9:25 AM
NHL & AHL
Real Madrid vs FC Barcelona
Date: Wednesday, 27 April, 2011.
Time: 18:45 until 20:45 (GMT/UTC)
Competitions: Semi Finals (First Leg), UEFA Champions League 2010/2011
This is it. The big one. The moment we've all been waiting for.
Real Madrid vs. Barcelona.
El Clásico.
The two sides have already met twice in the past week and a half. The first encounter between the two sides ended in a tense 1-1 draw with Barcelona dominating most of the encounter but featuring a spectacular Real Madrid come-back late in the match. The second encounter was a different monster.
The Copa del Rey final match ended with a victory for the merengues. Real Madrid dominated the first half and basically took Lionel Messi out of the match. Barcelona woke up in the second half and started to dominate control of the ball a bit better. The game went into extra time and Real's Cristiano Ronaldo scored an excellent goal against substitute goal-keeper Pinto. Real Madrid won the Copa del Rey.
Sergio Ramos proceeded to take the cup and throw it off a bus (yes, we're all still laughing).
Here's a look at what to expect tonight:
Real Madrid
Real Madrid must look to use its home field advantage tonight to press the attack against the Catalans.
The strategy used by Mourinho in the Copa del Rey final was a 4-5-1 formation with Ronaldo as the lone, somewhat meandering striker. The five midfielders helped Real control the midfield and allowed them to throw two or three men at Messi whenever he got the ball, leaving another two or three to protect against Xavi and Iniesta.
Real Madrid will look to use that formation again, albeit with variations since Guardiola will now know who to expect.
Beyond that, Real Madrid must use Sergio Ramos and Marcelo to bolster the wings and aim to seize the initiative of the match.
Barcelona
The azulgrana will need to find a strategy that does not revolve around Lionel Messi. That'll be difficult but not impossible.
They'll have to widen their scope of play and must be more effective with their attacks. It's true that Barcelona plays beautiful football, but goals are what matters.
That said, Barca need to aim for away goals in this encounter and do what they can to throw Cristiano Ronaldo off his game. It's no secret that a few minutes of poor play are more than enough to have Ronaldo start throwing fits and make him more or less irrelevant. That's what happened last November when Barca drummed Real with a 5-0 victory.
Prediction
This will be a death match. The last encounter between these two, only a week ago, was a dramatic one that had the players only instants away from throwing punches on more than one occasion. We can certainly expect that level of aggression today, though one must hope that outright violence is not the order of the day.
It's a tough one to call but based on the last encounter between these two, we'll predict a win for Real Madrid.
Given the rivalry between these two and how well they know each other, however, it's extremely difficult to really make a worthwhile prediction.
Kick-off for the Real Madrid vs. Barcelona encounter is set for 2:45 p.m. EST.
http://4liveworldcup.com/real-madrid-vs-fc-barcelona-live-streaming-online-hd-tv-on-27-april-2011/
Posted in: 
0 comments:
Post a Comment