Alan Smith: Barcelona’s daring attitude against Real Madrid reaps beautiful Champions League results
The killer strike when it came encapsulated everything that we love about this Barcelona side. More than that, it required the kind of audacity no other team in the world would dare to show, or indeed have the ability to produce on a grand stage such as a Champions League semi-final.
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By Alan Smith 6:10AM BST 04 May 2011
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Barca’s insistence on playing out from the back must be heart-stopping at times, not just for their fans but for their manager too. Pep Guardiola, for instance, must have gone nuts when a risky square pass resulted in Real Madrid grabbing an equaliser.
But what could he say? It’s in Barca’s DNA. That daring attitude had already created Pedro’s exquisite opening goal when their goalkeeper, Victor Valdes, rather than playing safe with a thump upfield, decided to dink a cheeky ball out to Daniel Alves. If Valdes had got it wrong, Real would have regained possession in a dangerous position.
But Valdes didn’t get it wrong. He got it spot on, floating the ball inches over the head of a Real player to release the full-back up the right flank.
From there, Alves had the time to look inside and pick out andres iniesta, who had drifted into space
40 yards from goal. Real’s Lassana Diarra was closest to Iniesta but nowhere near close enough to prevent the visionary midfielder from picking his spot.
That is always going to spell trouble for the opposition. And so it proved. Iniesta’s pass was close to perfection as it threaded through a small gap in Real’s rearguard.
Timing his run beautifully, Pedro was through, but his first touch had to be right to set up the chance. Fortunately for the blaugrana, it wasn’t just right it was perfect. Taking the firmly-struck ball in his stride and out of his feet, he never looked like missing the subsequent shot. Iker Casillas could do nothing as the ball fizzed past on his left into the corner.
In terms of a team goal, it was an absolute peach, worked so smoothly and skilfully from back to front.
Watching from the sideline, Guardiola must have felt immensely proud of his side. The previous week he’d seen Lionel Messi go it alone in the Bernabeu to score what will be regarded as one of the great individual goals.
This time it was more about an intuitive understanding between team-mates as they showed great faith in their prodigious ability. How incredibly satisfying it must have been for Barca’s coach. These were Pep’s boys, doing the necessary in glorious style.
A rare mixture of an indefatigable work ethic, great togetherness, humility and of course world class talent is going to grace the Champions League final. Wembley would certainly welcome more goals like this.
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