How Barcelona beat Real Madrid in their own “dirty” game (Part 4)
The two teams faced each other in the UEFA Champions League semi final. The first leg was scheduled to take place at the Santiago Bernabeu. The whole world was looking forward to the game because it was for the fourth time during the season that Barcelona
and Real Madrid were facing each other, a clash termed as El Clasico.
Josep Guardiola was unbeaten against Madrid until the Copa del Rey final. However, he was ready to continue his winning ways against the Los Blancos. Jose Mourinho had his own tactics against Barcelona and changed his team’s style-of-play just a little bit.
Josep Guardiola showed his defensive side while being away from home.
The basic tactics between the two teams changed and the game was more of a tactical warfare.
Real Madrid was missing out on their best center-back, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Álvaro-Arbeloa-c5282 while Marcelo played as
a left back.
Real Madrid relied on two holding midfielders, Lassana Diarra and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Pepe-c29670. Pepe was the one who marked Barcelona’s Xavi Hernandez. The Spanish midfielder is the one who was to pull the strings of the game. With Andres Iniesta injured, Real Madrid simply knew
if there was anyone who could change the cause of the game for Barcelona, it was Xavi Hernandez.
With Xavi Hernandez marked, Barcelona was quite restricted when it came down to the distribution of the ball. However, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Seydou-Keita-c33177 (playing for Andres Iniesta)
often gave cover in the holding midfield position.
Lassana Diarra’s job was quite simple in Real Madrid’s starting eleven. The French star simply had to break play. The tactics were quite negative in a way that there were a lot of fouls flying around. However, the fact that Barcelona dived throughout the
game cannot be neglected.
The Catalan Giants played four defenders with Carles Puyol playing as a left back and Daniel Alves playing as a right back. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Gerard-c14664 Pique combined in the center-back positions.
Normally, Barcelona would play Daniel Alves in a right wing back role and also play their left back (http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Maxwell-c25051, Adriano or Abidal) in the left wing back role. When players perform as wing backs, they move up the flank to aid the strikers up front to add an
extra man to the team’s advantage in attack.
However, with that strategy failing out against Real Madrid’s counter attacking tactics, Josep Guardiola decided to change things round. The Catalan boss decided to restrict Daniel Alves and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Carles-Puyol-c8331 to the half way line. Both the full backs did not
move ahead of the half way line just so they can nullify the counter attacking tactics applied by Jose Mourinho.
Many fans thought that Barcelona would step up a gear, away from home, and would play their game against Madrid. However, they forgot the fact that http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Barcelona-c38605’s defense is vulnerable on counter attacks and Josep Guardiola eyed a viable defensive strategy
for his team to defend well against Madrid.
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