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Ibrahimovic volley gives Barcelona bragging rights
A Barcelona-Real Madrid game that veered from the brilliant to the banal, as is pretty much always the case in these contests, was settled 1-0 in favour of the Catalans by a great finish from Zlatan Ibrahimovic, following an even better pass from Dani Alves.
Real will go back to the capital content with their performance in all areas … apart from in front of goal. They will rue missing six or seven good chances to get something from a game that was pretty even, although that was partly to do with the sending-off of Busquets for a daft handball.
The result took Barcelona back top of La Liga but it obviously didn’t settle anything. What it did confirm is that Real have become a much tougher team to play against with all that new talent and that coach Pellegrini is on the right track. So they couldn’t get the ball off the Barcelona midfield at times? I can’t think of a single team that wouldn’t have had problems at Camp Nou against Iniesta, Xavi, Messi and the rest.
The Ballon d’Or will be announced on Tuesday and you can bet it will go to Messi, but after watching that match I was reminded that Iker Casillas and Carles Puyol deserve to be up there as well.
But what did you make of the game? And who do you think should be named Player of the Year?
PHOTO: Barcelona’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic reacts after scoring a goal during their Spanish first division soccer match against arch rivals Real Madrid at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona November 29, 2009. REUTERS/Gustau Nacarino
I was expecting more from this game; maybe the timing of Ronaldo’s injury is a factor. Great save from Valdez w/ his right foot in the first half when Ronaldo was by himself in the box. Maybe next game will be better. Messi, yes, he is a good choice for player of the year even though we need to see more of him in South Africa.