Anyone watch El Clasico?

Just finished...so hard to escape the updates coming on the phone and from people around us at my player's match, but I managed to watch it cleanly this afternoon. So good to see Messi with the winner after being wrecked by Marcelo and Ramos. It was a fantastic match...now if Los Blancos can screw up in just one of their last matches. It would be a great finish to a really up and down season.
 
An amazing game, start to finish! Other than the 1 great effort/shot, where was Suarez the whole match? Hate the guy anyway, but already without Neymar, I was amazed by his lack of visibility.
 
It was great to see what everyone is expecting of messi, with the ball @ his feet. Even off the ball movement, as usual, just putting himself into those open pockets of space, to hurt his opponents.

I agree, suarez was non-existant in the game, but was that his role? if he is a decoy/pushing & distracting/stretching the defenders & midfielders just a few yards - to create those pockets for messi to roam... not sure. Yeah, im not a suarez fan either, but he can & will punish you, so they cover him.

pique & mostly ter stegen prevented the game from being a blow out.

Marcelo is continuing to have great performances in my eyes. I always thought he was pretty good, but did he really start blossoming under zidane or was it playing with his brazilian side... he is just full of confidence & creativity......his crosses are a joy to watch.... cant believe defenders are giving him so much space. his work rate is impressive.... Mandzukic like, end to end.

i still believe barcelona are missing the dani alves service into the box.

Ramos continues to validate his thug status.... despite me wanting him on my team if i had a choice!
 
f1nfutbol fan said:
I agree, suarez was non-existant in the game, but was that his role? if he is a decoy/pushing & distracting/stretching the defenders & midfielders just a few yards - to create those pockets for messi to roam... not sure. Yeah, im not a suarez fan either, but he can & will punish you, so they cover him.
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That's a great idea that I didn't really think about. You know the defense is going to be marking him, and it's a given. Way to connect the dots!
 
Suarez was instrumental in both of Messi's goals. He dummied the first one and drew almost every defender towards him, allowing Messi to beat the last defender with the cutback and have an open goal. With the second goal he boxed out on the trailing defender opening the seam that Messi shot through.

Suarez is one of the best pure forwards I've seen in a long time. Not only is he a great goal scorer, he is willing to do the grunt work that opens the game up for the rest of his team to exploit. If he didn't have a bad reputation from biting, he would probably be a much bigger star than he already is.
 
I watched the game live and still am amazed! Obviously Messi deserves all the praise for his performance, but as stated earlier by f1nfutbol fan, if ter Stegen and Pique/Umtiti were not good, RM wins this game. I guess the same could be said for Navas, he kept the score close.

I still don't understand Sergio Ramos........this is the captain of the team and he still makes stupid decisions. Why in the world do you go for an airborne two-footed challenge on Messi? I get that you don't want Messi to get past you at that point, but you can take him down with something that will give you a yellow card at worst. But to do that and put your team at 10 players is just stupid!

As for Suarez, his value goes way beyond the goals he scores. Whenever he is on the field, he will keep at least one center defender occupied at all times. His runs during this game allowed Messi and Rakitic the openings to shoot on goal.

No doubt Barcelona misses Alves. Stupid move on their part and they are still paying for it.

Lastly, I want to thank Marcelo for the elbow to Messi's face. I think that little cheap-shot pissed Messi off enough to re-focus him. He scored the opening goal a few minutes after the elbow and just seemed hell bent on taking over at that point. The display of taking off his jersey and showing his name side of the jersey to the Madrid fans was just a reminder of his greatness.
 
espn fc has ter stegen as making 12 saves, i wonder how many pique/umtiti made? combined #???

it was tough luck / unlucky for RM not to slaughter Barca.... Definitely wouldnt have been another comeback like PSG.
 
PLSAP said:
That's a great idea that I didn't really think about. You know the defense is going to be marking him, and it's a given. Way to connect the dots!
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Yeah, excellent point. They have to account for him and mark him, so I suppose he did his job.
 
bababooey said:
You are absolutely entitled to your opinion, but I seriously doubt many people would rate Cavani higher than Suarez or Lewandowski.

I am curious what your reasons are for taking Cavani over those two players? Thanks
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I'm just not a fan of Suarez. I think he's a dirty player. Plus playing with Messi and Neymar probably opens up more space for him to score. Lewandowski is a great striker but I personally like Cavani's style of play better.
 
Justafan said:
No doubt he's having a nice year. Lewandowski did start off slow and Suarez's goal to chances rate is probably slightly down this year, but other than this year, Cavani just misses way too many gimmees for my taste.
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True but maybe since the shadow of Zlatan is gone those misses won't happen anymore.
 
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