Madrid’s turn for best in title dance with Barca
Drama, pride, passion (and also a fair bit of showing off). Sunday’s two big games in La Liga had them all.
Locked once again in their battle for supremacy, Barcelona and Real Madrid were both behind, and fittingly it was two sides from Andalucia – the home of flamenco – which put them under the cosh.
Down south in Almeria, Barcelona were also down to 10 men, after Zlatan Ibrahimovic was sent off.
Twice they fell behind, and twice they were rescued by Lionel Messi.
Then Alves took centre stage.
Not Dani Alves, Barcelona’s renowned Brazilian full back, but Diego – also Brazilian – the hero of the hour in the Almeria goal, who defied the Barca attack as they poured on the pressure in search of the winner that would keep them in first place. With Barca denied, Madrid would go top if they could beat Sevilla in the Bernabeu.
But hardly had they kicked off when Xabi Alonso put the ball in his own net, just as Barca captain Carles Puyol had done earlier to give Almeria the lead.
Then with the second half only seven minutes into the second half, the former Liverpool man blundered again, ducking at a free kick and deceiving his own keeper into diving too late.
It seemed Madrid had blown a crucial opportunity.
But their much-criticised coach Manuel Pellegrini gambled, and it paid off. A double substitution seemed to energise the home team.
Within seven minutes Cristiano Ronaldo grabbed a vital goal back and immediately afterwards Sergio Ramos powered home the equaliser.
Now it was Madrid’s turn to lay siege to the opposition – and Andres Palop’s turn to perform heroics in the Sevilla goal.
The ball hit the post, the ball hit the bar, the ball was kicked off the line, the ball seemed to have a life of its own, dedicated to not entering the Sevilla net, until the moment two minutes into added time when it finally changed its mind, wriggled free of Palop’s arms and Rafael van der Vaart prodded it in for the winner.
They are used to dramas at the Bernabeu, but the hurtful thing in the three years since they sacked Fabio Capello is that the dramas have usually benefited the opposition. Every time Barcelona slipped up it seemed that Madrid would fail to take advantage
Not now.
And that determination not to be denied could give them the age in a title race that seemed to be going the other way a few weeks ago.
Madrid look confident, Barcelona by contrast seem uncertain and tense – reflected in the protests of their manager Pep Guardiola, who was red carded after screaming in the face of the referee’s assistant when a penalty appeal was turned down.
Guardiola is an urbane, benign fellow, certainly when he speaks to the media. But appearances can be deceptive. As a player he was sent off more times than any other in Barca’s history – eight in all – and this latest red card brings his total to 13 in his long and distinguished career at the club.
It’s an uncomfortable statistic for a man who has just won six trophies in space of 12 months, made more uncomfortable on this occasion as he was facing his former coach and mentor Juanma Lillo, who took Guardiola with him as player-coach to Mexican club Dorados al Sinaloa back in 2006.
Lillo is one of those managers who never really played the game, and he has still to make it as a coach as well. He’s knocked around the lower divisions for almost his whole career – 12 different clubs – with several years out of work, although he did become the youngest ever manager in the Liga’s history when he guided Salamanca to promotion, at the age of 29.
Lillo is also a great admirer of the ‘Barcelona style’ and is still backing his friend Pep to win his second consecutive title, even if the momentum may now be with Madrid and Pellegrini.
Sevilla was huge test for them, and having overcome it in style they now seem to feel it is their year – especially with the tempting vision of the Champions League final being won in their own stadium.
Sergio Ramos, their one top defender, remains a critical player for their season – perhaps more critical than either Kaka or Ronaldo. He celebrated his equaliser against Sevilla in style, making a giant V with his arms aloft.
“It was a V for the prisoners of Valdemoro,” he said afterwards, referring to the Madrid gaol he visited two weeks ago to play football and chat with the inmates.
It is an image that could haunt Barcelona fans in the weeks to come.
