Ibrahimovic volley gives Barcelona bragging rights

November 30, 2009

A Barcelona-Real Madrid game that veered from the brilliant to the banal, as is pretty much always the case in these contests, was settled 1-0 in favour of the Catalans by a great finish from Zlatan Ibrahimovic, following an even better pass from Dani Alves.

Real will go back to the capital content with their performance in all areas … apart from in front of goal. They will rue missing six or seven good chances to get something from a game that was pretty even, although that was partly to do with the sending-off of Busquets for a daft handball.

The result took Barcelona back top of La Liga but it obviously didn’t settle anything. What it did confirm is that Real have become a much tougher team to play against with all that new talent and that coach Pellegrini is on the right track. So they couldn’t get the ball off the Barcelona midfield at times? I can’t think of a single team that wouldn’t have had problems at Camp Nou against Iniesta, Xavi, Messi and the rest.

The Ballon d’Or will be announced on Tuesday and you can bet it will go to Messi, but after watching that match I was reminded that Iker Casillas and Carles Puyol deserve to be up there as well.

But what did you make of the game? And who do you think should be named Player of the Year?

PHOTO: Barcelona’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic reacts after scoring a goal during their Spanish first division soccer match against arch rivals Real Madrid at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona November 29, 2009. REUTERS/Gustau Nacarino

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Tags: arch rivals, ballon, Barcelona, barcelona real madrid, bragging rights, busquets, camp nou, camp nou stadium, carles puyol, Casillas, catalans, daft, division soccer, favour, gustau, MADRID, messi, midfield, pellegrini, reuters, spanish first division, volley, zlatan ibrahimovic

Real Madrid fail to convince in Ireland

July 21, 2009

Real Madrid failed to impress in a friendly with Irish side Shamrock Rovers on Monday, although the game was eventually won 0-1.

The ’second Galacticos’ as the team is commonly referred to, began the match without a single Dutchman on the pitch. This adds to speculations on manager Pellegrini’s wish to sell most of the Dutch players.

Cristiano Ronaldo did form part of the starting line-up but failed to impress against the Irish.

The only goal was scored with just four minutes to go, and came from substitute forward Karim Benzema.

Real Madrid begin their 2009-10 La Liga campaign against Deportivo la Coruña on August 30.

By: Jonathan Roorda