Barça succumbed to a vastly superior Real Madrid side tonight who celebrated their 31st Liga by beating us 4-1. Barça were never in the game and are obviously already thinking about next season or their holidays. If ever there was a game that the majority didn’t seem to want to play it was this. The humiliation of having to applaud Madrid onto the pitch did not have the desired affect of a proud reaction, instead many players looked as if they just wanted the game to be over with as quickly as possible. To make things harder the referee Perez Burrull gave a number of decisions in favour of Madrid.
Right from the start it was clear that the game was not as important as most clasicos, Robben had a shot straight at Valdés and then Gudjohnsen shot wide for Barça. In the 7th minute Victor Valdés came close to getting an enormous amount of egg on his face almost losing the ball to Sneijder when he decided to dribble inside the penalty area. The lack of intensity was noticeable as the first foul of the game didn’t come until the 12th minute. A minute later Madrid went ahead after Guti exchanged passes with Sneijder and as Marquez challenged Guti the ball broke to Raul who curled one home from just outside the area. Barça appealed for a foul by Guti on Marquez but referee was having none of it.
If the first goal was questionable the second was a clear mistake by the ref. Ramos made an obvious dive when he went close to Abidal and the ref inexplicably blew for a foul. From guti’s free kick Robben was completely unmarked to head home. The first thing Pep Guardiola should do if he takes over is sort out defending at free kicks. rijkaard then took off Gudjohnsen and sent on Giovani and for a brief spell Barça created some half chances but Casillas was not tested.
At half time Marquez was replaced by Sylvinho and Abidal switched to centre back. This coincided with Barça’s worst spell of the match where only desperate defending stopped Madrid from running riot. In the 56th minute Sylvinho made a great last ditch tackle on Marcelo who then clashed with Valdés, the goalkeeper pushed Marcelo out of his way as play continued and Marcelo reacted by lashing out at Valdés. Par for the course tonight Perez Burrull booked Valdés and let Marcelo off scot free. To make things worse for Barça Sylvinho was injured in the tackle and Edmilson came on in his place. Edmilson was only on the pitch a minute when he slipped allowing Higuain the chance to score from Diarra’s pass.
With 15 minutes to go Van Nistlerooy came on for Raul and within a minute Madrid had a penalty for hands by Puyol. The replay showed it was in self defence but Perez Burrull was determined to play his part in Madrid’s victory. Van Nistlerooy sent Valdés the wrong way to make it 4-0. Puyol was one of the few who gave everything tonight and in the last twenty minutes Leo Messi also showed some pride making some great individual runs and twice forcing Casillas into good saves. Then with three minutes remaining he sent a fine ball through to Henry who beat Casillas for a consolation goal. In injury time Xavi got a second yellow card for saying something to the ref and he will now miss Sunday’s game with Mallorca.
It is easy to say the players did not give 100%. I think it is more a case of just hating having to be there. There was pride shown, but when things go against you it is very difficult to turn things around. We probably do need another leader or two in ther squad; players with the character to respond in adverse situations. The referee obviously did not help and I have to admit if I was playing with a ref like that I would find it extremely difficult not to lose my cool. I don’t like to talk about the ref especially after a defeat but the last time I had to criticize like this was after the 1-0 victory over Getafe last season, and the ref then was the same Perez Burrull that we suffered tonight. This is not intended to take anything away from Madrid who deserved to win and at times threatened to make it a scoreline to go down in history.
With Villarreal’s victory Barça can no longer finish second, I hope this is a blessing in disguise as Barça will now have to change the plan for preseason with less travel and more preparation for the Champions League qualifier which begins on August 13. Congratulations to Villarreal who thoroughly deserve to go directly into next season’s tournament. They may surprise a few people.
