Barca continue dominance over Real Madrid
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail
Xinhua, January 19, 2012
FC Barcelona continued their domination over Real Madrid with a 2-1 win in Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in the first leg of their Copa del Rey quarterfinal on Wednesday night.
|
|
|
FC Barcelona continued their domination over Real Madrid with a 2-1 win in Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in the first leg of their Copa del Rey quarterfinal on Wednesday night. |
Despite falling behind to a Cristiano Ronaldo goal, Barca again imposed their superior football and second half goals from Carles Puyol and Eric Abidal turned the game on its head to give the Catalans an important advantage to their Camp Nou stadium next week.
Barca have lost just once in nine matches against their rivals since Jose Mourinho took over at Real Madrid
Madrid will have to score twice if the reigning Cup holders are to have any chance of progressing to the last four.
Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho produced several surprises in his starting 11, giving rare starts to Hemit Altintop and Ricardo Carvalho in defense, while Fabio Coentrao started at left back instead of Marcelo.
Barcelona meanwhile played their strongest side with the exception of Jose Manuel Pinto, who started in goal instead of Victor Valdes.
Madrid looked as if they were willing to play on the break in front of their home fans, while sacrificing the ball to Barcelona and the policy paid off after 10 minutes when Ronaldo scored after running into space. His low shot went between Pinto's legs and the Barca keeper should have done better with the shot.
Barca responded with a shot from Andres Iniesta that was well saved by Iker Casillas, while Alexis Sanchez hit the post with a header after 15 minutes and Messi also tested the Madrid keeper.
Madrid meanwhile looked dangerous on the break and only a vital interception from Eric Abidal stopped Ronaldo setting up Karim Benzema after 25 minutes as the game progressed at a furious pace.
The visitors had missed several chances in the first half, but didn't have to wait long to get onto level terms. Puyol was the hero after 49 minutes, hurling himself forward to head home a Xavi Hernandez corner.
Madrid looked stunned by the goal, but soon recovered their composure and Pinto redeemed himself with a fine save to deny Benzema just before the hour after Altintop had sent over a fine cross.
With 25 minutes remaining Jose Mourinho made a double change, bringing on Jose Callejon and Mesut Ozil for Lass Diarra and Gonzalo Higuain. Callejon needed less than a minute before being booked for a wild foul in midfield.
The change did nothing to change Barca's dominance with the Catalan's stroking the ball around the part and it was no surprise when they went ahead after 77 minutes. The surprise was that full back Abidal was the scorer as he finished off a Messi pass.
Madrid's only response was a series of fouls and players such as Pepe and Carvalho were lucky not to be sent off.
The day kicked off with Athletic Club Bilbao taking a huge stride towards the semifinals with a 2-0 first leg win at home to Mallorca.
Marcelo Bielsa's side controlled the game virtually from start to finish and got their reward with a headed goals from Fernando Llorente and Iker Muniain.
Llorente scored from an Oscar de Marcos cross in the first half, while Muniain did the same following a magnificent run from Markel Susaeta after the break.
The Basques also had a goal wrongly ruled out for an inexistent offside decision in the closing minutes, but would do well to remember that in the last round Mallorca fought back from a 2-0 first leg defeat to Real Sociedad to win 6-3 on aggregate.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)