Yesterday saw the titanic battle between two Spanish power houses, Barcelona and Real Madrid at the El Santiago de Bernabeu. The match was all about the 1st leg of the Spanish Super Cup.
The line-up for RM was-Casillas (c), pepe, Carvalho, sergio ramos,marcelo, khedira, alonso, ozil, di maria, ronaldo and benzema. While the away side lined up without their captain and asst captain puyol and xavi, as a result of injury, Pep chose valdes (c), alves, adriano,abidal, mascherano, keita, thiago, iniesta, messi, alexis, villa.
The match began in explosive fashion with the 'whites' taking the game to the blaugrana. The first 20 minutes was all about Mourinho's charges asking all the questions and it was only a matter of time before Barcelona succumbed to the unending pressure. In the 13th minute, Karim Benzema who has been Real's best player in pre-seaosn justified his coach's faith in him by dancing past the Barcelona rearguard, leaving Abidal for dead and swiftly laying the ball through to German super star, Meisut Ozil who wasted no time in sticking the ball into the net to give Madrid a head start. 1-0 Real.
The pressure kept on coming with Barcelona sitting back and defending their goal with a lot of tenacity. Ronaldo and co kept on missing chances and in football, you mostly pay for missed opportunities. Barcelona had not shot a ball to the Madrid goal even in anger, until ten minutes from the end of the first half when the ever reliable Messi found space and brilliantly found Villa on the left. El guaje (villa's nickname) rarely misses and he curled a wonderful and unstoppable effort beyond his national team capt and Madrid goalkeeper, Iker Casillas into the left hand corner of the net. The goal brought the Bernabeu crowd to their feet, including the Real fans who despite being unhappy that Barcelona had drawn level,couldn't help but applaud the breathtaking goal. 1-1. 'THE SPECIAL ONE' was distraught.
Madrid did not learn from their mistake as they allowed Messi space and time on the ball yet again on the stroke of half time as he danced through the Real shaky defence, via a khedira unintentional pass. Jose would not have been pleased with how the hardworking and solid Pepe was left on the floor as 'el pulga left all of them in his wake and cooly slotted the ball past the hapless 'san iker'...Surprisingly, Barca had seized the initiative. The 1st half ended 2-1 in favour of Barca.
Mourinho was very unhappy considering the fact that his wards had 11 shots on goal only to convert 1 as against the perfect 2 shots,2 goals for the Catalan giants.
The second half began with Barcelona taking the game to Real and new signing, Alexis was getting into the game more and more, giving Marcelo a torrid time @ left back. Thiago Alcantara was displaying all his bag of tricks even constantly nutmegging his senior Spanish colleague, Xabi Alonso. But it was Real who drew 1st blood in the second stanza as a corner kick wasn't properly clearly by the makeshift Barca defence and pepe laid it on a plate foe Alonso who side footed the ball,past Valdes and into the net to bring Madrid back on level terms. 2-2 the score in the 54th minute.
Mourinho showed no emotions rather he sent on new signing, Fabio Coentrao to replace the ineffective Di Maria who could be excused for his match rustiness because of his participation in the 2011 Copa America.
Barcelona also yanked off young thiago, villa (as usual) and adriano, bringing in the world's best midfielder, Xavi Hernandez, pedro and Gerard Pique, to add stability to the team and also provide the cutting edge. Madrid also brought on another new face, Jose Callejon for Sami khedira with coentrao taking khedira's place in midfield. Gonzalo Higuain (el pipita) also took the place of Benzema who had once again been impressive in the match and deserved a standing ovation from the Madrid faithful.
Towards the end of the game,Real had a strong shout for a penalty which was immediately turned down by the referee, Teixeira Vitienes. Valdes fluffed his lines and took Ronaldo's leg with him Mourinho was livid and we all know what that means. Barca also had one turned down at the other end when pedro fell under the pressure put on him by Marcelo and co. Asides both incidents, nothing worthy of note occurred to suggest that either team wanted to win the game.
At the end of proceedings at the Bernabeu, it was all square between both teams with all to play for in two days time at the Nou Camp, home of Barcelona.
Ohireime Eboreime
follow me on twitter @ohiskaka1990
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