u have to speak up or else, in my opinion, u have a weak personality and let people take away ur rights..this applies to everything, not just football

and also, i have probably the biggest exam of my life on thursday so ive been studyin hard for awhile now..and i wanna go out next saturday!! ;)

Good luck on your exam man :)

thanks man..makes the CL game on wednesday all the more important..i hope i go to my exam with high spirits :)

did sid lowe's stats ever delve into a more subjective nature, wherein he looked at degree of difficulty/importance of the matches played close together? not that im defending anyone here, but it might be a reason for some of mou's critique of the scheduling.

Well he said that the numbers really dont matter. It isn't the LFP that decides when everyone plays, but rather the TV stations. This is where the TV rights thing comes into play. Real Madrid and Barcelona get paid a sum of money to appear in prime time slots on Saturdays and Sundays. They divide them between Real Madrid and Barcelona. In a way, it is that money that the team is getting for TV rights that is putting them in those slots its whats the problem. Maybe if other teams in La Liga were given those prime times at times, we wouldn't be so confined to these time slots and other teams can benefit!

This is a big conspiracy, Bassam is a secret Barca fan trying to take our attention away from Barca's wrongdoings................lol

sid lowe is a madrid fan so he tends to over compensate for this in his articles

Even if that is true, who cares? What does Barca have to do with anything? When they go down 1 goal in a first leg of a tie, they complain over and over, claim that they were cheated, claim that it was a "footballing accident," etc. When they lose a 2 leg tie and are out of the tournament, they say they were cheated, they say that the opposition is garbage and they didn't deserve to win, they turn on sprinklers, they say only they play football as it should be played, they say they lost because it is the train's fault, they call people names and don't congratulate, etc. I could go on.

Barca are currently in the lead, why would they complain? When they fall behind, then they will complain.

Secondly, we aren't up against only Barca. Madrid also plays against Lyon. The last time Madrid played Lyon, Lyon got to play on a FRIDAY. This is patently unfair. The French federation allowed them to play a day or two earlier than they should have. This is an unfair situation, and bringing it up is not wrong.

The reason behind the comparison with Barcelona is because MouMou has compared our schedule to theirs...

And if Barca complain when they go down, then shame on them. I want to be the better team and win without throwing a media hissy fit.

Btw, the reason why we play on saturday night is because of money. The club has a deal with the TV channels that they play in prime time because it gives them the highest ratings to have Real Madrid play there. It is not the LFP that decides the game, but rather the media stations lol

If the president has come to the defence of Mou then why cant you. What Mou said is right but end of the day no action will be taken, its just mind games hes playing with barca, just let him as its all part of the show. you complaining about his complaints doesnt make you any better.

I think what some fans don't understand and hence get so much offensive with this is that people can support the club yet have an opinion that is opposing to something they did.

I don't think that they are right to complain, and i have the right, just like Bassam does, to wish that this doesn't happen. Obviously the facts state that both Barcelona and Real Madrid have gotten similar treatment. Yes its not nice that we only have 2 games to prepare for the Lyon game, but guess what, we should suck it up and play the game on the field. Not mind games and complaining in the press conference.

For us fans to wish that is not a big deal. Even if the club president supported him, who obviously wants to keep the coach happy.

Plus if you read what bassam said, you can clearly see that the reason why we play Saturday night is because of TV rights deals that the clubs in spain make with TV channels. So its the club that wants these time slots.

I understand completely I really do, but what you dont seem to understand that its just Mou playing mind games with barca hoping to rattle them, Hes been doing it all his career while at chelsea and he did it when Inter played barca last year saying barca are obsessed going to the final etc, these type of comments do affect you as a footballer however little.

and you know what it does work, he does get to barca and beat them with chelsea and with Inter thats why they hate him so much.

So I think you really should just let him carry on what hes doing, end of the day everyone knew wat they were getting from mou and at least he is standing up for RM for whatevers on his mind when nobody else would.

I don't like Sid Lowe as i do think he is biased

Same here,I actually only read whenever he talks about getafe,but when he begins with madrid,I skip the paragraph...

Here is the deal. Barcelona have had to play a wednesday saturday fixture before and they never complained. They have done it more than us (you can check the Sid Lowe article for more details). So we don't have to complain all the time. Obviously complaining about it in the media is not going to change things (it hasn't at least).

I think I said in another post, that the important thing here is that Florentino has bypassed Valdano and come out in public support of the coach's mind games with the clever spin translated above. Rumours are abounding that Mourinho will leave this summer due to lack of institutional support, which he has undeniably now received from the very top. If he does now go, it can now be perceived as an admission of ineptitude when it comes to Barcelona.
All news channels here in Spain led their sports coverage with clips of Mourinho at Inter and Chelsea repeating the same schedule word for word but in a different language! So whatever this little mind game was supposed to achieve, it's been totally blown into the water.

we'll see whatcha gonna do when Ath. Madrid strangle you.....Lyon is waiting for you with their fast unstoppable attack. Send your coach to complain about scheduling and cry to the media afterwards.
4 points gap my ass, the Champions haven't played their game yet......if they lose, then say it's 4 points difference. The Whities are running out of time. lol

you better worry about sevilla than being obsessed with us fool.

blah blah blah