(ESP-ENG) Un domingo de grandes partidos // A Sunday of big matches!

Hello friends, good vibes to all.

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Yesterday was one of those unusual Sundays that occur twice a season, it was the day where in some leagues there are a series of matches that deserve everyone's attention because we are talking about classics, derbies or simply a meeting between two big clubs. That is why today we are going to talk a little bit about two games that for me were the ones that took all the attention, the classic in Spain between Real Madrid - Barcelona and the great match in England between Liverpool - Manchester City. The only problem? - Both were almost at the same time, so yes, it was necessary to have a double screen between the TV and the laptop to not miss anything of both.

Let's start with the more "important" of the two and go to Madrid and the Santiago Bernabeu stadium. Both teams arrived in different situations but with a single objective, to beat their fiercest rival and thus take the lead in La Liga. Madrid was coming from an agonizing draw against Shakhtar playing at half speed and Barca was coming from something very similar but with the difference that the Whites are already practically qualified to the round of 16 in the Champions League while the Culés, with an immense crisis of play, are going straight to the Europa League, unless something strange happens.

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This match started with a wide and notorious dominance by the whites, in fact it was like that for almost the entire game until the last twenty minutes, thanks to the changes made by Xavi, when Barcelona looked better. The first goal came thanks to a magical assist from Kross who from the ground, thanks to an erroneous mark by Busquets, gave to Vinicius so that he could easily run 20-25 meters into the box and create the opportunity that would be exploited by the next Golden Ball, Karim Benzema. Here it was shown how weak Barca's defense is, the absence of Araújo, who yesterday was replaced by Koundé and Eric Garcia, was very noticeable.

If we talk about Pique not being at the required level we must also do it with Busquets, in the case of the midfielder it is not so serious but every time he plays he does something wrong, a weak mark, erroneous passes and above all lack of play. But well, the second goal came in the boots of the best player of Madrid at the moment and with the permission of Modric and Benzema but the level that Fede Valverde is showing is a savage. The whole elaboration of that goal was very good, a series of passes in the vicinity of the area that begin with another defensive error but this time by Eric Garcia who did not have an easy night either, incredibly weak young central defender. At this point Barcelona was already broken and the best thing that could happen was to go to halftime.

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The second half was the same or even worse than the first for Barça until the changes came, Ansu Fatu and Ferrán Torres gave another face to the Culés, what I do not understand is why Xavi took so long in that change considering that Dembelé, not that he played badly but his day was not the best we can say. There were more chances, more danger, more meaningful possession of the ball to the point that Ferran is in charge of the discount and with it the hopes of a draw. But it was not like that, Rodrygo, the one who scored goals "in extremis", came in and when he touched the ball, he generated the play and with it the penalty of, once again, Eric Garcia for the Brazilian to capitalize it in another goal for his account. In the end it was 3-1 that could have been more as Benzema had a great goal disallowed.

Barcelona is not getting back on its feet, they keep repeating the way they play which does them no good at all, more possession but ZERO danger, Lewandowski had only 1 in the whole game and thanks to Madrid's center backs they completely annulled him, it is a game that seems to concentrate on pure sterile crosses, there is no creation or depth and not to mention the defensive, if it is not Piqué it was García yesterday who had a game to forget. But the most regrettable thing is Xavi's position when he said that they did not deserve to lose and that it was due to refereeing mistakes. I don't know where his self-criticism is but I think he needs some. It is true that there was a play where Lewandowski fell in the area and if it was a penalty it would not have happened but the reality is much harder, this Barcelona is not playing at all and it is serious.

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A great match at Anfield between Liverpool and City, not so much for what was seen in the first half because it was one in which surprisingly there were not many scoring chances, one or the other clear for each team but nothing that put the scoreboard in real danger. In the second half things changed drastically, both came out looking for the game and look what they looked for, the thing is that on the Liverpool side they had a Becker who was a figure because he took away at least three chances from Haaland and was the one who assisted Salah with a pass of more than forty meters. It was a goal where the Egyptian left Cancelo in the way, something that is rare given the quality of the Portuguese, to be one on one in front of Ederson and not forgive. This goal ended Mo Salah's drought at Anfield.

The issue here is what always happens with City, if you look at the statistics the ball possession by Pep's team was abysmal, I think it was over 65% to Liverpool's 35% but yesterday the defenses played a very important role because they were very compact, especially in the first 45 minutes. Of course, if I'm not mistaken, Liverpool came with real danger a couple of times, both from Salah where the first one went millimeters away from the post and the second one ended up being the goal. 100% effectiveness on the part of Klopp's boys, and with this victory Liverpool moves up to eighth place with 13 points while City remains second with 23 points.

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It is very strange to see a game where a beast like Haaland has not scored goals considering that he is used to scoring two per game, but yesterday the marking they had on him was very effective, in fact the one in charge of that was Virgil van Dijk who never left him alone or quiet at any time. It is a very good result for Liverpool who are having a season a little weaker than expected, as I said in the Premier League they are in the eighth round and in the Champions League they are second in their group with nine points. And well with this result I think City loses the unbeaten in the Premier League, something that until yesterday they were the only ones who could say they had it in the Premier League. I think this defeat does not worry at all to this Manchester as the pace they are taking is very solid, all teams have setbacks so I think this City is for great things, in Champions League I am convinced that if, in Premier we will see if Arsenal is maintained after the World Cup for the second part of the season.

And well friends that's all for today, I hope you liked it.
A hug to all of you, see you next time!