Real Madrid v. Barcelona- 1st half report - UEFA Champions League Semifinal
It was a cagey first half at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu as both Spanish giants took a very cautious approach in the first 45 minutes of the semifinal of UEFA Champions League. The first 20 minutes hardly saw any action as both teams seemed to be wrestling
in a ring in a big fight.
Dancing around in circles, sizing up the opponent, waiting for the other to make the first move, neither team put its cards on the table in the first period of the crucial encounter. The second half may paint a different picture.
Jose Mourinho decided to go with his favourite diamond formation with Pepe playing in front of the two centre backs as a defensive midfielder. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Xabi-Alonso-c37045 and Lassana Diarra were marshalling the attacking section of the midfield to connect with Cristiano
Ronaldo, Angel Di Maria and Mesut Ozil upfront, for the Los Blancos.
Barcelona on the other hand also went with their favoured formation, 4-3-3. The Catalans attacked with Lionel Messi in centre, supported by Pedro on the right hand side and David Villa, in an unfamiliar position, on the left. One interesting change from
normal Barca setup was that their captain, Puyol, played as left back rather than his usual position as a center back.
The first real shot in anger of the frustrating first half came from Xavi Hernandez as the World Cup winning midfielder wrapped his foot around a volley from outside that box that http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Iker-Casillas-c16815 collected with ease.
Cristiano Ronaldo was not far behind and replied with a long distance shot of his own but it was from his weaker left foot and Victor Valdes hardly wrinkled his jersey in collecting the ball.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lionel-Messi-c22296, the 2010 FIFA Player of the Year, was not allowed to breath as per Mourinho’s game plan which was quite obvious. He had deployed two men at a time to mark Messi as soon as he got possession of the ball. Just as Messi was being hounded by multiple
players on the other end, Ronaldo was not allowed to move freely either.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Pepe-c29670 in his move to take a left footed shot. It was 2 feet wide of the post but diving Casillas probably had it covered if it was on target.
Madrid’s next shot on goal was harmless as Pepe rose highest to get his head on a free kick but the Portuguese’s effort was headed into the ground and Valdes gathered the ball easily.
With Messi being surrounded, Villa found room on the left once again and made a run with a one-two with Messi and moved into the Madrid box beating 2 players. But in the end his shot was blocked and the ball bounced back into the sidelines.
The atmosphere at Bernabeu got heated up in the final 8 minutes of the half, although throughout the game it was building up to this point. Madrid’s Arbeloa allegedly brought down Pedro and that led to players pushing and shoving each other till the referee
issued a yellow card to Arbeloa.
Minutes later Di Maria was brought down close to the sidelines by Daniel Alves and he too received a yellow card following another scene of pushing and shoving amongst the players. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Cristiano-Ronaldo-c9629 failed to clear the wall for the 2nd time from
the resulting free kick.
Ronaldo did have the final shot of the half as the Portuguese struck an on-target long range shot and Valdes had to make a full stretch dive to prevent the goal. Mesut Ozil’s follow up on the rebound was also saved but the off side flag was already up.
The first half ended at 0-0. Indications from emotions around the field towards the end of the first half showed that things can reach a boiling point in the 2nd period as a red card was given to http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Pinto-c30032 Colorado,
in the dying minutes of the first half. Colorado was caught on the sidelines having a verbal spat with Madrid’s players.
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