Liga Pundits articles

[Antimilan]

Sevilla need the return of Juande Ramos
Tim Stannard

Tuesday 16 March 2010 14:54
Once upon a time in Spain, the words “Sevilla are on the TV!” would clear the streets in microseconds as footie lovers of all shapes and sizes dashed off to see the most sensational side in the world strut their stuff.

This was especially so down in Andalusia, where the region’s pride and joy rose from being football flops to goal-scoring Goliaths to become as popular as hand-clapping, wailing out of tune and bribing government officials.

Today, those very same words has millions of footie fans across the land groaning and reaching for their remotes to change channel and endure Spain’s six hour version of Strictly Come Dancing instead. The team that was once so, so exciting has become so, so soporific.

Yet just three seasons ago, Sevilla were arguably the greatest club on the continent.

It was a side that challenged Barcelona and Real Madrid for the title, won the UEFA Cup twice, the European Super Cup, the Spanish Super Cup and the Copa de Rey, all in the space of two seasons.

With Dani Alves and Antonio Puerta flying down the flanks, Seydou Keita and Christian Poulsen marshalling the midfield and Luis Fabiano and Freddie Kanouté fantastic up front, Sevilla were the most fun football side in the world.

But then the squad began to break apart with the end of days for Sevilla’s superlative side being the acrimonious departure of Juande Ramos to Spurs in October 2007.

Tough-talking second team coach and former full back, Manolo Jiménez, took over and has fulfilled his obligations by leading his team to a 5th and 3rd place finish in his spell at the club.

But it has been a torturous experience to watch for supporters who haven't stopped calling for Jiménez' head to roll since he started.

Although Jiménez has a fine chance to lead Sevilla into the Champions League quarterfinals holding a 1-1 draw and an away goal advantage going into Tuesday night’s clash against CSKA Moscow at the Sánchez Pizjuán, it is time to say ‘gracias’ but ‘adios’ to Manuel at the end of the campaign and make the controversial move to bring Juande Ramos back.

The vast majority of the increasingly stupefied Sevilla support would love to see Jiménez sent packing when his current contract expires, this summer. As club president José Maria del Nido has admitted, the complex relationship between the fans and the coach is worthy of a thesis.

Despite being a ‘colourful’ character, Jesus Gil’s lawyer and someone facing a 14-year prison sentence for corruption, del Nido rules over a tremendously well run side that has a superb youth system and an astute selling policy that sees Sevilla as one of the few top flight clubs in sound financial straits.

And it is this wise unwillingness to really splash the cash which prevents Sevilla from competing for the title in the way they did in 2007 when the sporting stars aligned to pit a team that was so, so good against rivals that were so, so average.

Yet the club should still be doing an awful lot better than they are now.

Sevilla currently stand 21 points off second place and have huffed and puffed against the lowly likes of Valladolid, Getafe and Racing, this season.

There is a nucleus of another fine team in the current Sevilla ranks with Diego Capel, Diego Perotti and Jesús Navas already at the Sánchez Pizjuán and others such as Alvaro Alfaro ready to return home after a promising loan spell at Tenerife.

Whilst time may up for Fredi Kanouté and Luis Fabiano due to age and ambitions to move on, there is talk that next season’s forward line-up will see Spanish international Alvaro Negredo alongside Stuttgart’s Cacua.

What is needed to lead this new generation for Sevilla is the man who lead the way for the first. But that is a big ask.

Juande Ramos remains the sworn enemy of del Nido after his departure to Tottenham and fans welcomed him back to the Sánchez Pizjuán, last season, when he was manager of Real Madrid by waving ‘Juan Dollar’ notes.

But football is nothing but pragmatic.

If Ramos were to return then Sevilla would be putting their future in the safe hands of a coach who knows the club inside out and has shown that the side can be so much more than the sum of its parts.

Most importantly of all, Sevilla would be lead by someone who can make them sexy and sensational again, instead of the current dour, defensive version managed by Manolo Jiménez.

What an article ! Wonderful. Thnx for posting it beast.

Sevilla really need Ramos back. And him being jobless at the moment, rises the hopes.

[Beast]

You're welcome man . glad you enjoyed it ..
i guess many people feel the same way about Seville' under Ramos

[diegomessi]

Forget Rooney, magical Messi is the world's best
By Tom Adams
(Archive)
March 17, 2010
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The famously insular world of English football has been quick to crown Wayne Rooney as the best player in the world in recent weeks - unsurprisingly perhaps in a World Cup year - but in Barcelona on Wednesday night, Lionel Messi demonstrated exactly why those claims ring hollow with a masterful performance in a 4-0 rout of Stuttgart.Speculation that Rooney is football's leading light is far from outrageous. It is not, for example, a manifestation of the unjustified national arrogance that was exposed so horribly when Hungary humbled an overconfident England side with a 6-3 victory at Wembley in 1953, shattering illusions of grandeur. But it should be recognised that Messi is on another level - a once-in-a-lifetime talent. There is no excuse for a superiority complex on the part of Rooney or England.

Tormenting the visitors from the Bundesliga with his superior technique and utter genius, Messi was a force of nature. His run and finish for the opening goal was stunning - a mazy dribble followed by a thunderous drive from the edge of the box.

Nine minutes later it was his glorious pass that released Yaya Toure, who squared for Pedro to turn home the second. Messi then made it three in the second half with a quick spin and finish.

Nominally employed in an unorthodox central role in behind Thierry Henry, the reigning FIFA World Player of the Year was given licence to roam the Camp Nou turf and he did not disappoint, exuding threat on either flank or through the middle. But while his masterclass would represent the very peak of excellence for many a professional footballer, for Messi it was not even his best performance in the past week.

On Sunday, he took his league tally to 22 goals in 23 games with a delightful hat-trick against Valencia in a 3-0 win for Barcelona. After Barca's statement of intent on Wednesday night, he now boasts 29 in 32 games in all competitions. And while Rooney compares favourably in this regard - with 32 in 36 games - there is no disputing that in Messi, Barcelona have the world's finest player at present.

Sir Alex Ferguson's protege is in the form of his life though, there is no question about that. Deadly in the box, he has married a collection of predatory strikes with a catalogue of headed efforts. But they are not goals that cause jaws to drop in amazement and fans to forward on YouTube links with childish enthusiasm.

Messi, with his precocious dribbling skills, expert finishing, raw pace and brilliant football brain, scores such goals on a ridiculously regular basis. Moments that engage the imagination are his stock in trade, and he produced another on Wednesday night with that thrilling first goal.

Perhaps Messi is the 21st-century Diego Maradona to Rooney's Pele - a magician to rival a hungry and deadly accumulator of goals. A banner inside Old Trafford oft declares the Manchester United man to be the white incarnation of the Brazilian great while Messi has done so much more than a succession of Argentinean starlets to justify comparisons with a man who remains a deity in his home country.

But prior to kick-off, Barca goalkeeper Victor Valdes just about got it right, saying of Messi: "He's the best in the world. What he contributes with his talent makes him stand out. He could become the best player in history."

Wednesday night's display has only reinforced such a view. Rooney, for all his talent and prolific form, is not in this league.

[Antimilan]

Yeah.. Rooney still cannot be compared with Messi. Messi's like from another planet, he scores from nothing, and creates the chances all by himself.

[Raed]

The World Cup will determine who wins it.

[Beast]

Silver Collection
By Phil Ball

Once a year at least, this column likes to look down below to see what's happening in the 'Silver Division', as they call it here in Spain. There are still thirteen games to go in Segunda 'A', but it's worth knowing something about the sides who are in the push for top-flight status next season. Later on we can return to talk a little about what's being going on up deck, but first let's pay a visit to the engine room.

The fairy story of the season so far has been written by Cartagena, in their first season at this level. At the time of writing (Betis play on Monday night and may supplant them) they lie third, and were top of the league back in November after playing their first eleven games unbeaten. There are some signs of a wobble coming on, with only one win in their last five games, but as the cliché goes, it's all still to play for.

Cartagena is a biggish city in the Murcia region, down in the south-east, and back in November they visited their more established neighbour, Real Murcia, for the first time in the history of La Liga. They took 8,000 supporters and won 4-1, perhaps marking the high point in their fledgling existence.

The fact that their foundation date is 1995 adds to the romance, of course, although it's slightly misleading since the club is a re-birth of the now defunct Cartagena FC, founded back in 1919. Nevertheless, they were re-constituted as Cartagonova FC fourteen years ago and only took on their present name in 2003 when the institution was about to fold again. They were then eleventh in Segunda 'B' and so short of money that the club's office telephone (hired) was reclaimed by the company and the line cut. Now they are thirteen games from an unlikely step up into the maximum category of Spanish football.

The two other sides who have occupied the promotion spots this season are Real Sociedad, currently the leaders, and Hercules, from Alicante. One of the sides who have been in the frame are Levante (5th before the weekend's action), and the ex-First Division club visited another top-flight exile on Sunday in a true six-pointer. Since the game was being played in my adopted home town of San Sebastián, I went along to judge the candidates' credentials.

The game was played at 12 noon due to the Canal Plus cameras, and I must say that it's an interesting experience at that time. Several weeks ago there was a poll in the tabloid Sport asking readers what their preferred match time was on a weekend. The vast majority opted for the 5 o' clock spot on the Sunday afternoon.

Nobody was asked to justify their opinions in the poll, but I do recall a Basque friend here telling me that he didn't like Saturday games because if your team lost, "te jode el fin de semana" (It f**** your weekend). This is an interesting and perhaps (Roman) Catholic perspective on the issue, since Sunday games were very much looked down upon for decades in the Protestant countries, and there are still lobby groups in northern Europe who would prefer the Sabbath to remain football-free. Fat chance of that, since Mammon has long since triumphed to the degree that there is now televised football every day of the week in Spain, with a Second Division Friday evening game, and the old Monday slot restored recently to the First Division programme.

The Catholic view of Sunday sport however, as far as I understand it, is that a football match is providing a leisure activity for the masses, and is therefore acceptable, in strictly biblical terms. The Spanish are, in fact, far more concerned with their routines being broken than with the Sabbath being defiled. The only complaint I could extract from the parents of my son's football team (the collective with whom I most commonly chat) about the 12 o'clock kick-off was that "te jode el aperitivo" (it f**** your lunch-time drink), a family occasion on Spanish Sundays where folks like to be seen out en masse, in their Sunday best or worst.

Nevertheless, there was a heady atmosphere at the normally rather frigid Anoeta stadium, the Real Sociedad supporters cognisant of the fact that a win would put them 3 points clear of second-placed Hercules (who had drawn the previous evening) and open up a gap of ten points between themselves and their aspiring opponents Levante, in 5th place. Apart from Levante, only Betis, coming up strong on the outside lane, threaten to break into the aforementioned top three for the time being.

The teams in the Second Division recently lobbied the FEF to consider scrapping the present system of three automatic promotion places and replacing it with the English one, where two sides go up and the four below them play off. It might be brought in, but the Spanish are more suspicious of smaller sides slipping through the nets and trying their luck with the big boys. If Cartagena prove their worth through 42 games of slog and go up automatically in 3rd place, no-one will deny them their subsequent shot at survival. The alternative, more open system worries the authorities here.

Whatever, I've seen a lot of Silver Division games this season, and in general I've been impressed by the standard. As the other cliché would have it, there are no easy games, and it's true. Real Sociedad, a side that 'belongs' in the top flight, as they say, are now in their third season in Segunda 'A', and whereas I enjoyed the first season playing teams with funny names from unheard of places, the novelty has definitely worn off. I would like to get back to the old days, when some good old-fashioned abuse could be hurled down from the terraces at Real Madrid, and the famous and the fabulous would step down from their team buses in the heart of the city before disappearing in a camera flash into the hotel lobby.

Sociedad won the game 3-1, with two goals in injury-time, and look to be on course for a return to their roots. Levante will not be far behind. At this stage of the season, the teams who can realistically aspire to promotion need to be considering the tricky balancing act of retaining the best of their squad who have succeeded, and bringing in reinforcements for the tougher campaign ahead. Real Sociedad have just come out of administration, and the gloom of the last four years is beginning to lift, sceptical though some of their followers remain.

Indeed, with Athletic Bilbao in 6th place in the league above, things are beginning to look up again in the Basque Country. Levante, from Valencia, remain in relative penury, but have also made a good job of emerging from the ashes of near closure.

Sociedad, forced by the limitations of administration to tighten their belts, took refuge in their 'cantera' (youth system), the quarry that people had been urging them to hew their rocks from anyway, and the enforced policy is paying dividends. Left-winger Antoine Griezmann, loaned out to a regional youth side last season is now being pursued madly by all the scouts of Europe, and midfielder David Zurutuza has also emerged from nowhere to looking like another gem that they will need to keep hold of.

Xabi Prieto remains the best Spanish player outside of the top flight, and may be subject to some big offers come summer. If he stays, the team might well aspire to a comfortable return to the top flight, blessed as they are with a good mix of youth and experience. The same could be said of their Chilean national goalkeeper, Claudio Bravo, for whom Real Madrid are said to be preparing a summer offer.

Their main rivals Hercules, last in the First Division in the early 1990s, have a rather more mature squad whose experience has been a factor in their consistency so far this season, but weariness seems to be creeping in. Their problem will be, should they go up, that the nucleus of their side has already played at the top level, and either didn't quite make it, or are in the twilight of their careers. Players like Francisco Rufete, Fernando Moran and Javi Farinos seem to have been around for ever, and do not look like a long-term insurance policy.

Which brings us round to Mr Messi. I thought it was quite an achievement to manage 1,400 words without mentioning him, but as my friend the barman remarked in midweek, after the Argentine's stratospheric performance against poor Stuttgart, "Le tienen que prohibir. No es justo. (They should ban him. It's not fair). That came on the heels of a hat-trick against Valencia. Then he manages another one against Zaragoza, just in case anyone thought he was slacking.

Sigh  what can one say? Adjectives are beginning to fall short of this little man who seems to require neither space not time to work his mojo. President Joan Laporta, frothing from every visible orifice, declared Messi the greatest player in history after the game, as if he [Laporta] were somehow qualified to say. He was getting a little carried away, and Messi will need to now prove his qualifications with his national side before any more can be seriously said on the subject. But yes, the lad's a bit useful.

Stuttgart, bless them, decided that the best policy of defence was attack, but they were soon to regret their ambition when Messi began to revel in the space afforded him, at least in the two-thirds zone of the pitch. Arsenal will need to think twice about doing the same thing, but unlike the Germans, they are better at keeping the ball themselves. That, in the end, is the only way they can aspire to beating Barcelona, now Spain's only representatives in the Champions League after Sevilla joined Real Madrid in the doghouse with a sickly display at home to CSKA, a plucky side, but nothing to really fear. Sevilla followed up their turgid display with a 2-0 defeat at Espanyol, a result that puts manager Manolo Jimenez's job at some risk.

All being well, and the flight being on time, I'll be visiting Barcelona next weekend for some telly stuff I've go to do, and will take in Espanyol and their new ground, against Sporting I believe. There's also a full programme in midweek, as the authorities cram in the games for this World Cup year. Real Madrid have a tricky one at Getafe, whilst Barcelona shouldn't sweat too much at home to Osasuna. Will the runes be more by readable this time next week? We shall see.

[Beast]

Is La Liga The Worst In The World?


To sit nicely alongside other nonsense notions such as 'You can't lose money with property!', 'Your pension is safe with us!' and 'To get the best, you have to pay the best!' a new donkey's dangler of a claim has been made by a financial institution.

Indeed, the regular boast from the banking backers of the Spanish Primera, BBVA, that theirs is the best league in the world probably tops every other whopper ever told by any bank in history.

The sad truth is that la Primera isn't even the best league in Spain, with la Segunda a billion times more competitive and the Andalusian third division (group 15) set for a thrilling end to the season.

The most common description of the Spanish top flight this season is that it is a two race race. And this is indeed true with Real Madrid and Barcelona tied at the top of the table on 68 points after two more wins over Sporting and Zaragoza respectively.

Every other competitor in this race is currently lying spread-eagled on the turf, surrounded by flesh-feasting flies and with cat-food manufacturers bidding for their slowly rotting equine cadavers.

What cannot be denied, though, is that la Primera boasts the best footballer playing in this or any other dimension at the moment.

After Leo Messi's hat-trick against Zaragoza on Sunday - the striker's sixth, seventh and eighth goal in a week - Pep Guardiola said that he had run out of adjectives to describe the 22-year-old who now has 25 league strikes to his name. He's not the only one.

The Argentinean has been absolutely stunning with three goals against Valencia last Sunday, his single-handed brace-bagging of Stuttgart in the Champions League and the three against Zaragoza (that could have been four had the Wonderful One not elected to give a morale boost to his failing team-mate ZlatanIbrahimovic by letting the Swede take the penalty that Messi won).

However, the fantastic forward has been the brightest of sparks in what has been the dullest of campaigns in Spain.

Whilst it is no real surprise that both Madrid and Barcelona are the two teams challenging for the title with the former having spent obscene amounts of money and the latter being the best side on the planet, the pathetic, pitiful display from the chasing pack of teams which could and should be doing better has shamed a league which has aspirations of surpassing its English counterparts in terms of popularity and spectacle.

However, most of the runners in la Liga can be excused being a little off the pace this season.

Unlike the comrade clubs in the Premier League which equally divide television income amongst themselves, understanding that the division is only as a strong as its weakest side, a good 60% of the cash in Spain goes straight into the pockets of Real Madrid and Barcelona, leaving the rest to fight over the scraps with Valencia and Atlético getting the meatiest chunks.

So, it's little wonder that the Zaragozas and Tenerifes of la Liga have all-but lost when they come to the Bernabeu and Camp Nou, grounds where the hosts have remained unbeaten all year in the league.

But this is still no excuse for Valencia being a full 18 points behind the two at the top, having scored 30 goals less than Madrid and Sevilla being 24 points away in fifth.

Luis Fabiano, Jesus Navas, Fredi Kanouté, Juan Mata, David Silva and David Villa are all footballers playing for these two clubs and all fit the description of being international class.

So it is nothing less than a disgrace that Madrid and Barcelona are mere specks in the distance.

'The lack of competition in the Spanish league is contributing to the scandalous amount of points that Madrid and Barcelona have got' writes Roberto Palomar in Monday's Marca, under the headline noting that 'the Scottish Liga keeps on going'.

Whilst a €550m debt-possessing Valencia and a spendthrift Sevilla can't compete on financial terms with their rivals, the two teams can certainly do so on the football field against Espanyol, Getafe, Racing, Almería, Sporting, Deportivo and Tenerife - opponents that both sides have either lost or dropped points to this season, leading to the shameful gap at the top of the table.

Both clubs started the year with the 'Spurs Syndrome' - the idea that they could compete with the big boys, but why bother when it's too hard? - and gone on from there.

This has especially been the case with Sevilla, a side packed with talent but infuriatingly flimsy and about to eject their current coach, Manolo Jiménez, who has done nothing more than what is basically required of him at the club since the departure of Juande Ramos in 2007.

The club's latest abject display - a 2-0 defeat to Espanyol - sees them without a win in four and in danger of sinking without a trace during the final run-in. It was a performance in Cornella which summed up Sevilla's lamentable, half-arsed, pathetic approach to their league campaign.

The fact that Mallorca are currently in the fourth Champions League place demonstrates, once again, how poor la Primera is this season.

The Balearic side deserve all the respect and praise in the world for having achieved this astonishing achievement considering many pundits - this one included - expected Mallorca to be at the other end of the table.

After all, the Champions League chasers are on the brink of bankruptcy and have had to sell off their best players every summer in an attempt to balance the books.

But Mallorca's home crowd rarely goes above 12,000 and the club's players have only won two matches on their travels, having picked up 12 wins from 13 in the Ono Estadi instead - another sad indictment on the quality of la Primera's members this season.

The other teams competing for European places are sixth-placed Athletic Bilbao, a team that is one-dimensional, hideously violent and can only field locally-sourced players, and Deportivo below them, a side whose top scorer boasts just four goals.

The strongest argument against these complaints of mediocrity is that this situation was ever so in la Liga with Real Madrid and Barcelona always dominant and the rest acting as also-rans. But this is not necessarily the case.

Villarreal came second to Madrid two seasons ago and in the campaign before that, Sevilla could have won the title on the last day.

But it seems that these scenarios will become increasingly rarer with the future looking fairly bleak in the life of la Liga.

Barcelona are set to be strong for many years to come whilst Real Madrid will just keep on borrowing and spending till they achieve satisfaction or lose their home, like a Brit with a credit card.

Valencia are expected to replace David Villa with Roberto Soldado - like swapping caviar with sick - over the summer, whilst Sevilla will be losing Luis Fabiano, with the Brazilian international looking for one last World Cup-inspired pay day in Italy or England.

There's only two ways to fix a competition that stretches the meaning of the word to breaking point.

The first is the equal division of the TV rights - something that would instantly bankrupt both Real Madrid and Barcelona, so unlikely to happen anytime soon.

The other is for the other supposedly big teams of la Liga to go for broke on clichés by stepping up to the plate and showing some backbone for once and not letting their big two have it all their own way by dropping stupid points throughout the year.

If they don't do this, then la Liga will quickly become the most boring league in the world, not the best.

Round 27 results

Xerez 2-1 Tenerife
Deportivo 0-2 Valladolid
Athletic 2-2 Getafe
Real Madrid 3-1 Sporting
Espanyol 2-0 Sevilla
Málaga 2-0 Villarreal
Mallorca 4-1 Atlético
Osasuna 1-3 Racing
Valencia 2-0 Almería
Zaragoza 2-4 Barcelona


Tim Stannard

[Beast]

Man ... Superman ... Leo Messi
Barcelona's talisman is so sensationally good at the moment that comparisons with football's greatest players are wholly justified

Sid Lowe

It's not big and it's not clever but sometimes swearing is the only thing that will do. Sometimes you've used up every other word and nothing else quite hits the spot. You've rummaged round the back of the sofa, rifled through the drawers, turned out your pockets and still come up empty. Pep Guardiola insisted that he was clean out of adjectives and frankly so was everyone else. Spain was suffering a severe shortage of superlatives last night. The Catalan newspaper Sport invited readers to send in headlines for what they had just witnessed and there were plenty of super, sensational and sublimes, some magic, magnificent and marvellouses, wows and wonderfuls, plus deities by the dozen, and even a Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, but still there was no way to really do it justice. No polite way anyway. Just wide eyes, a wider mouth and a simple: holy shit!


What they had witnessed would have been one of the most brilliant performances imaginable from Leo Messi but for one thing: you would never have imagined it. He was unbebloodylievable. The milk. The consecrated bread. The dog's dingly-danglies.


It was a performance that started off well, got better in the middle, and by the end was barely believable. One that left you feeling exhausted just watching it, full of ridiculously good touches. It got better and better and better and when you thought it couldn't get any better it got better again. One that went from Crikey to Bloody Hell to Oh my God to Now, you're really taking the piss. Only Messi wasn't taking the piss, he was just playing football – the way he plays football. The way no one else has played football. Maybe ever before.


"I'm not sure he's human," said the Zaragoza playmaker Ander Herrera. "Tonight, I saw Diego Maradona," declared the Real Zaragoza coach José Aurelio Gay, "but at more Revs Per Minute. There are no words left to describe him – he is interplanetary. We could have beaten Barcelona but we could never have beaten Leo Messi. If we had scored four, he would have scored 12."


He didn't get 12, he got three. For his first trick, Messi headed Barcelona into the lead. For his second trick, he won the ball near the halfway line, dashed through, the ball never leaving his foot, stepped round three challenges, left Contini on his backside, and hit a low shot into the net. And for his hat-trick, he curled in a beauty from the edge of the area. Then he produced a bit of barely plausible skill inside the Zaragoza penalty area, flicking over one man and stepping beyond another, before being pulled down for a penalty. It would have been his fourth only he got up, dusted himself off and handed the ball to Zlatan Ibrahimovic instead. "Well," Messi shrugged, "Zlatan needed it."


He certainly did. If Messi has scored the unscoreable, the Swede, who had scored only once this year, had missed the unmissable. No wonder everyone went weak at the knees. He's a genius – and so generous too! He'd done the truly impossible – scored three and made Ibrahimovic score too.


He was, insisted Carles Ruipérez in La Vanguardia, "Unbelievable. Unrivalled. Unrepeatable. Spectacular. Marvellous. Wonderful. Genial. Incredible." "Messi is the God of football," declared Sport. "Stratospheric. Magical. Divine. Generous. Extraordinary." ET, ran the headline inside, "was born in Rosario and plays in Barcelona." "Brutal", added El Mundo Deportivo. On the inside, they were recalling the famous Ronaldo goal against Compostela – one so insultingly good it had Bobby Robson pacing back and forth on the touchline, head in hands muttering: "I don't believe it! I don't believe it!" and the Compostela players threatening to sue for damages. "Maradona + Ronaldo," ran the equation "= Messi". El País called him "infinity", while El Mundo reserved for him a "place amongst the greatest".


Speaking of the greatest, even Marca, the newspaper who decided to ignore Messi's brilliance against Stuttgart on Wednesday by splashing on the breaking news that Muhammad Ali is a legend, found a place for him on their cover. Near the bottom, but on the cover nonetheless, with the headline "Super Messi". "Maradona, here's your son," it said inside. AS too gave Messi big billing – just above a Rafa Van der Vaart explaining that just because he controlled the ball with his hands it doesn't mean he handballed it. "Messi," said the paper, "is from another world!"


All of which might seem a bit over the top for a hat-trick against the side that conceded six against Real Madrid and lie just three points above the relegation zone. Late last night, on the ape-house shouting-fest that is Punto Pelota, Pedro Pablo San Martín turned on his fellow guests, accusing them of "popping Viagra", shouting: "Stop going on about him all the time! It's only Zaragoza!"


Only, it's not. And that is the point. It's not only Zaragoza, it's everyone else too. It's every game. For Barcelona, at least. One of the incredible things about Messi is how rarely he disappoints. In fact, it's tempting to conclude that he has made the ridiculous so routine that he doesn't get talked about as much as deserves; playing perfectly is hardly news. It was not just Zaragoza, it was the fact that Messi has now scored two La Liga hat-tricks in a row, after an astonishingly brilliant three against Valencia last week. It was the fact that, until he handed the ball to Ibrahimovic, he had scored Barcelona's last nine goals. It was the display against Stuttgart that prompted Christian Gross to admit: "comparing him to Maradona is perfectly licit now." It was the eight in a week. The 11 in five games. The free kick against Almería – so subtle so stupidly soft you wonder if he was wearing slippers. And playing with a balloon. The 25 in the league already, the 34 in all competitions.


It's not just the goals either. When it comes to the inevitable and often tedious comparisons with Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the things that is often said about Messi is that he is not as complete. Earlier this season the pro-Real Madrid newspaper Marca asked the man who had just published a glossy, club-sponsored biography of Ronaldo to do a comparison of Ronaldo and Messi in the midst of its campaign to beatify the Portuguese – and get pictures of him with his top off on their cover as often as possible. Surprise, surprise, Ronaldo won. He scored higher than Messi in heading, speed, shooting, leadership, physical condition, and free kicks and penalties, scoring the same in technique and passing.


It was not a new conclusion. In England too Ronaldo is invariably described as more complete than Messi – stronger, faster, bigger, more athletic. But aren't they all part of the same package, an obsession with physical strength? Isn't that a pretty incomplete reading of complete? Last season Messi scored twice as many Champions League goals with half as many shots. This season, Messi is the league's top scorer with then more than Ronaldo, has provided more assists than anyone else (Ronaldo is not in the top 20) and has completed more passes than any other attacker. He hasn't even taken any penalties.


Yes, they were acting like they were on Viagra. But, no, it wasn't just Zaragoza. It is everything Messi has done throughout his career. The 79 goals in 129 games. The two European Cups and three league titles. If he was not already the best player in the world in his first three seasons – 30 goals in 60 games – it's because of injury. Every season, he missed at least 10 matches. But when he played there were special moments. That unbelievable hat-trick against Real Madrid. That Getafe goal. The pair of destructions of Atlético Madrid. The naturalness with which he took over from Ronaldinho – every bit as much the messiah but not such a naughty boy.


You always felt he was just an injury-free season away from being the best. Last season he got it. Last season he got 38. The top scorer's award in the Champions League. The goal in the European cup final. And the Champions league final. And the World Club Cup final. And the two in what was effectively the league final – the historic 6-2 against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu, when he was described as "Maradona, Cruyff, and Best rolled into one." As well as the Copa sublime hat-trick that knocked Atlético out of the Cup and saw the Vicente Calderón hand him a standing ovation.


It is everything Messi has done and how he has done it. It is the sheer stupidness of his talent, the ohmygoddidyoujustseewhathedid? about him. The fact that he gets hacked at and somehow keeps on running, that he'd be like a Weeble only he hardly ever even wobbles. That the ball, to use the old cliché, really does seem to be tied to his feet. He doesn't even seem to kick it most of the time: like a faithful dog, it just runs alongside him. That he's like the kid in the under-10s team that picks the ball up, runs rings round everyone and scores; that he is exactly the kid he was when he was a kid. That he goes from 0-60 in no time and from 60-0 again in even less – what was so stunning about his goal against Valencia last weekend was how suddenly he stopped, sending the defender screeching by like a cartoon character off a cliff.


It is that last night his president Joan Laporta announced that Messi is the best player in Barcelona's history – and it didn't sound completely ridiculous. Premature, yes. Exaggerated, probably. But not completely ridiculous. Yes, Messi has more to win in order to prove it – although he has already won more than George Best ever did and more European Cups than Diego Maradona. Yes, he still has to achieve things to make his case watertight, particularly with Argentina. But how could it be otherwise? After all, for all the sublime touches, the goals, the assists and the win it on his own performances, perhaps the most ridiculous thing of all is that Leo Messi is still only 22.

[Poor_Sunyol]

CRgay has a better six pack though.

[Beast]

Good Day, Bad Day – Round 27

Monday 22 March 2010 14:09
GOOD DAY

Leo Messi
Zaragoza manager José Maria Gay claimed after Sunday’s game that when his side forced Messi out onto Barcelona’s right wing, they were able to deny the Argentinian both space and opportunities.

A year ago, that might have been enough to lock Messi out of Sunday’s encounter, as Chelsea managed in their Champions League semi-finals last season. But Messi has developed his game a whopping amount over the past 12 months, meaning than the traditional triple-marking tactics so loved by opponents no longer work.

The Barcelona player’s development started with a new-found fondness for playing in the centre, born during the 6-2 win over Real Madrid last season, and this partly explains the increasing number of headed goals the striker is now scoring.

Now Messi is popping up on what had been fairly foreign shores – the left flank – and that’s where his stupendous solo effort on Sunday came from.

The finest player of his generation has added whole new facets to his football. Everyone who has to stop him must now do the same.

Rafa van der Vaart
The Madrid player’s goal against Sporting may have been “a little bit handball” as he confessed, but the Dutchman is continuing to prove that he is currently 1001 times better than Kaká, the player he is in direct competition with in Real’s starting line-up.

The question is what will happen when the Brazilian recovers from his latest groin concerns, potentially next Sunday against Atlético. Knowing Florentino Pérez’s preference for famous faces over footballers, Van der Vaart will no doubt be going straight back to the bench, despite two goals and an assist in the last three league games.

Saturday’s match against Sporting was a blooming awful one for Real Madrid, especially in the first half, when the home side were befuddled by visitors who chose to play four up front.

However, in Marca’s world the victory was outstanding. In their ‘alternative’ league table judged on their interpretation of refereeing events, the side are still five points clear of Barcelona despite Van der Vaart’s equalising handball effort, which clearly had no influence on the result, say the paper.

Valencia
With six defenders missing - mainly due to most of them being indisciplined, hoofing loons on permanent suspensions - Valencia had to rely on their Mata-Silva-Villa strike-force for three points against Almería, which had reeked of another home disaster before kick-off.

And two of that trio came through to keep Valencia well in the hunt for the title – as long as both Barcelona and Real Madrid lose six of their remaining 11 matches and Valencia win all theirs.

Xerez
Now showing true title-winning form with six goals scored and two wins from three, the most recent of which being Saturday’s 2-1 thrashing of Tenerife.

Mallorca
Should really be hanging their heads in shame over how good they were on Sunday - if greatly assisted by Atlético’s impotence - compared to how blooming useless the performance was in the clash that LLL caught against Getafe a week ago.

But that's being more than a little mean to a team that is now - and what a wonderful advert for la Liga (to be interpreted how you will) - in the Champions League places after their 4-1 rogering of the Rojiblancos.

Espanyol
With Sevilla doing a decent impression of Espanyol on their travels this season in Saturday night’s clash, it was a very happy day for Perico Paul from Barcelona...

“Best performance of the season to beat and outplay Sevilla. Chica was excellent, as was Nico Pareja and two-goal Osvaldo. He's not the greatest but he's a handful and causes problems. Sign him up, please.

"Regular readers will know how much I despise the synchronised diving team that Sevilla include in their ranks so here's a cheat update. Jesus Navas dived before he'd even touched the ball, elbowed an Espanyol player in the face and got injured, you guessed it, diving. He was also wearing lilac boots. You read that right.

"Diego Capel did nothing and then he went off. He didn't look injured, just disinterested.

"About 150 Sevilla fans present and the 16th minute and 21st minute tributes to Antonio Puerta and Dani Jarque were beautifully observed by both sets of fans. Very poignant moments.

"This being Espanyol, there is always a downside – in this case the out-for-the-season injury to Javi Marquez, our best player this year. This kid will go far.

"The two matches coming up will define the rest of the season for us. Valladolid away on Wednesday and Sporting at home next Sunday.”

-- Paul, Barcelona


Onésimo
The Valladolid coach may do more than a decent impression of the kind of grumpy old sod who hangs about in the local bar muttering and ranting to himself, but he somehow dragged a win out of his players after seven attempts, to give the third-from-bottom side their first victory in 12.

Baha
Málaga's moody Moroccan had been a little quiet this season, with just two goals scored before Sunday’s match. But thanks to Villarreal’s snooty aversion to defending, Baha was able to bag a brace to give Málaga a 2-0 win - and look fairly indifferent about it, in the process. “I prefer to celebrate goals in private with my family,” sniffed the striker.


Racing Santander
Racing’s victory at Osasuna was the side’s fifth in a row in Pamplona but more importantly just the first in their last eight games. The Cantabrian team now sit a little more comfortably at seven points clear of the drop zone, but could still do with Sergio Canales popping up with a goal some time soon.


BAD DAY

Cristiano Ronaldo
At his petulant, whining, strolling back onside at the speed of a tortoise, gesticulating worst on Saturday night.

The big question in the Barcelona press on Monday is whether Ronaldo would have offered the penalty to a team-mate as Leo Messi did to Zlatan Ibrahimovic. But everyone already knows the answer to that.

According to the Madridista press, when Ronaldo repeatedly blasts the ball over the bar with preening pot-shots – as he did against Sporting – it's because he's a winner. When Higuaín fails to pass, it’s because he is selfish.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Remembering the lessons of Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp at Arsenal and the perils of writing off strikers too soon, LLL has been loathe to put the boot into the Barcelona striker - mainly because it is scared he will be reading and try and find the cowering, cowardly blog.

But it must be said that Barcelona’s Swedish striker is having an absolute 'mare this season needed Leo Messi’s charitable scraps to get onto the score sheet against Zaragoza.

Guti
Strutted past the blog in the Bernabeu mixed zone on Saturday night clad in a blue tartan suit and waistcoat considerably more noticeable than anything the midfielder did in his second-half cameo against Sporting.

Luis Perea
Oh, this was funny. A classic display of defending from arguably the worst player on the planet. The Atlético stopper played the fullest of roles in the 4-1 defeat to Mallorca by losing his man for the first goal and then twice more before Víctor grabbed the opener.

Not content with that, Perea then failed to notice Aritz Aduriz in the box for Mallorca’s second and finished a fine day’s work with an own goal to boot.

Sevilla
Enough words have been wasted on this shameful shower already this season.

Villarreal
And the same goes for Villarreal, too.

Tenerife
It’s a stunning record of no wins, two draws and 11 defeats for Tenerife now on their travels, after a splendid 2-1 defeat against a 10-man, bottom-of-the-table Xerez.

Getafe’s defenders
Full-back David Cortés was kicked full in the nuts by the increasingly testy Pablo Orbaiz, whilst Miguel Torres was shown red after bringing down Fernando Llorente, who then converted his penalty in the 2-2 draw.

However, it wasn’t all bad for Torres who is now able to go home to new fling and Google-magnet Spanish TV presenter Cristina Pedroche, proving that there really, really isn't any justice in the world.

Deportivo
One can only pluck heartstrings and ooze sympathy for the Deportivo defence, who know that any goals conceded mean points will be dropped, due to their forward line being a giant vacuum called ‘b*gger all’.

[Moe]

thanks for posting them Beast

He certainly did. If Messi has scored the unscoreable, the Swede, who had scored only once this year, had missed the unmissable. No wonder everyone went weak at the knees. He's a genius – and so generous too! He'd done the truly impossible – scored three and made Ibrahimovic score too.

[Beast]

Barça`s Main Man May Not Be Messi


Aside from shagging their spouses and owning a fancier car, a truly excellent way to get on a footballer's wick and penetrate their solid gold shield of smugness is to fail to pay them enough respect.

When becoming a figure of fun through another poor pass or a sliced shot, footballers become all too human with irate reactions to accusations that they are deeply crap, even if their salaries and egos suggest otherwise.

These responses can be a middle finger to fans, pointing at their names on the back of their shirts or foul-mouthed fly pasts of the bench with suggestions that the manager is quite wrong to base his opinion on a striker from unfair figures of one goal in 287 games.

This failure to show sufficient respect has not been a problem with much of the Barcelona squad of late, after the side won pretty much everything possible in 2009.

Leo Messi is quite rightly being hailed as the greatest player of our generation after another masterful campaign.

Xavi Hernández and Andrés Iniesta have popped up in all the 'best of' lists, although the latter may struggle to repeat the feat having experienced fairly indifferent form this season.

But there's one footballer in Pep Guardiola's side who - if using Bobby Zamora's respect-o-meter as a guide - should have a city-sized blimp lit up with his name in gold tethered above the Camp Nou and choirs of buxom mermaids singing songs of his heroic deeds. But he doesn't.

Instead, Victor Valdés gets on with his job of helping his side to be sensational without any fuss and nonsense, despite being the most under appreciated footballer in Spain.

Even with two Champions League trophies and three la Liga titles to the keeper's name, some of the most fanatic but boneheaded Barça fans will still scoff at the thought of Valdés with the complaint that "he's not Iker Casillas."

Three years ago, that would have been a fair summary of the gaff-filled, more-obsessed-over-his-quiff Catalan keeper.

But in recent years, Valdés has been outstanding and improved enormously in every aspect of his game from shot-stopping, to his dominance of the box to his excellence in one-on-ones - a very useful skill for a goalkeeper supporting the attacking stylings of Barcelona.

While Iker Casillas has shown worryingly wobbly form ahead of the World Cup, it is Valdés who has been a rock behind Barcelona's back four to rack up 23 clean sheets in 42 games to help his defence to a remarkable record of just 18 goals conceded in la Primera, a fact that negates the tiresome, often English notion that Barça are inherently dodgy at the back.

Nevertheless, the Barça number one still has many critics who doggedly maintain that these statistics are flawed.

They are often same who claim nonsensically that the side's defence is weak, but it was Valdés who won Spain's best keeper award last season, having conceded less than a goal a game in the club's title winning campaign.

And it was Valdés who kept Barcelona alive in the opening ten minutes of last year's Champions League final where Manchester United were very much on top.

The shaven-headed stopper has been key for the club in recent weeks too, with Barcelona trying to keep pace with Real Madrid at the top of the table and fulfil their wettest of dreams of a Champions League victory at the Santiago Bernabeu in May.

In the 3-0 win over Valencia two weeks ago, Messi made the headlines after a stunning hat trick, but Valdés played a vital role in the victory with a stop from Nikola Zigic with the score at 1-0.

"Víctor's save was worth the same as the three goals that Leo scored," noted Gabi Milito, a central defender who is back to his nasty best after 18 months on the sidelines.

In a rare midweek game in la Primera at home to Osasuna on Wednesday, Barcelona were desperately flat but it was Valdés who kept them alive in an encounter which they eventually won 2-0 with a cracking stop from Kristian Vadocz after four minutes.

"The save by Valdés was just as important as Ibrahimovic's goal," admitted Osasuna coach, José Antonio Camacho, after the game.

On Saturday night, in a particularly dangerous match against Mallorca in the Ono Estadi - a stadium where the home team had won 12 from 13 this season - Valdés was on fine form once again to pick up another clean sheet in the 1-0 win over the fourth-placed side.

Valdés superb form over the past two seasons has seen continuous calls - especially from the Catalan press - for the keeper to be rewarded with a place in the Spain squad, something that he has not enjoyed since 2005.

But these calls have gone unheeded with Iker Casillas, Pepe Reina and Villarreal's Diego López set for South Africa.

Whilst Valdés himself simply says that his country "has got a lot of good goalkeepers," and avoids complaints or controversy, others suspect that the reasons why a reigning Champions League winner continues to be overlooked may not be sporting.

Some suggest that his admittedly surly attitude outweigh the benefits of having the top stopper as a third-choice keeper in a long, stressful tournament whilst others maintain that something more political is going on.

"Valdés is just lacking good PR," claimed 'Sport' columnist, José Maria Casanovas, after the goalkeeper missed out on Spain's most recent squad that faced France.

"He's not as camera friendly as Casillas, nor does he have a father who played with the selectors like Reina. And nor is he content just to be a spare-part like Diego López."

While the critics may mock, the fans covet Casillas and Vicente del Bosque continues to dodge the call-up issue by claiming that the Valdés question is an inherited issue, the Barcelona keeper continues to be the rock at the back that allows the side's attacking talent to strut their stuff.

The challenge for Arsenal on Wednesday night, isn't just about finding a way to manage Messi, a theme that is sure to dominate the build-up to the quarterfinal clash.

It's also about paying their respects to Víctor Valdés and realising that beating Barça's man at the back is no easy business.

Round 29 Results

Málaga 1-1 Tenerife
Mallorca 0-1 Barcelona
Zaragoza 3-0 Valencia
Xerez 3-0 Valladolid
Deportivo 1-3 Getafe
Espanyol 0-0 Sporting
Osasuna 1-0 Almería
Villarreal 3-0 Sevilla
Real Madrid 3-2 Atlético Madrid
Athletic v Racing (Mon night)

Tim Stannard

[Beast]

Real roll on as Atlético are crushed by their own inferiority complex

There may have been only one goal in it but Real's Madrid derby win was painfully inevitable

Sid Lowe


Real Madrid's Ultra Sur knew. Atlético Madrid's president Enrique Cerezo knew. Manuel Pellegrini knew. And Quique Sánchez Flores wished he didn't know. But he knew too. Everybody did. It's the morning after the Madrid derby and, let's face it, you already know what happened. Even if you don't. Everyone knows what happened. Everyone knew what happened before it had happened. The huge banner at the south end of the Santiago Bernabéu before the game depicted a sea of frightening faces and the slogan: "The derby: your worst nightmare." The banner dragged out at the end ran: "Ten years without winning the derby – the nightmare continues." Only the space for the score had been left blank until the final whistle, a giant three and two lifted into place like a cricket scoreboard.


If preparing it was presumptuous, it was also justified. Atlético's nightmare had indeed continued. José Antonio Reyes scored the opening goal and Diego Forlán got a penalty but it made no difference. Cristiano Ronaldo swapped from purple boots to yellow ones and spent the game trying to wipe out that kid in the 35th row, sending the ball screeching wildly his way every time he got it; Xabi Alonso hit the equaliser and then brilliantly found Alvaro Arbeloa for a wonderful second; and Gonzalo Higuaín scored his 23rd in 19 starts. The headline is the same as always: Atlético Madrid lose city derby to Real Madrid. Just as everyone knew they would; just as they've done time after time after time before.


It doesn't matter how close they are, or how well they're playing, Atlético always find a way to lose. They can try, try, and try again and, once they've got their breath back, they can try, try and try some more but still it makes no difference. If Mad Madridista Tomás Roncero's maths are right – and this column doubts he can tie his shoelaces let alone add up, so it's not counting on it – it is now 3,827 days since Atlético beat Real. But it is barely six weeks since they beat Barcelona: however much they hate those arrogant posers next door with their flashy ways, Atléti couldn't be better neighbours if they were Toadie and the Doc. As Enrique Cerezo put it when they defeated Barça in February: "Every year we give Real Madrid nine points: the six we lose to them and the three we take off Barcelona."


But we know all that. And the temptation is to ignore Atlético Madrid until they grow a pair and actually do something worthwhile against Madrid, to ignore the Madrid derby altogether until it becomes a proper match. The temptation is talk about someone else less boring instead.


Someone like Xérez, who despite being on course to being La Liga's worst side ever, might have half a chance of surviving now that the world's greatest bubble perm has taken over – the side who yesterday defeated Valladolid 3-0. Or Villarreal, also overcoming a dreadful start and slowly, silently climbing the table, who hammered Sevilla 3-0 yesterday, giving lie, yet again, to the cliche "new coach, guaranteed victory": of the eight sides to have sacked coaches, only one – Almería under Juanma Lillo – have won their first game under a new man, and Atléti tried twice. Or the other team to win 3-0 – Real Zaragoza, victorious against a Valencia side who have won just four of 24 without David Villa. Or even Mallorca, who were twice denied against the exact same bit of post, and then by Víctor Valdés – who is proving that, right now, he's better than Iker Casillas – against Barcelona.


Yes, it's tempting, all right. Tempting but impossible. Tempting but wrong. Because they are every bit as boring. More so. Because every week, it feels like little really changes, like little is in play. The same four teams are threatened by relegation; Valencia have a Champions League place sewn up; Mallorca and Sevilla are trying to give others the chance of the last Champions League spot but the others don't seem to want it; and the European spots are just the scraps. It is wrong because this weekend Villarreal are still seven points off the Champions League, Xérez are still seven points off survival, Zaragoza are still not safe, and, despite Leo Messi and Xavi Hernández remaining on the bench, Mallorca still lost to Barcelona.


Just as Atlético still lost to Madrid. Which is the point. Madrid had to win but few doubted they would. And not just because history says they would; this time the difference was about more than Atlético's existential angst. There is something deeper, something more profound. A superiority that is not just psychological. It is real. Tangible. Madrid fell behind against Atlético, but few doubted they would still win. And not just because it was Atlético, but because it's what they do: they have now trailed in their last three games at the Bernabéu, and resolved the last eight games with late goals.

It is as if they are so utterly bored, so convinced of their superiority, that they need some excitement to get them going. One of these days, they're going to start banging in stunning own goals, just to give themselves something to do. Contradiction in terms though it sounds, Madrid are plodding their way through brilliant victories. It is as if they know that they can turn it on whenever they feel like.


Perhaps they can. 3-2 makes the Madrid derby sound like much more of a match than it really was. As Pellegrini pointed out beforehand: yes, it's a derby and all that guff, but Madrid are "30 points ahead". He was wrong. It was 34 points. This morning it's 37. You knew Madrid would win last night – not just because it was Atlético but because that's what they do. They've now won 11 on the trot – only the third side ever to do so – and become the first side ever to score three or more in 10 consecutive games, racking up a total of 81 this season. It's not just Madrid, it's Barcelona too, who may look a little fragile but have still won nine of their last eleven and lost just one all season. Between them, they've won 20 of the last 22.


It is fantastically impressive. But it is troubling too. Financially and socially dominant, Madrid and Barça are too good. Third-placed Valencia are 21 points behind; Madrid and Barcelona's goal differences are +55 and +53 respectively, Valencia's is +13. Mallorca are fourth but are closer to the bottom than the top. So unstoppable do Madrid and Barça now appear, even when they play poorly, that draws are the new defeats and there aren't many of those either. There is just a pathway to the clásico, a seemingly never-ending run of victories that matter but don't matter, matches that sometimes feel like they're getting in the way. Madrid and Barcelona are like a lion and a tiger prowling towards each other, full of murderous intent, occasionally pausing to swat a fly with their tail. It is as if there is only one game left: 10 April, Santiago Bernabéu, Real Madrid v Barcelona.


That has been the case for a while but rarely was it clearer than last night. It was the derby, supposedly the second biggest game of the year, hyped into submission, but the most important news to come out of it – the second headline on both AS and Marca's websites last night - was that Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso picked up yellow cards, thus completing their suspension next week and arriving sanction-free for the clásico. The only game anyone can see separating these sides; the only one that can halt them. Real Madrid and Barcelona have 74 points each – a record at this stage for both clubs. Last week, Pep Guardiola described their points total as "una puta barbaridad": fucking barbaric. He's right, it is.


Week 29 – results: Málaga 1–1 Tenerife, Zaragoza 3–0 Valencia, Espanyol 0–0 Sporting, Deportivo 1–3 Getafe, Real Madrid 3–2 Atlético, Mallorca 0–1 Barcelona, Xérez 3–0 Valladolid, Osasuna 1–0 Almería, Villarreal 3–0 Sevilla. Tonight: Athletic-Racing Santander.

[gimmick]

Surprised this thread has been so quiet

Xavi pulls the strings as Barcelona leave Madrid dangling in despair again

Barça are the best side in the world and Messi is the best player on the planet. Without Xavi, they might not be


Barcelona's Xavi holds off Real Madrid's Fernando Gago. Photograph: JAVIER LIZON/EPA

One o'clock Saturday night, Sunday morning in the bowels of the Bernabéu and somewhere behind that mop of hair there's a look of surprise. There may even be a hint of disgust. "If you say so, mate," replies Carles Puyol, "but I don't agree. Maybe some people don't give him all the credit he deserves. Maybe you have ignored him, but we haven't. Not us. We know he's absolutely fundamental; we know that he's among the best in the world and I think everyone recognises that." Well, almost everyone. When Xavi Hernández was included in the top five at the Fifa World Player award ceremony in January 2009, alongside Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaká and Fernando Torres, the Daily Mail's headline famously ran: "The best players of the world (and Xavi).

They could not have been more wrong, even if they frequently are. That much was again shown by the clásico on Saturday night. It was billed as a title decider and as Messi versus Ronaldo. But while the same picture – Messi, fists clenched in celebration; Ronaldo, head down, shirt drawn sadly towards his face – occupied the covers of both Madrid sports dailies, in the aftermath of the match it was Xavi that most people were raving about. "Xavi's eye decides the league," said Marca; "Xavi," added Público, "hands down the sentence." While Messi and Pedro got the goals, Xavi gave them, with two wonderful assists: the first, a beautifully clipped first-time ball; the second, a perfectly weighted through ball. It was his sixth assist in two trips to the Bernabéu. And just in case anyone missed them – the Madrid defence, for example – he reproduced both assists, only for Casillas to save from Messi.

Last season Xavi provided more assists than anyone else in La Liga; this season, only five players (Alves and Messi among them) have given more. But it is not only about assists. The clásico was no classic. It was built up as the match of the millennium but wasn't – unless the next 990 years really are going to be rubbish. The ball was in play for less than half of the 90 minutes, there was a foul every 180 seconds, and there was little of the stunning brilliance of last season's 6-2. But in its own way it was just as painful for Madrid, and in its own way Barcelona were still impressive. They might not have torn Madrid apart, but they did control them – certainly once they had ridden out the opening storm. "The best team won," said the cover of AS simply. The concern for Madrid, argued editor Alfredo Relaño, was that "Barcelona passed by the Bernabéu without even looking nervous, winning without expending energy." "Barcelona are a better team than us," shrugged Pellegrini.

This was not the Barcelona that amazes. It was, though, the Barcelona that anaesthetises. Moving the ball around, controlling the game, avoiding Madrid's lunges, frustrating them, exasperating them. This time, in short, it was as much Xavi's Barcelona as Messi's.

Xavi is, says the Sporting coach Manolo Preciado, "the personification of simplicity". He is also the personification of Barcelona. Even when the passes are not telling, they are fundamental. Maintaining possession, using the ball quickly and accurately, is the key: Xavi completed twice as many passes as any Madrid player. "Xavi," said El Mundo Deportivo, "was gregarious, majestic, an exhibition, his football was a recital that never ends." In Marca, Miguel Serrano described him as "an extraterrestrial": "He ordered, he played, he directed, he slowed it down and sped it up. Every time he touched the ball, the very foundations of the Bernabéu wobbled." "He read the game like no one else. He carved out space, moved cleverly, and built football," said El País. "As always."

Well, quite. Everything Barcelona do is based on possession. Even defending. Even resting. As one of Guardiola's closest collaborators says: "Barcelona are the only team that can take a break in possession." "Receive, pass, offer," is the simple message, the obsession, a badge of identity that they insist runs right through the club, driven into players from the moment they join. Xavi joined in 1991 and no one represents that obsession better than him. "I am basically a passer," he says. Guardiola calls him maquí, the machine. The late commentator Andres Montes used to call him Humphrey Bogart because, like Sam in Casablanca, he was asked to play it again. And again. And again. And again.

Last season, Xavi completed almost 100 passes at the Bernabéu. Last week, he completed more than all of Arsenal's midfielders put together. This season he has made over 400 passes more than any player in Spain; in the Champions League, he is 400 passes ahead of anyone from any other club. Even his own team-mates are 300 behind. As Alex Ferguson joked: "I'm sure I saw him give the ball away once."

"I need team-mates, people to combine with," Xavi says. "Without team-mates football has no meaning. I am no one if they don't make themselves available." But it is not just that he sees the movement first, it is that he often sees the movement before it has happened, that rather than passing to the movement, he passes in such a way as to oblige the movement. He makes players' runs for them. "Xavi plays in the future," says Dani Alves. Coaches at Barcelona privately admit that sometimes he moves into areas that he should not – but that his technique is so good, his passing so precise, that ultimately it ends up looking like the right thing to do. Then there's the commitment. Xavi is a football anorak that can wax lyrical on Matt Le Tissier and Paul Scholes, he looks after himself and there's not a trace of arrogance. "When he has a day off, he goes and picks setas [mushrooms] in the countryside," reveals Guardiola, "and someone who picks mushrooms can't be a bad bloke."

At the Under-20 World Cup, the Spanish Football Federation presented a formal complaint after Seydou Keita was named the tournament's best player ahead of Xavi. But, despite having made his debut under Louis van Gaal in 1998, he has not always had such a telling impact on Barcelona's game. So much so that he admits to thinking about walking away, with Manchester United, Milan and Madrid among those that approached him. The arrival of Frank Rijkaard and Edgar Davids in 2003 changed his future, giving him protection, a competitive colleague and freedom to step forward – away from the deep lying midfield position. It was a liberation. A revelation.

It is no coincidence that Xavi is the man imposing the style on both the finest national team and arguably the finest club side Spain has ever had. When Xabi Alonso returned from training with Spain for the first time, he could not get over his midfield namesake. At Euro 2008, Xavi was named player of the tournament (although, personally, this column would have been tempted to go for Marcos Senna), completed over 100 passes in the semi-final when Russia didn't even see the ball and provided the assist to Torres in the final.

When the inevitable question is asked about why Messi has not played as well for Argentina over the past year as he has for Barcelona, it is tempting to give a one word answer: Xavi. The last week has reinforced the belief that Barcelona are the best side in the world and that Messi is the best player on the planet. Without Xavi, they might not be.

Week 31 talking points

• In a match packed with plots and sub plots (or pub splots, as one TV presenter previewing el clásico put it), Xavi's not the only thing they're talking about, of course. Nor even was Messi being better than Ronaldo, although AS's mad Madridista Tomás Roncero admitted he'd have to have a "serious word" with the Portuguese forward. In Catalunya they'd come over all self-righteous: it had been a victory for cantera over cartera, youth system against wallet, according to El Mundo Deportivo. Barcelona began the match with seven products of La Masía; Ronaldo alone cost more than double what Barcelona's starting XI did. Meanwhile, utterly, utterly inevitably, Marca attacked Pellegrini. Just as it has done all season. "Hey presto! The lie that is Pellegrini comes to an end," screeched the cover. Then there was the debate over which galácticos to sign next – because that's worked so well so far.

Nor was Xavi the only impressive performer in the Barcelona side. Next time he puts on a wash, Piqué will find Ronaldo tumbling on to the floor as he turns out his pockets. Valdés mostly made easy saves but did deny Van der Vaart to show that right now he's probably the best goalkeeper in Spain. And after the match Pep Guardiola turned all concerned parent to insist: "It's time we had a serious talk about this boy" following Pedro's superbly taken goal.

Messi's goal came immediately after he had been knocked on the floor. He got up, got moving, played a one-two and scored. From getting creamed to getting the opener, barely 20 seconds had passed. There's a lesson in there somewhere. And, by the way, there are still seven games left …

• Believe it or not there were some other games this weekend – as one first division player, tongue in cheek, desperately tried to remind his followers on Twitter. El País did not bother with match reports for most of them but fear not for this column can tell you what happened. Well, some of it anyway …

• Mind you, you were best off not watching Málaga v Sevilla which, like most Málaga games, was an absolute travesty of a football match, packed with fouling, cheating, whingeing, moaning and dreadful goalkeeping. The best moment came when Andres Palop decided to swing on the crossbar and got his studs caught on the net, falling flat on his backside like a total tool. Sevilla's win really mattered too, because Mallorca beat Valencia 3-2 on Sunday for their 13th home win of the season. Both are on 51 points as they fight for the final Champions League place.

• Xerez's Mario Bermejo had to be held back by police as he shouted "Retard! Retard! Yes, you, Miku, bloody Miku, bollocks you! Retard!" at the Getafe striker after he had "shown a lack of respect" over Xerez's plight at the foot of the table. Bermejo didn't do it on the pitch or in the tunnel, but in the press area, handily meaning that the whole thing was caught on camera.

• Wind-up merchant Javier Clemente is back as a coach, taking charge of Valladolid after they sacked Onésimo in midweek. He couldn't win but he did manage to get the result that his detractors believe he likes best – a 0-0 draw.

• And forget Leo Messi, the goal of the week, possibly even the goal of the season, was scored by Javi Martínez for Athletic Bilbao against Almería. Awesome.
Sid Lowe

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And another

Real Madrid reeling after Lionel Messi hits 40-goal mark


They said they weren't giving up but it looked suspiciously like their fans already had. Well before the final whistle blew on Saturday night's clásico against Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabéu, Real Madrid supporters were heading for the exit, their side trailing 2-0 and their title hopes fading. Those who stayed watched in sad silence or voiced their disgust – some even angrily whistled Cristiano Ronaldo. There could be no complaints, except against their own side.

Barcelona now have a three-point lead at the top of the table, as well as the advantage of a better head to head record, employed rather than goal difference, with seven games remaining. "We have to lift our heads up and believe that the league is possible," Ronaldo insisted. "There are still 21 points to play for," the coach Manuel Pellegrini said, "and we're not going to let down our guard." His Barcelona counterpart Pep Guardiola, too, signalled the points are still to play for. "I do not think this is over," he said.

"We have to at least oblige them to win every game," Pellegrini added. But that may be the problem. Even if Madrid can win their remaining matches, Barcelona must now drop points twice for Madrid to have a chance. They have been beaten once all season and have won 25 of 31 games. Besides, this was a psychological blow as well as a statistical one. Pellegrini, whose last chance of remaining in charge next season vanished with defeat, admitted that Madrid had been beaten by a "better team". He did not just mean on the night, he meant a better team, full stop. This was not the game that had been anticipated – there was a foul every two minutes and the ball was not even in play for half of the 90 – but Barcelona defeated Madrid and ultimately did so comfortably. "We did not play brilliantly," Guardiola admitted. This remained an impressive performance, however.

When it came to the sub-plot, the other clash of the titans that obsessed everyone, Lionel Messi defeated Ronaldo equally comfortably. "Once again the team showed we are superior to anybody else when we want to be," Messi said. "You always have to prove it on the field and today we did that. We can keep making history. It was a very important triumph, but we have to continue on. I don't mean to say that with only words we win. You have to try to win every game and that's what we try to do, always."

"Messi is way ahead of everyone else," Carles Puyol said. Few would disagree. Messi scored his 40th goal of the season after 33 minutes to set Barcelona on their way to a huge victory. Only the reflexes of Iker Casillas prevented him scoring twice more, while he was also denied a penalty after Ezequiel Garay tripped him.

As Messi celebrated the first, Ronaldo was looking to the sky, frustrated and furious. The Portuguese was determined to drag Madrid back into the game, racing at Barcelona, but his approach was often counter-productive, his anxiety palpable. He tried to do it all alone but could not. His former Manchester United team-mate Gerard Piqué handled him impeccably.

Ronaldo was a portrait of his side. Although Madrid began at a breathless tempo, seeking to increase Barcelona's discomfort, the same wildness and urgency characterised them in possession, too. There were plenty of shots, few of them testing. "It's not a disaster to lose against Barca. I don't think they were so much more superior than us," Ronaldo said. "We're professionals and you cannot give up. We can win the league."

"We were far too hasty," Pellegrini said, "and we were edgy." And once Barcelona opened the scoring and began to get hold of the ball, they eased away from Madrid, led by Xavi Hernandez, who provided two perfect passes for the goals and two more for Messi to be stopped by Casillas.

There were still 35 minutes remaining when Pedro got the second but with the exception of a Rafael van de Vaart chance which Victor Valdés was equal to, there was startlingly little reaction from Madrid. There was no fight, no belief and even less threat. For all the talk, for all the intent, they had already been beaten. On Saturday night they were busy insisting that there is still a league title to play for. Now, they must hope that there really is.

Sid Lowe