Five things to learn from El Clasico (Part 1)
Last night two footballing powerhouses went head-to-head in what was tipped to be one of the most anticipated games in the sports recent history. With Jose Mourinho in charge of Real Madrid, the two teams were supposedly ‘evenly matched’, and an enthralling
affair was predicted.
However, only one team decided to turn-up on the night, as a rampant FC Barcelona side took the ‘Madridistas’ to school, with a football master class. The tiki-taka football on display was the ultimate form of total football, as Mourinho’s men were left
chasing shadows. Many billed this game as ‘Messi vs. Ronaldo’, but they were wrong, really wrong.
As anticipated, the game left us with plenty to talk about. In the aftermath of this great game, Bettor.com brings forth the key talking points from the match.
Xavi is the best player in the world
Forget Lionel Messi, Wesley Sneijder, Cristiano Ronaldo, Arjen Robben and all your average Premier league players. Barcelona playmaker Xavi is the best player in the world. In fact, the midfield maestro is in a league of his own.
Over the last three seasons, Xavi has won everything on offer. The Spaniard won two La Liga titles, UEFA Champions League, Euro 2008 and the holy grail of all trophies, the FIFA World Cup. Barcelona and the Spanish national team are epitomise beautiful football
– Xavi is the prodigious conductor of these two orchestras. The sight of opposition players running towards him, only to be sent spinning in circles has become all too common, much to the delight of the Barca faithful.
Ok, enough with the superlatives, but the statistics do speak volumes. Last night, the maestro completed an astonishing 110 passes, while Barca had a pass completion rate of 89 percent overall – Xavi clearly bettered that on a personal level.
Lionel Messi dives too!
There were plenty of positives about Barcelona’s 5 – 0 mauling of the Galacticos, but Lionel Messi’s play-acting in an effort to get Ricardo Carvalho sent off, wasn’t one of them. Cristiano Ronaldo gets the slack globally for being a diver and a cheater.
His reputation of going down too easily in the box has cost him some legitimate penalty claims in recent years. On the contrary, Lionel Messi is always pushed forward as a gentle man and a clean player.
However, Messi’s theatrics last night were a disgrace. Such antics have no place on the football pitch. Granted he got an elbow to his face, but Carvalho was not aware of his presence, and Messi’s reaction time in taking to the ground was the only dampener
on a scintillating performance from Barcelona.
This is clearly not the type of behaviour we have come to expect from a usually humble Messi – turns out that every player has a dark side.
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