La Liga

How Rare Tactical Errors From Guardiola Lost Barcelona El Clasico

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Like most of the world’s biggest derby matches, there’s no such thing as a meaningless El Clasico, but Saturday night’s clash in the Camp Nou was one of the biggest ones in recent years.  For the first time since Pep Guardiola took over as Barcelona manager in 2008, it was an El Clasico in which Barcelona had to win in order to keep their title hopes alive.

Real Madrid had built up a lead of 13 points over Barcelona in February, but three draws against Malaga, Villareal and Valencia had allowed Barcelona to close the gap back down to 4 points.  With just 5 games remaining, a win for either side would swing the title race one way or the other dramatically.  A win for Barcelona would put all the pressure on Real Madrid, who would have lost a 12 point lead in a little over two months, while a Real Madrid win would give them a 7 point cushion with just 12 points to play for.

By El Clasico standards, Saturday’s match was rather subdued.  Both teams had suffered away defeats in the Champions League during the week, and as a result, the general pace of the game seemed to be slower than usual.  Real Madrid took the lead in the 17th minute, when Sami Khedira took advantage of hesitant defending from the normally rock solid Carlos Puyol to stab the ball home after Pepe had headed a corner down into the six yard box.  It took Barcelona until the 70nd minute to equalise, when substitute Alexis Sanchez bundled home after Madrid’s defence had failed to clear.  But just a few minutes later, Cristiano Ronaldo raced onto a Mesut Ozil pass, and took a touch round Victor Valdes before a cool finish gave Madrid a 2-1 lead they would keep until the final whistle.

Jose Mourinho’s team had taken a giant stride towards their first title since the 07/08 season, and now require just 5 points to become the champions of Spain for the 32nd time.  And Mourinho had gotten his tactics spot on, as his galacticos worked hard to stop Barcelona from playing, and keeping the tempo much lower than Barcelona prefer.  Lionel Messi rarely got space to exploit, and had one of his quietest games against Madrid.

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