So, the international break is over and what better way to celebrate the return of the league game than with a match between two giant. I'm talking about the El Classico, Barcelona vs Real Madrid. How do you feel about that game?

In this game I agree he was lucky not being sent off in first half after his foul on Messi, even the first yellow for protesting was unnecessary but yeah its really hard to find a balancé between harsh and dirty, Varane mister clean was benched for a reason, not harsh enough for high level against tricky players. In the red care action look How Suarez went with his body on Ramos direction...
I would have loved to see someone stopping Marcelo's run before the goal, being clean doesn't win you games.

@Madridista11 Yeah, but I like how he was mostly mature enough to go without arguing with the referee.

I watched three different streams during this game, and my one takeaway is how stupid all the focus on Ronaldo and Messi is. All game, Ronaldo this, Messi that. And while Ronaldo did have a hand in two goals (even though one was wrongly disallowed), he wasn't even close to Madrid's best player today. Messi wasn't Barca's either. Neymar and Suarez did very little. Benzema had one good touch (his goal) and didn't do a single positive thing for the entirety of the game.

Pique scored a fantastic goal (seriously, watch the way he loses Pepe, it's a thing of beauty), but was at fault for the first Madrid goal. Ramos got sent off, and Pepe was great until he went full retard on Suarez at the end.

What I'm getting at here is that the reason Madrid won was due to the hard midfield presence of Casemiro and the fantastic play of their wingbacks, Carvajal and Marcelo in particular, who not only created both goals, but shut down the Barca wings. Almost everything good from Barca came from Iniesta, and while he gets some credit, it's nowhere near the level of MSN.

My main point is that we need to take a step back from the god-like status we put players like Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar, and Suarez on a properly appreciate what some of the lesser-appreciated figures did today - and that was dictate who won and lost the match.

Just wanted to say that.

@Emobot Agreed 100%

@Sun I hear you man. I remeber the times when the whole squad was evaluated, now it's only the main stars who get praised/critiqued.

@Sun Too true, mate, too true. I understand what your saying and I sometime find it boring how we only hear about the big star all the time. Other thing I like to ad is that I thought Bale did pretty good in the match, mostly in the first half and Rakitic didn't perform as well as I would have liked. Both defense worked pretty well today for me but Barca didn't track back enough and gave opportunity to Madrid because of it. I would also like to note that Keylor as usual was very solid for Madrid, this guy is great class, my respect for him keep getting stronger by the day.

It wasnt as great of a game as it was piped up to be. My take from the game, is that the refereeing is terrible and inconsistent.

Key points:
Barca missed to many chances like the Suarez one very early in the match
Ramos should have seen a red in the first half
There should have been a penalty or free kick at the edge of the box
Bales goal was wrongly called a foul

Both teams were very tired from international break That brought down the quality in the match

I think Ramos enjoys going brain-dead in the most spontaneous of moments.

Ramos should have been sent off in the first half. He's a very good player, but sometimes he acts like a retarded donkey. Also, the amount of diving and theatralics is absolutely disgraceful, which clubs of that magnitude should be ashamed of. Overall, it was an underwhelming Clásico for me.

HOW WAS THIS NOT OFFSIDE? HOW DID RAMOS GET YELLOW FOR PROTESTING THIS?

I think ref did the right thing in Ramos v Messi. Ramos clearly caught the ball first. I don't actually know what rulebook says of it, but for me that wasn't a foul.

Then in 2nd half he should've been "sent off", right. It was CLEAR yellow card, but ref had checked (this photo) on half time and decided to compensate it by letting him go 1 time. Then what eventually sent him off was right call.

Really don't wanna talk about the Bale goal, never seen as FRAUD of a decision on disallowing a goal than that. Got me so mad.

Decent a quick search of the offside rule will help you. It's not offside of the play is a goalkick, throw in or corner.

http://www.thefa.com/football-rules-governance/laws/football-11-11/law-11---offside.aspx

Ramos got carded for complaining about either a non existing offside or a non existing foul.

I know that there is a lot of diving, specially in El Classico but, how on earth does Alves/Alba get away with it! Not saying that others players don't do that but, Alba loses a challenge, falls to ground and 9 out of 10 times it's on Barcelona favour.
I know players wants to get advantage out of everything but, you can't wonder when someone from opponents just shuts them down. Don't tell me you never wanted to take down the players when he was diving whole time.

Neymar wasnt offside Suarez didnt touched the ball then we could argue if he was influencing the action or not. Thing is nobody spoke about the calls against Barca, many wanted them to loose due to their current success so I expect a little bias but to call them ' Favored by ref ' come on in first half non existant offsides whistled, Pk + red card denied... Im not whining but ref was dar from helping Barca. Bales goal for me is valid for the simple reason that the physical gap and height is too big between him and Alba to be called as a foul.
Other than this, Madrid won for pride, Half of Barca players couldnt end the 90 min due to international break, not an excuse but if it helps them to get a result vs Atleti tuesday it will be alright.

A quickzy I dont know any action you're talking about, would be glad if you give an example of the actions you're talking about just to understand your point.

Referee wasn't favored towards either side. I think he did a good job except for the Bale goal, which I would blame almost entirely on Alba. It's quite disgusting to see Alves and Alba even play football. They're literally two little gnawing rats that try to play dirty and fall and exemplify their exaggerated theatrics on every bit of contact. I could say the same about Masche and Pepe as well.

In all honesty, the fact that Alba protested that Bale goal shows his merits as a human being. Disgusting little creature. IMO he shouldn't be permitted to play for a club with the history of Barcelona. It's Barca's first match since Cruyff's passing, and this is what the left-back of the club does as he represents Cruyff's legacy....

Dy thats a little harsh. Everyteam has dirty players. Alba and Alves are a few among many. Pepe, Ramos even Ronaldo have done "dirty disgusting" things and yet represent Real Madrid.

Decent a quick search of the offside rule will help you. It's not
offside of the play is a goalkick, throw in or corner.

Bit strange that I never knew there isn't offside in goalkicks. I knew about throw ins & corners. Sorry for that

No problem decent, it is a bit strange that that particular part of the rule really never got aby attention. I myself wasn't aware of it either until I looked it up previous to commenting on that play.
Interesting isn't it? How we criticize the refs so much yet we are ignorant to some basic laws.. Guess it's easier when you get to watch countless replays and the decision or the blame doesn't land on you haha. Bit of a reflection before criticizing another red ;)

@Rai

Pepe and Ramos always do dirty things. That's why I don't care if anyone hates them for it - because it's true. Ronaldo has also done dirty things in the past, but it's always out of frustration. He doesn't kick out to annoy other players, he does it because he gets frustrated. Bash on his diving though, I have no problem with that. I hate his diving as much as anyone else.

That being said, however, I have never seen players who consistently try to play dirty and cheat and exaggerate fouls to the degree of Dani Alves, Sergio Busquets, Javeri Mascherano, Jordi Alba, etc. Don't forget that Alves single-handedly cheated his team into the 2011 Champions League final against us. Madrid fans have a long memory. That little act took away a lot from our identity as a whole and added a whole lot to Barcelona and Messi's legacy. A complete farce.

If you want to see how Barcelona won the 2011 Champions League, watch this 40 second video. All you need to know, really. We were on the front foot until this happened. We even went on to tie the away leg 1-1. All we had to do was win this home game and it would've been sealed.

Pointing out single events and claiming the only reason they got to the CL final was because of that is absurd. RM showed they can win a man down against barcelona. Furthermore ots like the other 9 games barcelona got a free pass. Sure he acted and got Pepe suspended. I'm not denying it's dirty. But it's like claiming Manchester United didn't deserve the 2007 (I think) cl because Ronaldo was a big diver and I'm sure you can find multiple videos of him diving to get advantages.

Refs make mistakes. That one was impossible to tell there was no contact or minimal contact. Diving play acting and exaggerating is a BIG part of the game and there's no way around it until all FAs do something about it. Blaming a set of players or one team wont solve anything about jt.

Well if Clasico turned that time to that, Madrid and their coach mainly refused to play, under Mou they used every single way to win, so it's normal that Barca players give a little back. When the other team refuse to play and make foul after any dribble " which actually works with possession teams " don't blame the other team to defend themselves and give back, Alves just did the same the opposite way.
In a way what el cholo did to possession Real of Ancelotti is what Mourinho tried to do, Pepe's foul wasn't his first or last one and got forged a reputation, so when the rival uses mind games before the game and try tricky things Mou style to win, the other team are wrong to fight back with same tricky methods but it's understandable...Alves got Pepe out just like Pepe was trying to do the same in previous clasicos.
Mou already used it with Inter in 2 games but at Real he brought it to another level. I'm not blaming him it worked at times for him, despite not being fair play.