₦airaland Forum

Our starting line-up: Pinto, Adriano, Pique, Abidal, Maxwell, Mascherano, Iniesta, Xavi & Messi/Villa/Pedro (MVP) in front. No surprises. I saw a certain Motoya on the bench - who's that?

eyoniggar:
Almeria 2NYT, I hope madrid gets past sevilla so we can at least thrash um
again in the finals.

I don't think we'll trash RM when we meet again (El Classico, CDR or UCL). Madrid are a really good team and I suspect our next match against them will be tough (I still expect us to win though).

I'm watching the Sevilla - RM semis and Sevilla have been atrocious at the back. If RM were as good as our team, Sevilla woulda been out already. of course, I'm supporting Sevilla to equalize at least.

I hope we can trash Almeria again, though they've been very good in the cup (I think they've even scored more goals than Barca!). Anyhow, we should finish the tie today & start to rest our players in readiness for the UCL clash with Arsenal,

AjanleKoko:
Betis made me feel like La Liga is truly a 2.5-team league. We need teams like that playing in the Primera.
Good thing our Finidi George is their director of football. Another future contributor to the development of Nigerian players, hopefully.

I didn't know Finidi was Betis' director of football. That's really impressive - hopefully some of these guys will be allowed (by the entrenched powers) to contribute to develop the local league.

I expect La Liga to become more competitive with more cash flowing in from billionaire take-overs. Malaga & Real Sociedad have been taken ove already - I expect the trend to continue, with bigger & more historic clubs (eg Valencia, Villareal, Sevilla, A. Madrid, Depor) also catching some billionaires' fancies.

Another excellent game from our boys. Everyone was good today. I would have liked to see \milito play though, just to boost his confidence after playing badly midweek.

Hopefully, Mallorca can do to RM what they did to us - claim a draw in the lion's den.

We face Racing tomorrow. I expect us to get back to winning ways & hopefully some subs can get to play if we race to a good lead.

I'm happy that we face Almeria in the semis. They're fighting relegation & staying up should be a higher priority than winning the cup. For Sevilla on the other hand, this may be their only route to Europe next season so they'll give their all to reach the final. RM will have their hands full.
Mwhile I forgot to mention in my previous post-I'm surprised Pep played Messi 90 mins in this match. Abeg make him no kill Messi o! He should have been used as in impact sub instead,

Unfortunately, I'm away from home & didnt see the match, not even highlights yet!
Good analysis by ogazi though I tend to agree more with ajanlekoko that these guys are useful squad players and just need play time.
For me it's better to lose our unbeaten run now than in UCL semis.
I expect Adriano to improve as he plays the next few matches with Alves out. Milito needs time to regain composure. Maxwell has been impressive all season with Abidal & Masch is getting to what we expect. My only true worry is Bojan who has been terrible all season-it's baffling cos the potential is there. Maybe he should go on loan while K9 returns as Villa's backup.

Thanks for the info ogazi. The records are almost unbelievable. Yet people feel Rijkaard built this team (Rijkaard did his bit, but this is Pep's team!)

Mwhile, pep has confirmed that Thiago will be joining the senior team next season. This means he will play less with the main team and more with the reserves for the rest of this season (with Afellay in, his chances are somewhat limited). I hope this also means we won't be chasing Cesc in the summer - no need for any expensive signings now.

I agree that Adriano hasn't impressed so far on the right wing, but he's still ok (Alves has really raised the standard). last season, it was Puyol covering the right remember? At least, we have a natural wing back there now (a left footed one though). I also don't like his back passes, but he should improve with more matches - this is his chance.

We play Betis tomorrow, if I recall well. RM play AM on thurs - RM have to play their full team again, no rest for bad people

khanye:
@stealthy: i think Nolito will be joining benfica this Jan. Or this summer. I don't think barca will be offerin him a deal.

Yeah I know he'll most likely go, but I'm hoping we can still offer him a deal. We don't have a lot of cover upfront & he's one of the best players in team B.

Looks like Pep will be playing Afellay in AMF more often than as part of the front 3. In that case, we should be able to keep Nolito who plays as an attacker. It also looks like Milito will stay, which is good for the team.

Great game from us & excellent way to end the 1st half of the season.

That was a classy goal by Malaga.

And a good response to that with the 4th goal, scored by Villa.

I'm surprised Pep hasn't made any substitutions. I guess he's gunning for another 5 goals,

AjanleKoko:
^^
I have to say, Cristiano has been fantastic, in solid form this season. He's carried the team this far. This game against Almeria showed clearly that he is really the force behind Madrid. JM will shake up that team in June, if he survives.

I agree. He's almost as good as Messi and he's a worthy opponent. He has his annoying sides but overall he's definitely the 2nd best footballer in the world today after Messi.

khanye:
How is your weekend going bro, we r setting the new club winning run record today

AjanleKoko:
2-0 in 20 minutes already.
These our boys are beginning to look more and more like the Harlem Globetrotters. We may get banned from playing competitive footie at this rate

Alves out with a hamstring, and pulled off for Adriano. Here's his chance to prove he's not just another Brazillian name.

Thanks Khanye, I de enjoy my weekend, especially with all the records we're breaking tonight.

Lovely goals already in this match. I said something a couple of weeks ago about Iniesta shooting from outside the box. We've seen it again today. Good scoring competition between our front 3 just like 2 years ago with Henry, Messi, Etoo.

I expect Pep to rest some of the big guns in the 2nd half since Malaga's not coming back in this one.

I'm happy to play Malaga now cos I think they'll be more dangerous later this season with the squad they're assembling & Pellegrini as coach.

The Madrid slip-up we've been hoping for finally came today, thanks to Almeria of all teams! I thought Villareal would do it last week, but it took the bottom team in the league to do it Where are those EPL fanboys now?)

I see Madrid dropping more points because they need to play their best team in the next Copa match against A-Madrid midweek (while we play out B team) so their players get to rest less. Our players have had more rest this season cos Pep has managed to rotate well without the quality dropping, while Mou has to play his best team in every match really. Also, with our style of play, the pressure is on the opponents - if you watch RM play, CR7 almost kills himself in every match. You can't do that for a whole season, every weekend & midweek.

Excellent stuff from Khanye & Holydante

AjanleKoko:
Guys,
Wouldn't it be a peach if we met Madrid in the finals of CDR as well as UCL?
Forget whoever wins. It'll be just like 2003, when Milan and Juventus met at Old Trafford.
Madrid and Barcelona at Wembley would be one for the purists, especially a vindication of Sepp Blatter. I pray and hope to be there live.

Hmmm, that would be mouth watering o, especially the UCL (so long as Barca wins all competitions sha). If it does happen, I actually would love to go (in fact I'll go irrespective of who we face in the final). And of course, it will be a serious advert for la Liga. The EPL boys won't stop talking about the high points gap between 2nd & 3rd in la Liga this season & last, but the fact is that Barca & Real will dominate any league. We should just prove that by dominating the UCL for the next few seasons, shikena

holydante:
Well players can get passionate and exuberant at times and it requires some checking over most often, truth be told Dani is more of an out-and-out R.winger than a full RB and his transition rate will reduce as time goes by which obviously will leave a porous gap behind and you can imagine if a Gareth Bale were to match up on that side against him, i also believe he is not eager to extend his contract probably trying to do Rooney style and get something better for himself, I bet Pep will surely be grooming Adriano for post-Alves as a full RB while Ibrahim doubles up with him as a winger(that will be some mouth-watering combo when the 2 will finally jell ), it will be sad to see him go though but this is soccer, you get very few permanent loyalty from players.Lol @ Biscuit, well 25m could be very tempting and probably since Barca Mgt would want to maintain a cap on wages, they may likely let him go but it will be a shame forcing out Yaya and now Sergio who supposedly gained more from the formers absence, their replacements wont surely be as effective as they are, something has to be done about this wage thing because these players are unarguably playing the best footie available now and if the likes of Man City comes calling with promise of 300,000 pounds weekly wage , truth be told, they will be tempted like I would

@medjai, Masch is a hard tackler and prone to cards and suspension, we need a sublime guy to back him up.

On the flip side Sepp commended la liga yesterday as the best so far and that epl should borrow a leaf from them bla bla, i just laffd, the epl-besotted english press and arm-chair-epl-nairaland-fanTICS wont spare him today, mine is this, am a fan of Barca 1st and good soccer next. shikinah!!!!!!!!

Spot on analysis my guy, absolutely spot on!

@Johnpaul & holydante
Thanks for your compliments guys! It's good to be among fellow Cules!

Unfortunately, I don't get to post much during the day as I de usually get other commitments, but no probs,

Wow! 5 has to be our new trademark! Lovely cross by Iniesta & great header by Keita. I may not like Keita much, but I feel he should get into those scoring positions more since he's strong with headers. I recall him scoring 6 goals st the beginning of last season.

I was wrong - Messi does come off for Jeffren.

People will see this scoreline & think it was an easy match, but it really wasn't. Betis was a handful most of the match & it'll be great to see them back in la Liga next season - they're better than Almeria & Levante.

It's raining goals now - wait make I go get my umbrella! Good one from Pedro.

Pep, abeg bring on Afellay now - the job is done, make we see our new boy in action.

Ok, Afellay comes on as I'm typing.

The commentator thinks it's Messi coming off - he obviously doesn't watch barca games. Pep almost never takes Messi off. Worst case, he won't start Messi, but I don't recall seeing Messi taken off since last season.

Messi hattrick!!! Finally, we put Betis to the sword. But they've been worthy opponents really.

Oh! Messi nearly scores no 4, just as I was typing.

Excellent 2nd goal by Messi!!! He's shutting the detractors up, goal by goal!

Pinto has also been excellent - he really is a reliable back-up keeper.

As for our defenders, I wonder why they won't just clear the ball out sometimes. I like that we always play out of defence, but some teams set out to disrupt this strategy (since our build-up play starts from defence). If Betis were more clinical (or Pinto badly positioned), we could have conceded 2 goals from being robbed in our half while trying to pass the ball out. Sometimes, it works just to boot that ball out abeg!

Guys, there's a trend I've noticed in Spain since last season: every team plays against us like it's a cup final! But when it comes to Madris, these same teams just lie down & get flogged. Maybe it's the fear factor based on what Barca did in 2009, but still, I'll expect some fear factor for Madrid too - afterall, they're a very good team too.

I believe the reason we had a record setting season last season (in terms of total points) is because we had to treat each match like a final as the opposition wasn't giving us breathing space. Pep could hardly even rotate last season. I mean, I watch EPL matches & the big teams get it pretty easy with theor small teams - they can even afford to rest players. For us, it doesn't matter who we play, we need our best team practically every match - we may end up winning 5-0, but the fact is those matches are harder than many EPL matches ending 2-0 for ManU, Chelsea, etc. ManU has played rubbish this season, but they still win comfortably. If we dare play rubbish, the likes of Hercules & Mallorca punish us instantly!

What do you guys think?

Pharoh:
Pique should not have talked to alves like that but to say the truth there has been some pressures on alves wing and pique has gone there to defend so many times.

Guess one of them might leave at the end of the season.

I agree with you - it was shocking to see them arguing and that's not a good sign. Hopefully Pep can stamp that out.

Neither of them should leave at the end of the season o! We need 'em both. Alves should sign his new contract asap abeg. His current one expires summer 2012 & this needs to be cleared up soon.

My half time analysis:
Betis has been VERY tough! They've made a real game of this & this is probably our toughest game so far this season. Betis has actually created good chances & their keeper has been excellent.

On our own part, the defence has been under some pressure due to Betis playing 3 men upfront & Alves playing almost as a right winger (as usual). I feel Masch does a better covering job than Busquests in matches like this, since Masch is a bulldog who can cover half the pitch in seconds.

Great goal by Messi to lift some pressure. In truth, we were unlucky not to score earlier, but these things happen and our guys need to learn not to get too desperate to score (that's what killed us in the UCL semi against Inter - we kept trying too hard to equalize in Milan & Inter simply scored a 3rd goal).

Some of the guys look tired & it's not surprising due to the heavy schedule immediately after the Christmas break. Hopefully, we still kill off Betis & we wont need our 1st 11 for the 2nd leg.

eyoniggar:
can Barca really let Biscuit go? Its business though So i wnt be surprised if they let him go.

i dnt freaking care, dude Mou is arrogant. Does any1 know if DSTV wud be showing our match 2nyt?

Setanta Africa is showing the match.

Pep has gone with a very strong squad (1st 11 except for Valdes & Abidal) and this shows he obviously learnt from the near miss with Bilbao. We should kill off Betis now in Nou Camp & rest the guys for the 2nd leg.

medjai:
I think for the right price, we should let him go. We still have Mascherano and there's also Oriol Romeu from the La Masia that can do well in that position. It wont be bad if we let him go for £25m

I agree, but it's not likely. With the Qatar deal, our finances should be in better shape and even though most Cules don't like Rosell, it looks like he's far more financially savvy than Laporta.

I agree with you guys on Mou - he's just an arrogant actor who tries to use mind games against his opponents. pep fell for it last year in UCL, but has learnt his lessons now.

Messi wins the Ballon d'Or! But again, this is really an award for barca.

Hope we can retain La Liga & also win the Copa & Champions League this season!

medjai:
Great result over the weekend. We have not exactly reached the dizzying heights we were at before the break but the most important thing is that we are getting the right results.

Who do you guys think will win the FIFA Ballon d'Or tonight? Xavi, Iniesta or Messi?

I hope Xavi wins it. He has contributed a lot to Barca and I don't see him winning it again because even if we win the treble this season (AMEN!), Messi will be more likely to win it for 2011 than Xavi/Iniesta. They both won the WC, with Xavi contributing far more than Iniesta, so Xavi should win it.

To be honest though, this is one Ballon d'Or ceremony I am not too worried about - whoever wins it, it is already a prize for the whole club with 3 finalists,

Johnpaul88:
Nice work Stealthy and Holydante. I luv u guy's deep passion for the game and club. We all love it, how we do. Up FCB! We hope Villareal helps us to hold this RM.

Thanks man. Big up to you too.