I was just saying two weeks ago how Lebanese fans are gaining more interest in the Spanish league and El Clásico [Link] and what I saw yesterday in Down Town Beirut was enough to convince me that there’s a Barca & Real Madrid mania spreading all across the country.
I shot the video above after Messi scored the first goal against Real Madrid. You would think it’s some party but not at all, those are Barca fans dancing the dabke. Restaurants in Down Town Beirut were as crowded as during the World cup yesterday.
As far as the game is concerned, I have to say the referee yesterday reminded me of the one that directs the basketball games in Lebanon. I second Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho that something’s not right and there should be measures taken to stop those bad calls. How the hell was that a red card against Pepe? WTF was the referee thinking?
Also, I think Dani Alves should be banned for 1 game for being such an awful cheat.
Here’s an image of the tackle that earned Pepe a red card.
The ref made some poor decisions, but the players on both sides didn’t make it easy for him. Real Madrid players were using dirty tactics and so were Barcelona players. Pepe’s red card was slightly harsh, but he shouldn’t have gone into a tackle like that to begin with, it’s a high boot and his studs were up, going into the players ankles. That hurts, a lot.
If Pepe didn’t get the red card, Adebayor should have 100% for taking a swing at another player. Mourinho is a drama queen and a sore loser, his conspiracies are a joke. If he wanted to win the game, he shouldn’t have used such negative tactics, he was aiming for a 0-0 game. What did he expect was going to happen with Barcelona? They’re not going to sit back, they were planning on attacking hard, especially after Mourinho’s mind games before the game.
All in all, it was a fair result. Real Madrid fans need to stop crying and admit their team played like crap.
PS. I’m not a Barca fan and I hate the Spanish league, but the attitude of the RM fans (the players and the manager as well) is quite bothersome.
Patrick,
I am not a big fan of La Liga as well but the match ups between those two teams always promise to be exciting, too bad it is turning out to be a battle rather than a football game.
As you said, if Pepe was shown the red card, Adebayor should have been shown a black cards for what he did lol.
Mourinho might be complaining a lot but he does make a lot of valid points which need to be investigated. He is 100% correct on the Chelsea-Barca semi-final game last year.
Real Madrid vs. Barcelona will never be exciting as people want them to be when you have Mourinho as coach of RM. Not because he’s a bad manager, but he’s more of a tactician and relies on organization and less of a free flowing style of football.
Regarding his “conspiracies”. This is football. Refs aren’t perfect and they always make mistakes, especially in big games. If you replace Barcelona with another team, Mourinho would have still complained about the ref, if the ref had given a red card, even if the player deserved it. He’s always done this. I’ve been watching the English Premierleague for at least 8 years and that’s how he was with Chelsea. Did he ever complain when the ref seemed to favor his teams? Nope.
If there were any form of match fixing going on, they would be caught. It happened in the Italian league a few years ago and Juventus and AC Milan were caught and relegated to the Serie B.
At the end of the day, the better team won, Barcelona were going forward and attacking at every chance they got, so Real Madrid were trying to stop them, by tackling and fouling. Some teams use those tactics and those teams are usually the ones that get a lot of fouls and cards.
When it comes down to it, Mourinho is just a sore loser.
Like it or not, Mourinho was voted fifa world coach of the year. If anything, calling him a loser makes you sound like you shouldn’t be speaking about football. Adebayor should have been kicked out with a red card but giving Pepe a red card was a total fuck up by the ref and it changed the entire game and the attitude of players which affected the result of the game.
Refs make mistakes in big games but a mistake like this should have been corrected by giving Barca a red card when they deserved one in two different occasions.
Anyways, Barca played better and Messi’s second goal was something else, he proved once again that he deserved winning the ballon d’or for the second year in a row.
The one difference between Barca and Real is that Messi is stealing the show in Barca and his absence will severely damage the team while Ronaldo’s presence is not making all the difference.
Barca are no longer the magical football they’ve shown us at the start of the season. It’s now passing each others the ball then giving it to Messi and expect some magical touch.
Funny how no one commented on the video 🙂
Hi,Nice blog you have got here 🙂
Pepe earned a red card,not only because of that play,mainly because ALL incidents during the game,leaving him out there playing would have been a serious threat to BARCA players.
madrid players can’t really play football,when it comes to Barca,you gotta be a wrestler to be able to possess the ball.
VISCA EL BARCAAAAAAAAAAAA
VISCA CATALUNYAAAAAAAAAAA