It seems it took forever for F.C. Barcelona to find their ‘flow’ on the field once again. With Puyol and Piqué having been injured before, the defence have really looked uncertain and mostly exposed against Valencia but even against A.C. Milan and Pato. Sure, it could be down to the fact that Atlético de Madrid really weren’t really up for it, but it was clear that Barcelona deserved a lot of credit. According to Josep Guardiola it was purely down to their players, which is always a flattering thing to say when you are a coach. (On a sidenote it is however kind of pathetic to see teams trying to play football at Nou Camp).
Anyways, scoring three goals within a third of the gametime is quite frankly, some good football. Guardiola never likes to be in the actual limelight even though he always ends up there, but I know for a fact that he’s the one that studies and further studies all the teams, personally. He had a lot of respect for Ramadel Falcao though, who disappointed many this night.
“We tried to get the ball away out from our penalty area because Falcao doesn´t make any mistakes there. We were better than Atlético today.” (and he added that it´s been a complicated week, first facing Valencia away and then Atlético Madrid) – Pep
And that’s kind of the sticking point. Real Madrid have faced Levante and Racing Santander and have dropped 4 points just in those games. Barcelona have faced Valencia on away soil and Atlético and gained 4 points out of six. Now, I don’t have to be a mathematics scholar to point out that Barcelona are the real winners here. Madrid have a far more difficult schedule ahead of them than the Catalans do.
You gotta face it, there is something special about Pep. I know that there are critics out there who say that we should wait ’til he coaches another team and then see if he can conjure the same kind of results. But that’s just nonsense.
We’ve all heard the rumours, at least in the Italian press that Pep is to sign for Internazionale Milan next summer. At least that’s Massimo Moratti’s dream. And it could become a true lovestory because Guardiola’s contract with Barcelona expires this summer to come, another widely known fact is that Pep always signs a one-year extension to his contracts, at the utmost. Let’s face it, he cannot go on forever with Barcelona and someday he’ll need to quit.
“We showed tonight that we enjoy ourselves when we play good in front of the people. It was a tough match for Atlético de Madrid and they played well. They have a great team, and earns respect for the way they played but we quickly managed to win the game. The league will be played for long, it´s going to be very hard to win” – Messí (who scored a hattrick on the night)
Messí is quite the opposite of Cristiano Ronaldo. And Mourinho is quite the opposite of Guardiola as I am sure everyone will have recognized by now. The two Spanish powerhouse clubs have different values altogether, where “Pep” always talks about (in positive terms) how good the opponent are and “Mou” is more the sarcastic one. Either way you have got to love how different they are. I’d still say that Mourinho is the bigger coach, just because he has coached in more than four different leagues and won titles. I would as I stated earlier, say that it’s nonsense that Guardiola “has to coach in a different league” but it would be good for the doubters and not necessarily just himself.
The difference between the two coaches is that Pep doesn’t see a need to defend himself, whereas Mourinho does on every occasion. Most simply because Mourinho also gets involved in far more controversies. Anyway, the Spanish league has been greatly improved by these two characters. It may be advantage Pep, advantage Barcelona at this moment in time but things change quickly.
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