Prior to the Madrid team bus rolling into the Camp Nou compound, a draw would have been very much acceptable, considering the lengthy injury list and all the lackluster performances they’ve been putting in every second week.
In fact, it would have been greeted as a decent result whatever the scoreline, as long as the men in white didn’t make fools of themselves on the pitch like they have done so quite a few times already this season.
But as the match progressed, expectations started to change dramatically. As soon as Real drew first blood in the 5th minute, settling for a draw went straight out the electrifying Nou Camp window. Then came Messi’s goal in which wasent really enough for the whites.
Even though Messi scored the drawing goal twice, the momentum and the advantage was very much white in colour thanks to Oleguer’s early trip to the shower right at the end of half time.
That sending off proved to be the critical point of the match as the two teams came back out for the second half with very different mentalities. The tables had turned now that Barca were playing for a draw and Madrid were shooting for a win. And when Sergio Ramos headed Los Blancos ahead for the third time with a little over 15 minutes to go, surely a draw wasn’t acceptable anymore. It became a match that they simply had to win.
But in typical Madrid fashion this season, they could not close it out. Thus Real Madrid lie at 4th place with 5 points between both Sevilla and Barcelona and 2 from Valencia. Lucky Real Madrid get Valencia and Sevilla at home but taken into consideration the home record the whites have had this season, does not necessarily mean that Real will have an easy break. In realmadrid.com’s words “14 games, 14 finals”.
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