El Clasico stars Ronaldo and Messi ‘from another planet’
Barcelona’s new manager, Tito Vilanova, was content with a draw that kept his team eight points clear of Madrid. José Mourinho was relieved still to be in the title race. An 11-point gap in mid-October would have been too much to contemplate.
Barcelona’s defending again gave their fans palpitations. Vilanova made the point afterwards that he fielded a team “without a single first-choice defender” but it seemed that after adopting the “false number 9” system he was pioneering “the false number 5” as well. Madrid might easily have gone two or three up early on.
Madrid will take a little bit of comfort from the game. They matched the leaders blow for blow and Cristiano Ronaldo confirmed he has overcome his mental block about playing against Lionel Messi.
Messi and Ronaldo both emerged with their reputations enhanced, if that’s possible.
“It should be forbidden to say which of them is the world’s best player,” said Mourinho. “Both are from another planet”.
But Mourinho’s critics in Madrid are still on his case. Barcelona were there for the taking, they argue, with both Gerard Piqué and Daniel Alves missing.
“Once again, Madrid failed to take advantage of a favourable position,” moaned Marca journalist Santiago Siguero, arguing that “it was the worst possible result, because a defeat would have enabled them to focus on the Champions League for the rest of the season.”
Yet La Liga this season may not be the usual two-horse race. There is more than one side in Madrid, and Atletico have begun where they left off last May when they beat Bilbao to win the Europa League.
After beating Malaga, Atletico are level on points with Barcelona at the top of the table, trailing only by two goals. Like the Big Two they have a goalscorer, and Radamel Falcao is in phenomenal form: 12 goals so far this season in all competitions, which works at roughly one for every 45 minutes played.
Atleti probably lack the strength in depth to compete for the title over an entire season. Malaga manager Manuel Pellegrini, disguntled after a last-minute defeat, wrote off their title challenge on Sunday and former Real Madrid manager Bernd Schuster commented: “Falcao is another like Messi and Ronaldo — from a different planet — but Atletico’s best hope is third place”.
Their finances are so rocky that they, like Malaga, have had prize money withheld by UEFA this season under the Financial Fair Play regulations.
Yet in Diego Simeone the club seem finally to have found the manager who can make them do the simple things well. When he took over last December it seemed like another forlorn throw of the dice by a club whose management has been a shambles for years. Instead he had the defence playing as a unit within a couple of games and the attack was rejuvenated, with Falcao back to the form he showed at Porto.
The worry for Simeone, as well as the fans, is how long a near-bankrupt club can hold on to their star. Just like Sergio Aguero before him, Falcao will almost certainly be sold, with both Manchester City and Chelsea among the clubs looking to buy.
So this is their big chance to make a mark, and conceivably attract a wealthy foreign investor. Spain’s economy is in such a crisis that Madrid’s second team could be a target for a speculator — a club with a great tradition, a fine stadium and hordes of passionate fans.
Up north in Barcelona, where the talk is once again of independence from Spain, the contest in the capital may seem of little interest.
But as Real Madrid’s greatest ever player Alfredo Di Stefano has explained: “Our rivalry was with Atletico – and it was for life. Because they are from here, and we have to defend our supporters. In each office, in each factory, some are for Madrid and some for Atleti and they like to put one over each other. That’s what gives football its spice.”
