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A Classic Encounter

Saleque Sufi |
Update: 2014-10-26 03:04:00
A Classic Encounter

Real Madrid 3 (Ronaldo, Pepe, Benzama): Barcelona 1 (Neymar)

Soccer fans in Bangladesh like the rest of the world were waiting anxiously to watch the super soccer classic of two premiere teams of the world possessing galaxy of superstars. 

It was an exciting match, Real Madrid were worthy winners by a comfortable margin of 3-1. As per the pattern of match, could win by a greater margin. Real were very impressive, the way they just shook off the early goal. 

The Barca front three Suarez, Messi and Neymar were not at their best, and both Xavi and Iniesta looked a little jaded. Overall, there can be few complaints about the result. 

Real had an excellent game. Benzema was impressive; Marcelo and Carvajal were absolutely tireless, Modric was classy. Ronaldo though a little wasteful, actually. Suarez was not quite fit, Messi was off the boil, and some sloppy defending from Barca all added up to a pretty comfortable victory for the home side.

The 4-4-2 formation of Real worked better against the 4- 3-3 formation of Barca. The brilliant midfield of Real comprising of Rodriguez, Mordic, Kroos and Isco hardly left any space for Neymar, Messi and Suarez to operate. 

They took complete control of the midfield from a bit off-color Xavi, Bisquets and Iniesta. Once the operating space was narrowed even maestros Messi and Neymar failed to glow.

Hardly the teams could settle down when Barcelona forged ahead through Neymar fed by beautiful ball into real half by Suarez. Saurez pushed ball in from the right, Neymar picked it up and cut inside. 

The Real Madrid defense backed off, allowing Neymar to run across the pitch and then crack the shot at goal. Neymar scored with the strike from 20 yards taking Barcelona on the lead as early as 4 th minute into game.

That was the last hurrah in the match for Barca as the goal sparked real and they started building waves of attack originating from deep in the defense and gathering momentum in their dynamic midfield.

After missing a few opportunities Real equalized through a perfectly executed penalty by CR7 in the 34th minute of the match. 

Mracelo overlapped down the left flank and crossed low when Pique committed handball .He stretched out fully along the ground to palm it out of the danger area. Penalty and Ronaldo coolly converted scoring his 21 st goal of the season 1-1.

At lemon break the sides locked at 1-1. Real Madrid were caught napping early on as Suarez set up Neymar for a fourth minute opener. But Ronaldo and pals got their act together and were good value for the equalizer. The first half witnessed wonderful attacking play, so much verve and pace and skill, versus two well suspect defences. Carvajal had been the best defender on show.

Second half was almost one way traffic with Real taking complete control. Real went ahead on the 50th minute through Pepe with a free header from the corner 2-1. It was poor defending. Ramos was also unmarked. It was terrible, really, for players of this level to leave an opponent unimpeded like that. 

Once in the lead Real started dominating the proceeding. The third goal looked very eminent and it ultimately came on 61st minute from a defensive error from Barcelona. 

Iniesta and Mascherano got in a muddle and one of them should have taken charge. Instead, Real Madrid broke. It was Isco to Ronaldo and it looked for a second like they had let the break die, but Ron kept  it alive and slipped  it to James, who in turn found  Benzema who struck  a splendid shot that clipped  the far post and went  in Real Madrid 3, Barcelona 1.

Without being biased, watching all the great players, one would have to say Ronaldo is likely the best of the current players. Considering the best player has to be excellent in all aspects of football, so Ronaldo would probably is the most complete player. Messi is amazing, but overall not as good as Ronaldo. 

We cannot really compare two individuals but still we have vote for Ronaldo. He is getting better with each passing season while Messi's so called "magic" is slowly diminishing. 

Of goal scoring prowess, Messi is good, no disrespect there, but Ronaldo is a battering ram, smashing everything in his way, and may that be using his legs or his head. Messi is a better finisher, but needs someone to feed him the ball most of the times. But all that Ronaldo needs is a football at his feet.

We hope I have not disrespected the views and opinions of Messi fans. We have to go by performance , by impacts an individual player makes on the match on a consistent basis. If we like to compare our icon players Salahuddin and Enayet even we will never reach any conclusion. Two were two greats on the own playing style and delivery.

BDST: 1254 HRS, OCT 26, 2014

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