El Clasico could teach Spurs a thing or two
Not having watched any Champions League I turned and enjoyed El Clasico. Real Madrid were quite simply the better side and thoroughly deserved their 3-1 victory.
The standard of football was a level above the Premier League and Brazilian Marcelo from left-back was causing all sorts of problems with his overlapping runs and subsequent skill.
Time and again in the second half they broke at speed and in numbers. The running off the ball was superb and was causing Barcelona problems they struggled to solve. While Real Madrid often attacked from wide, Barcelona attacked through the middle with little joy. They showed the problems we have when playing narrow, defences are crushed in the middle and there is no way through.
Where they did have joy was wide from debutant Luis Suarez who played a cross field ball for Neymar to cut inside and score the first before putting a goal on a plate for Messi, who inexplicably missed centrally from 7 yards. After that it was all Real Madrid really who looked the more dangerous all game.
Barcelona were 1-0 up in 4 minutes before a Ronaldo penalty after 35 minutes, his 21st goal in his 14th game this season and his 16th La Liga goal in just 9 games, drew the sides level. Pepe after 50 minutes and Benzema after 61 minutes killed off Barcelona. With the game won after Real Madrid simply defended with great organisation and broke at speed when the chances arose.
The Tottenham players could do with watching how Real Madrid broke from corners, watched the running off the ball and the passing. Analysing a game like that against top quality opposition would help some players realise how much improvement there is to make to compete in the UEFA Champions League against sides of this quality.
The standard of football was a level above the Premier League and Brazilian Marcelo from left-back was causing all sorts of problems with his overlapping runs and subsequent skill.
Time and again in the second half they broke at speed and in numbers. The running off the ball was superb and was causing Barcelona problems they struggled to solve. While Real Madrid often attacked from wide, Barcelona attacked through the middle with little joy. They showed the problems we have when playing narrow, defences are crushed in the middle and there is no way through.
Where they did have joy was wide from debutant Luis Suarez who played a cross field ball for Neymar to cut inside and score the first before putting a goal on a plate for Messi, who inexplicably missed centrally from 7 yards. After that it was all Real Madrid really who looked the more dangerous all game.
Barcelona were 1-0 up in 4 minutes before a Ronaldo penalty after 35 minutes, his 21st goal in his 14th game this season and his 16th La Liga goal in just 9 games, drew the sides level. Pepe after 50 minutes and Benzema after 61 minutes killed off Barcelona. With the game won after Real Madrid simply defended with great organisation and broke at speed when the chances arose.
The Tottenham players could do with watching how Real Madrid broke from corners, watched the running off the ball and the passing. Analysing a game like that against top quality opposition would help some players realise how much improvement there is to make to compete in the UEFA Champions League against sides of this quality.
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