Sport
BARCELONA AND REAL MADRID SET UP LA LIGA RACE
Barcelona and Real Madrid’s Ability to Achieve the Improbable Sets up a Mouthwatering La Liga Title Race
Champions League Exit Threat
On Tuesday, Real Madrid travelled to the football-mad city of Naples with the task of carrying a 3-1 first-leg lead into a tough away game. Maurizio Sarri’s Napoli side played elegant football at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, but it proved ineffective, forewarning Los Blancos of what could occur when they were able to play in front of a packed stadium of their own fans, where the Champions League anthem would bellow out into the evening air with both conviction and optimism.
A day later, Barcelona faced Paris Saint-Germain, a team who threatened to become the beginning of the end for Luis Enrique at Camp Nou. A 4-0 demolition in France had initially hit hard, but big margins of victory against Sporting Gijon and Celta Vigo had somehow mustered up an infectious and ever-growing sense of belief in the Barcelona camp – with their head coach’s announced departure at the end of the season adding fuel to the fire.
Domestically, there hasn’t been much to separate the two in LaLiga, with Barcelona having a point’s advantage over their fiercest rivals heading into the weekend. Zinedine Zidane’s men hold a game in hand, but have recently dropped points against the likes of Valencia and Las Palmas to allow the huge potential gap they could have opened to be whittled down emphatically.
A Captain’s Performance in Naples
On the European stage, they showed their title credentials in full form. Real Madrid suffered an awful first half in Italy, conceding early to a Dries Mertens strike and then watching the same Napoli forward kiss a low shot off the post before the half-time break. In short, there was no stability to their game, with Cristiano Ronaldo even caught on camera in the tunnel telling his teammates that they simply can’t defend, but Zidane stuck to his guns and looked to ride out the storm.
Club captain Sergio Ramos popped up with two headers from set pieces after the break, once finding the back of the net while the other forced Napoli into conceding an own goal, turning the tide in some style to break Napoli’s belief. The visitors had taken a battering, careered their way into the half-time pit-stop with their wheels hanging off, but somehow came out smiling to match their first-leg triumph courtesy of a stoppage-time strike from Alvaro Morata.
The Miracle at Camp Nou
Similarly, Barcelona needed a response. Despite having a four-goal deficit from the first leg, the media attention and press conferences that prefaced the match somehow made out that there was a glimmer of hope for the Blaugrana. Neymar, Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi had found their form once again, while the second-half performance against Celta Vigo was reminiscent of the team as a whole playing at their most intricate.
‘Sí se puede’ – yes, we can – was the cry from the stands as that game closed out in LaLiga, with attention already turning towards the clash against PSG, a chant that would mostly be used by teams visiting Camp Nou that couldn’t call the home dressing room their own. Optimism bubbled, but nobody would admit that they saw a chance of the impossible happening, not until Luis Suarez took advantage of some awful goalkeeping from Kevin Trapp to give the home side a third-minute lead.
Sheer determination from Andres Iniesta led to Layvin Kurzawa turning home a 40th-minute own goal, leaving Barcelona with a 2-0 lead at half time. When Thomas Meunier felled Neymar in unorthodox fashion to give away a penalty, Lionel Messi stepped up cooly to make it 3-0 on the night and throw the window of opportunity wide open.
Luis Enrique’s decision to play three central defenders, with Andres Iniesta and Rafinha drifting out to the flanks of a 3-4-3 diamond, gave Barcelona total control. PSG couldn’t escape from their own half, save for a breakaway that saw Edinson Cavani strike the post, but gaps appeared as desperation crept into the equation for the hosts, allowing for El Matador to thump home a wondrous half-volley just after the hour mark.
The away goal deflated Camp Nou and the tempo of the game, while PSG rallied to the cause at last. The introductions of Sergi Roberto and Arda Turan helped to freshen things out on the right-hand side for the Barca, who looked to have run out of time – until Neymar curled a wonderful free-kick into the back of the net on 88 minutes.
Some simulation from Luis Suarez allowed Neymar to grab his second of the night on 91 minutes from the penalty spot, sending the home fans into a nervous fervour. There was an inevitability that Barcelona were going to achieve the impossible, and yet another voice existed that said the comeback couldn’t be. It would defy reality.
All of the doubts, the pressure, and the criticism sent towards Luis Enrique were quickly drowned out. PSG’s implosion was complete, after a eight-minute period that saw the away side complete just four passes – three of which were from kick-off.
Neymar clipped a ball over the top that appeared to hang inside the visiting penalty area for an eternity, before Sergi Roberto slid into position to stab home a volley that sent Camp Nou crazy. The Barcelona bench emptied, pandemonium ensued, and history had been made.
The Race is On
Both Real Madrid and Barcelona haven’t been at their best this season. They haven’t managed to control games with the same regularity as they might have been used to in the past, nor have they been blessed with coaches that can be recognised as pioneers of any particular philosophy or master tacticians.
But, somehow, they keep achieving. Sergio Ramos, Lionel Messi, Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo, these are names which will be recycled time and time again in the next few months as Spain’s big two edge their way towards a title showdown.
Next month, Barcelona travel to face Real Madrid in LaLiga at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, knowing that in the long run a win over their rivals would be enough to see them crowned as champions at the close of the campaign. Two teams that will never say die, playing an edition of El Clasico that could decide the title.
The possibilities for that game must be seen to have the potential to lie outside of footballing reality.
