El Clasico Review & Pictures : Real Madrid 2-2 FC Barcelona (14 August 2011)Supercopa

Despite showing the persistence and huge ambition to win the match, Real Madrid had to satisfy with the 2-2 draw result against Barcelona in the Supercopa clasico last night.

For the big match, Jose Mourinho used the same composition as last season of 4-3-2-1, but he replaced Gonzalo Higuain with Karim Benzema as a single striker. Meanwhile, Pep Guardiola made changes in his starting eleven team, with Macherano and Abidal plotted as a central defenders, Thiago and Keita to accompanied Iniesta in the mildfield area, and giving the first debut for Alexis Sancez , replacing Pedro Rodriguez.

Back to the match, Mourinho’s squad started the attack immediately after the kick-off. Played with full confidence and well determination, Real Madrid made Barcelona uncomfortable on the field, and failed to develop their tiki taka style. The pressures made Barca defenders appeared more nervous, and often made mistakes in passing.

It’s not surprise to see Real Madrid score the first goal. Karim Benzema was the creator of the opening goal. He managed to fooled Abidal before passing the ball to Mesut Ozil, who strikes the ball straight to Barcelona goalpost.  Lead with 1-0, Madrid tried to keep the pressure. Unfortunately, it didn’t support well with the players stamina that seemed to be dropped after 30 minutes of the game.

As a result, although closed the first half with a total of 11 shots attempts, Real Madrid couldn’t add another point, and had to watch Barcelona suceeded in maximizing their chances of 2 goals from 2 shot attempts, from David Villa and Messi. It was 1-2 for Barcelona.

Didn’t want to be humiliated in front of their own supporters, after the break El Real continued to fight back with the same strategy as the first half. And less than 10 minutes, it finally paid. They equalized the points through Xabi Alonso.

Of course, El Clasico always followed with controversy. Shortly after Alonso’s goal, Pepe made a hard tackle on Dani Alves. The incident was familiar among El Clasico lovers, since it was similar to the Champions League semi-final last season, that ended with Pepe’s red card. But this time, Pepe got free without a card. And like the usual, Barcelona players made a protest to the referee.

Soon afterwards, Guardiola changed Adriano and Thiago for Xavi Hernandez and Pique. However, they couldn’t stop the intensity of Real Madrid’s offensive strategy.

However, despite having many goals opportunity, El Real still failed to add the scoresheets. Even Ronaldo seemed to be frustrated with his failures on a few numbers of goal attempts.

Ten minutes before the match ended, Ronaldo made a protest after he got tripped by Valdes right hand in a penalty area, but the ref ignored the protest.

In the end, the statistic showed that Real Madrid made 17 shots attempts, while Barca had 4 chances, but until the match ended, Real Madrid only managed to add one goal. And despite Barca had the total 60% of the ball possesion in the second half, they failed to maximize their chances, and had to ended the match with a draw.

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