How Barcelona beat Real Madrid in their own “dirty” game (Part 2)
With http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lionel-Messi-c22296 played up front as a sole striker, David Villa and Pedro Rodriguez played on the left and the right wing, respectively. Both players decided to play out wide as they failed to score against Madrid the last time the two sides met.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/David-Villa-c10629 had his own “off days” while playing on the left wing, while Pedro Rodriguez was going through a goal scoring drought. The Spaniards were finding it hard to adapt with Lionel Messi playing in the centre forward role.
David Villa was working well with the team, giving out assists, but Pedro Rodriguez was failing miserably under Josep Guardiola’s new tactics, especially after returning from the injury he sustained a few weeks back.
Real Madrid’s coach, Jose Mourinho, laid down the same tactics against Barcelona. His side performed in their home ground like they were away from home. They were hesitant of keeping possession of the ball and allowed Barcelona to dictate the play with 75%
possession of the ball in the first half.
Moreover, Real Madrid played defensively and solely relied on counter attacking tactics like they did in the Copa del Rey final, winning the encounter by 1-0, thanks to a wonderful assist from Angel Di Maria which was converted into a goal by none other
than http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Cristiano-Ronaldo-c9629.
Real Madrid was without the former http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ricardo-Carvalho-c30973, who was suspended due to a yellow card he received in the quarter-final against Tottenham Hotspurs. Luckily, Sergio Ramos somehow managed to avoid getting booked against the North
London club and was available to play against Barcelona.
Jose Mourinho adjusted his team well without the absentees, calling in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Sergio-Ramos-c33096 joined Raul Albiol in the centre back role and Alvaro Arbeloa performed his role at the right back position while the Brazilian
full back, Marcelo, took the left back role.
Jose Mourinho decided to play four defenders and three holding midfielders. All these players were supporting the team’s captain, the player who stood guard between the two poles, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Iker-Casillas-c16815.
Two holding midfielders played right behind http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Sami-Khedira-c32325, missed the tie
due to an injury.
Mesut Ozil played on the right wing but kept on switching positions with the Argentinean winger, Angel Di Maria. Di Maria played on the left wing to trouble the Brazilian full back, Daniel Alves.
Cristiano Ronaldo played in the centre forward role while Gonzalo Higuain, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Karim-Benzema-c20350 and Emanuel Adebayor remained on the bench. Jose Mourinho wanted to utilize the speed of the front three players to counter attack well.
Everyone saw how Jose Mourinho used totally defensive tactics against Josep Guardiola’s Barcelona last season when he was in charge of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Inter-c39567 Milan. Even though Inter Milan won their home leg, 3-1, at the San Siro, Mourinho simply knew that the Catalans will
turn out to be tough in their own fort, Camp Nou. For this reason, Mourinho played defensive tactics and tried to keep the two goal advantage to contain the Catalan giants.
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