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El Classico: Madrid v Barcelona

El Classico

It may not match the Celtic versus Rangers game for passion and hatred or it may lack the closeness that comes with the Milan derby but there would be very few arguments that the Barcelona versus Real Madrid match is the biggest domestic club game in the world.

It’s not a derby in the eyes of how that game is traditionally viewed but as a match for catching the attention and making people interested, it is second to none. The next game between the two arrives on Saturday 13th December at the Camp Nou and anyone who is lucky enough to have a ticket for it will be counting down the hours until kick-off.

One man who was going to be in attendance at the match but won’t be now is Bernd Schuster, former head coach at Real Madrid, who was unceremoniously sacked on Tuesday.

Ramos at Real
His place in the hot seat in the away dug out at Camp Nou will be taken by Juande Ramos who has signed a contract until the end of the season to steady the ship at Madrid, hopefully reignite them in the league and make some progress in the Champions League. It’s a tall order for any man but given the battering that the reputation and pride of Ramos took at his time at Tottenham Hostpur, it is perhaps no surprise to see the English media raising an eyebrow and perhaps even a chuckle at this appointment.

In fairness, Ramos is still highly regarded in Spain where his achievements with Sevilla are what he will be remembered for and this appointment makes perfect sense by Real Madrid. Comments made by Schuster immediately after Sunday’s defeat by Sevilla where he intimated it would be impossible to gain a win against Barcelona would not be what the Madrid faithful wanted to hear and their displeasure was made known to president Calderon.

Acting swiftly, the German was out the door and Juande Ramos was back in employment just in time for Christmas, which is his severance pay from Spurs hasn’t come through should ensure he is able to buy some nice presents for his family.

The Madrid fans will be praying that the first gift they receive will be three points from their bitter rivals but it is certainly going to be a tall order. Barcelona are in tremendous form at the moment, even allowing for their 3-2 home defeat by Shahktar Donetsk in the Champions League when very little was at stake.

Their brand of football has been free flowing, they are sitting pretty at top of La Liga, they have yet to lose at home in the league this season and they currently sit 9 points clear of Real Madrid, who are currently in 5th position.

Sevilla Shocker for Madrid
Real Madrid have had their share of trouble this season and their home match versus Sevilla was the latest in a string of disappointments. The team found themselves 3-1 down at home by half time when Freddie Kanoute bundled home the third goal for the visitors but whatever was said in the dressing room during the interval seemed to do the trick.

Madrid came roaring back and tied the game at 3-3 and at that point there only appeared to be one team who would go on to win the match. A turning point came when Madrid felt they were denied a certain penalty kick and Arjen Robben was sent off for protesting too strongly.

This re-energised the away team and it was they who pushed on and snatched a winner to send the home crowd into a mix of anger and depression.

Ruud Loss for Madrid
There is no doubt that Real Madrid are missing Ruud van Nistelrooy and any club in the world would suffer if they lost a striker with the capabilities of scoring that the Dutchman has. The player has been instrumental in the last two title triumphs and van Nistelrooy has certainly proved a point to Alex Ferguson who has happy to see him out the door at Manchester United.

Mind you, United also have a strong forward line and are reigning European champions so they will hardly be crying about missing the Dutchman but even then, the form of van Nistelrooy has certainly confounded many critics who believed his best days were behind him.

If Madrid have any genuine hope of sustaining a title challenge or of heading to Rome in May to contest the Champions League final, a replacement striker has to be top of their shopping list when the January transfer window opens. The major problem being is there is no world class forward available who is not currently cup tied for the Champions League.

During the summer, Real Madrid were linked to David Villa but the current talk is that Villa and his representatives are in high profile talks with Manchester City about moving to Eastlands after the turn of the year.

Perhaps the emotional pull of playing for Real Madrid will be enough to convince Villa to stay in Spain or maybe the money on offer from City and the chance to experience playing football in a different league will be enough to leave Villa saying adios to Valencia and Spain.

Either way, Real Madrid really need to spend and even though they have acquired Huntelaar from Ajax, they are placing a lot of hope and expectations on someone who is still young and lacks experience playing at a top class league. There is no doubt that Huntelaar could well be one of the most exciting prospects in the game at the moment but it would be a large gamble by Real if they were to pin all their hopes on the boy.

Guardiola Under Scrutiny Too
Football is sometimes funny enough that when you get one team riding high and the other team appears to be in the doldrums that the result you least expect can sometimes crop up.

Juande Ramos gets his first game in charge of Real Madrid over and done with in the Champions League versus Zenit St Petersburg but you can guarantee his mind is already turning to putting up a fight in the Camp Nou and making his first claim to be given a permanent contract at the Bernabeu. Conversely, whilst Pep Guardiola has rightly received praise for his teams’ performances since he took over but Saturday will be his first major challenge and many people will be watching to see if he is up to the task.

by Andrew Reilly

for The Silver Circle at www.footballtip.co.uk

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