It hurts me to say this, but Madrid were worthy winners. A goal from Julio Baptista after 35 minutes earned them the victory that puts them seven points clear at the top for a white Christmas. Deco and Ronaldinho both started from the beginning, but it seems that any attempt by Frank Rijkaard to confuse the opposition and the press over his team selection only served to confuse his own players.
Apologies to anyone hoping for a full match report but my heart isn’t in it tonight. Suffice to say that Madrid played very well at preventing Barça from attacking and Barça were only capable of creating one real chance in the whole game. That came after 33 minutes when Iniesta, who was Barça’s best player, crossed from the right to Ronaldinho whose shot was well saved by Casillas.
Two minutes later Baptista exchanged passes with Van Nistlerooy and shot past Valdés from the edge of the area. Barça huffed and puffed in the second half but were limited to shots from outside the area, Madrid looked dangerous on the break and Barça were perhaps lucky to keep the score down to one.
That’s all for now, if you are a Barça fan reading this and it is still Sunday then you are probably a masochist. Tomorrow I will write more on the game with a bit more analysis.
Barça: Valdés 6, Puyol 6 (Zambrotta m76, 5.5), Marquez 5.5, Milito 6, Abidal 6, Xavi 6 (Bojan m81, 6), Toure 5.5, Deco 5 (Giovani m57, 5.5), Iniesta 6.5, Eto’o 5.5, Ronaldinho 5.
Barça Yellows: Puyol, Milito.
11 responses so far ↓
Luis // Dec 23, 2007 at 22:53
its frustrating that we lost and it was to madrid.some say the title race is over but even if it is weve still got the champs league and we can beat celtic
blaugranafan // Dec 23, 2007 at 23:17
Barca were unlucky to score. Baptista’s goal was a beauty. Casillas was brilliant. Starting Deco instead of Eidur was a mistake; quality is permanent, but form is temporary, and Eidur has shown he is in form.
Frank must go. 7 point gap with the team he has is unacceptable. Time to turn up the heat on Laporta too. Enough about Unesco agreements and Fifa politics; take care of business at home.
Good game from Ruud, too. I appreciate his play, despite his allegiance to Madrid.
John // Dec 23, 2007 at 23:40
Agree with Nic’s comments. Madrid were the better side and deserved to win. The game typified everything that has been wrong in the last 18 months. Why Deco and Ronaldinho started I do not know!!! They were both so off the pace, a pale shadow of the players of two years ago! Rijkaard has to go! Madrid are 7 point clear and it will take a massive drop in form to catch them. Perhaps it is time for Jose…. am too pissed off to say any more after such a poor performance!!
FCB - Canada // Dec 24, 2007 at 4:39
Season lost? I believe it as I don’t see Madrid faultering. Too be honest I don’t think Madrid played that spectacular either, at least not on the attacking side but they did get the job done. Wonderful goal it has to be said.
A lot of people will probably blame Ronnie and Deco perhaps but really the whole team turned a poor performance. Iniesta was probably their only saving grace. He was great. Very poor passing all around, with too many players holding on to the ball far too long only to lose it to Madrid later.
I think it was poor judgement by Rijkaard to bring in Gio and Zambrotta. He should have brought in Bojan, Henry, and Gudjohnsen. Certainly Bojan should have been brought in early around 70th min mark.
As much as I love Ronnie and wish to see him silence his critics during every game, it just seems like he doesn’t have it anymore, though I don’t blame him solely for this loss. It’s too bad really. Maybe moving on will do him and club better.
I think a lot of things will come out of this result. The media will have a field day. A shake up is coming, seems almost inevitable now.
Carioca30 // Dec 24, 2007 at 5:52
Hi everyone, well i`m so disapointed in our own fans! Football is all about
the best team win & there shuld be a winer & a looser. Why it hapens its for the love of the game.
I wil n`t blame the coach,players & either the refree. If lady luck is n`t yet side than its not. We the supporters only know to critisis & get the worst out of a situation. Well it wil be rough time for Barca now especially for the coach & R10 but this is critics of everyday. We could all see that without Mesi in the 1st 11 we are a dead meat. We try our level best but we could n`t capitalise & we were punish for our mistakes.
The other thing is, if we really want some improvements for next year i think we need to bring in some young blood in our defence coz u can n`t just hang in to the same old legs. Just look how robinho was geting it easy to penetrate to trough our defence but ronaldinho could n`t why, coz real is having more young blood & flexible players. Our midfield was dead & our goaly i don`t know why he was off the line always. But we learn from our mistakes so i would like to wish all our fans a Merri Christmas & a succesfull 2008 with lot of changes,we have a lot of work to do & i just hope tha Leo can recover soon coz the tense of the game was very difrent without his presence. May god bless u all & we can still do it lets just pull our heads together from management to players & be 1 team. Lets stop with critisism for god sake & think of the future.Real win is n`t the end of the world even though it was in Nou Camp its futebol & thats why we are here for “Nascido pra joga Futebol entao cada um te dia dele e 24/12/07 nao era nos entao vamos trabalha galeras nao e final do mundo pra quente levantar cabecas” TCHAU
Rafael // Dec 24, 2007 at 7:04
I watched it live this morning halfway around the world.
I think a 7 point lead is very very big, and if Madrid continue their form, the race may as well be over already. Iniesta played very well.
I really wanted Ronaldinho to shutup the media today, he had some flashes of brilliance - but it was not like the old classic Ronaldinho. I hope he remains at Barcelona though, such a great talent. As for Rijkaard, who knows what will happen? Jose Mourinho is lurking..
Even Madrid was not in spectacular form.. and they still beat Barcelona.
Blaugrana // Dec 24, 2007 at 10:05
I still don’t believe we got beat by madrid at camp nou in front of 90000 fans the team really let us down. if there is going to be some sacking done rijkard is the last person they would want to sack,RONALDINHO is the one that really should be let go anybody thinking he’ll ever get his form like in the 04/05 season should really wake up playing him was just stupid, he constanly dived when he ran out of ideas,constantly lost the ball he’s runs led to nowhere he doesn’t chase players he might be good at set pieces but it’s not as if we get free kicks every second he is just a waste of space and time he should be relegated to playing games against levante,alcoyano etc if he stays. sacking rijkard at this stage of the season is just suicide the club will fall in a downward spiral like madrid was sacking and hiring a new coach every 2nd month,let him finish the season than draw conclusions from there.we missed messi yes iniesta is just super he just plays with a real love for the club every match 100% work rate he’s just unbelievable. I never give plaudits to madrid or it’s players and i wont today i felt a sickness seeing calderon celebrating in the stands and cannavaro them in jubbilation on our pich was jus terrible,I think its time the club really needs to turn a page in it’s book and stop living in the past of ronnie he changed our club we thank him eternally but no player is bigger than a club…and this is more than a club
e10 // Dec 24, 2007 at 11:42
The result was quite disappointing but they played quite well and i thought Messi would have been a great help to Barca.
Barca are now 7 points behind Real Madrid and that’s going to be a long way back.
But i don’t see Real Madrid slipping up, i am pretty sure that they will perform just about all season but hopefully Barca can get back and win the title but that will start by beating all the big teams including Madrid.
Oh Well i guess shit happens!!!
What can u do.
Jay Maniyar // Dec 24, 2007 at 11:59
I dont believe that the title is lost.
When Madrid beat us 2-1 at home in 2003, we were 13 points behind them and Ronaldinho was out of form. Of course, Madrid collapsed in dramatic fashion that season and are unlikely to repeat it this time around. But we still have to back the team to win the title.
It’s not the end of Rijkaard. But for the first time you can blame him for tactical failure. Ronaldinho and Deco will soon become liabilities in the squad. Andres Iniesta is actually Barcelona’s best player overall. Even if Leo Messi is included.
But it’s not the end. Although a home defeat to Real Madrid is very very unbearable…..
Barca Fan_Miki // Dec 24, 2007 at 14:07
Teriblle this was the worst time for a lost and from our bigest rival this is unacceptable but we have to fight beck.And i don’t think that Ronaldinho wasn’t so bed , the best game for Inesta of scure he played exellent we still have our shoots but we have to win away matches.You should give a little soport for tha players because they deserved it they do what they can so please……don’t blame theme simply they are not in the best shape.
Speeka // Dec 25, 2007 at 19:33
Not what i wanted for Christmas.
Ronaldinho & Iniesta were best for Barca, should have played both Titi & Gudjohnsen.Worse was Milito, he had a shocker & madrid should have won by more.
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