Saturday, July 14, 2012

5. The Greatest

Probably the greatest game you'll ever see.



29/11/2010 FC Barcelona 5 Real Madrid 0

The famous 'Manita' little hand. Barcelona 5 Real Madrid 0. It was football at it's best by FC Barcelona. Tacticly, physically, mentlally they were at their peak at that night.


Barcelona came to this game with their best lineup - Valdes, Alves, Puyol, Pique, Abidal, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Pedro, Messi and David Villa. Although they lined up with their usual 4-3-1-2 formation (Messi false 9) there was a few tactical changes.

The Classi 4-3-1-2 formation with Messi as False 9. Lets see how they changed it during their possession to build their attacks.
Here you can see that Barca changed it to 3man defence, creating a triangle between Pique, Puyol and Abidal., leaving Alves on the wing. Busquets will play just ahead of the defence and Xavi, Iniesta & Messi in the middle. Pedro & Villa  will play very wide, stretching the game, either to a)  leave space in the middle for forward runs (Messi, Xavi, Iniesta) or b) to stay wide to give an option for Xavi to play the diagonal ball.

Lets see first situation b) to stay wide to give an option for Xavi to play the diagonal ball.
Here you can see that Villa will stay wide. Although Real Madrid defenders don't have anybody to mark at the moment, Barcelona will come closer to the goal, take the game to the right wing, then quickly xavi switch the game with his diagonal ball to Villa.

Here you can see that the game is very compact on the right side, Villa stayed wide and Xavi can play him the diagonal ball behind the defence.
At this moment, they turn their possession into attack. Pedro moves from right into middle together with Messi an anticipate the cross from Villa.




a)  leave space in the middle for forward runs (Messi, Xavi, Iniesta)









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