Barcelona warmed up for their Champions League semi-final second leg this week with an emphatic win over their closest rivals, Real Madrid. Barca notched up six goals in the Bernabeau stadium as they won the important match 6-2 to virtually secure another league title.
In an intense and entertaining game it was Madrid who went ahead through Gonzalo Higuain only for Theirry Henry to equalise soon after before Barcelona skipper, Carlos Puyol, put the Catalans ahead.
Barca chose to field their strongest 11 for the game in a surprising move considering the imminence of their European encounter with Chelsea on Wednesday. Henry knocked in another and Argentine, Lionel Messi, bagged a brace, before Gerard Pique scored Barca’s sixth, rendering Sergio Ramos’ goal irrelevant.
Barca sent out a start warning to Chelsea by proving that they are in top form and their best team is playing completely in sync. The match proves just how well the West London side played last week as Madrid became completely over run and despite rapid substitutions by Juande Ramos, the capital city side didn’t look as though they had any answers.
The only bad news to come out of the match were concerns that Henry had picked up a slight knock as he appeared to hobble around the pitch for roughly 20 minutes before being taken off. Barca will also have to mix around the defence against Chelsea, meaning that one of the full backs may have to move into the middle to partner Pique or Puyol.
In this match Barca were able to show just what power they possess. They made a Madrid side look completely sub standard and in their own stadium. The scenes of trenches of Real fans leaving up to 15 minutes before the end of the game would have put delight on the faces of every Barca fan around Spain. As Puyol put it before the match: “It seems to be the Catalans against the rest of Spain.”
Even if you did not want Barca to win this match before hand, you cannot help but sit back and admire just what they did and what the performance means ahead of such a vital European game. If Guardiola had named a much weaker side and Barca lost the match marginally then no one would have been surprised, but the fact that there is hardly anyone who was expecting such a performance makes the result doubly significant.
However, if Barca have suffered in getting such a great victory then it could break up what is their best side. Henry, Samuel Eto’o and Messi are arguably the best front system in the world and with the defence set up to look slightly make shift it could let in a more efficient Chelsea system.
Barca now have the league secure, which was the aim of this game. It would take a catastrophic run of results for Madrid to get back in with a chance with such a short period of the season left. The next week could make their season.
In an intense and entertaining game it was Madrid who went ahead through Gonzalo Higuain only for Theirry Henry to equalise soon after before Barcelona skipper, Carlos Puyol, put the Catalans ahead.
Barca chose to field their strongest 11 for the game in a surprising move considering the imminence of their European encounter with Chelsea on Wednesday. Henry knocked in another and Argentine, Lionel Messi, bagged a brace, before Gerard Pique scored Barca’s sixth, rendering Sergio Ramos’ goal irrelevant.
Barca sent out a start warning to Chelsea by proving that they are in top form and their best team is playing completely in sync. The match proves just how well the West London side played last week as Madrid became completely over run and despite rapid substitutions by Juande Ramos, the capital city side didn’t look as though they had any answers.
The only bad news to come out of the match were concerns that Henry had picked up a slight knock as he appeared to hobble around the pitch for roughly 20 minutes before being taken off. Barca will also have to mix around the defence against Chelsea, meaning that one of the full backs may have to move into the middle to partner Pique or Puyol.
In this match Barca were able to show just what power they possess. They made a Madrid side look completely sub standard and in their own stadium. The scenes of trenches of Real fans leaving up to 15 minutes before the end of the game would have put delight on the faces of every Barca fan around Spain. As Puyol put it before the match: “It seems to be the Catalans against the rest of Spain.”
Even if you did not want Barca to win this match before hand, you cannot help but sit back and admire just what they did and what the performance means ahead of such a vital European game. If Guardiola had named a much weaker side and Barca lost the match marginally then no one would have been surprised, but the fact that there is hardly anyone who was expecting such a performance makes the result doubly significant.
However, if Barca have suffered in getting such a great victory then it could break up what is their best side. Henry, Samuel Eto’o and Messi are arguably the best front system in the world and with the defence set up to look slightly make shift it could let in a more efficient Chelsea system.
Barca now have the league secure, which was the aim of this game. It would take a catastrophic run of results for Madrid to get back in with a chance with such a short period of the season left. The next week could make their season.
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