Thursday, January 15, 2015

Real Madrid 2-2 Atletico Madrid (agg: 2-4)

Fernando Torres is reborn. Back in the bosom of his family. His hair radiantly bleached blond as of yore, his mojo is back. Or that's how some will write it up. His two finishes were good. He held the ball up a couple of times well. He drew fouls. Of course it's too early to start enthusing but he did well. Atletico are a fine, brave and commited side who defend with skill and pounce opportunistically. What's more they really needle Real Madrid and over 180 minutes deserved to go through. Thanks for your company. Good night.
Full time Atleti are through and will play the winners of Barcelona v Elche which is about to start. Barcelona are 5-0 up from the first leg. So it's an Atleti-Barca semi.
90+4 min Ronaldo has a free-kick, 25 yards out to the left of goal. He gets it up beautifully by driving his foot down on to it. But it doesn't come down. Ladies and gentlemen it is floating in space.
90+2 min The ball pinballs through the Atletico box from Bale's cross and lands at the feet of ISco. He shifts it forward from under his feet and stabs a shot as Godin and Juanfran dived in to block it. Oblak got down to smother it.
90 min Atletico are playing keepball but not in a dull sense, by slickly passing the ball around. The Atleti fans in the crowd begin to olĂ© with great joy. Isco decides he's had enough and boots Gabi to stop them moving into his house, eating his porridge, breaking his chair and sleeping in his bed.
89 min In comes the free-kick and Varane rises to meet it and almost tees up Turan because he connects so badly but he gets away with it.
87 min Forget the match it's time for taking some prisoners, Carvajal sliding into Sequeira, catching him with his outstretched foot and sending the left-back into his full repertoire of rolls and moans.
85 min Koke runs into Marcelo with his arms raised, cleaning his clock and poleaxing him. Ramos demands a yellow card as Marcelo gets up and goes chest to chest with the aggressor, which is duly dished out by the referee.
82 min Raul Jimenez comes on for Raul Garcia.
81 min Bale has a yap at the referee fro beinh penalised after catching Koke on te arm and yanking him over. It was a foul. Playing Atletico at their best is like fighting your way through a swarm of wasps.
79 min Atletico's pressing is really rattling Carvajal and Ramos who keep giving the ball back to the oppsoition from deep positions, allowing Gabi and Suarez to keep hold of it for half a minute and agitate the crowd.
77 min Miranda throws himself in to block Benzema's shot and gives up a corner. Has any side been more adept at blocking?
75 min It's over. Atleti have Raul Garcia infront of the most compact 4-5-1 I've seen in years. There are 10 cherry and white shirts infront of Kroos.
73 min Shot from Raul Garcia clips the heel of Marcelo and floats into Navas's arms. Griezmann is substituted by Diego Simeone who sends on Gabi.
71 min James goes off for Real to be replaced by Jese.
69 min Benzema leaps with Siqueira and heads it into his neck from five yards then as it drops he lashes out with his left foot to try and volley it past Oblak who is all at sea from corners but belts it over the bar.
67 min Marcelo has a shot blocked. Rodriguez, too. There are simply too many bodies to dribble past or shoot low through. It isn't a coincidence that their two goals have come from headers.
65 min Ramos joins the attack and gets on the end of Bale's cross from the left. He mistimes his jump, though, getting under it and ballooning it comfortably high for Oblak to snatch.
63 min Atleti free-kick after a short pass from Marcelo left Bale scarmbling to stop Garcia having a run on goal. It's 20 yards out on the right, taken by Griezmann with his left foot. He curls it and Navas tips it over, even though it was heading over had it remained unmolested.
62 min Varane begins shakily by giving the ball away when looking to set Isco free. It's as f he's got Ramos disease.
60 min Varane replaces Pepe.
59 min Let me apologise for doubting Pepe back there. he seems to have hurt his ribs. It didn't look like much of an impact from Garcia.
57 min While Pepe is pretending to be dying after being struck in the stomach, or so he claims, Atleti replace Torres with Arda Turan.
GoalGoal!! Real Madrid 2-2 Atletico Madrid (Ronaldo) Marcelo strokes a pass down the side of the penalty area for Bale to take in his stride. He skips with it to the byline and drags back a cross to the edge of the six-yard box whither Ronaldo has made a clever bent run, leaving Godin on his heels. Ronaldo powers a header on the turn past Oblak.
53 min Bale, playing on the left at the start of this half, delivers a fine deep cross that Ronaldo meets at the apex of his leap and powers a header down that Oblak fumble sbut miranda belts away before Benzema can pounce.
50 min Torres and Griezmann team up again to make a raid into the left side of the Real box, Torres stwisting after controlling Garcia's fine threaded pass. He gives Carvajal the slip, pokes it through Ramos's legs but can't get past Real's stand-in captain. Griezmann can, though, spanking a shot that's deflected out for a corner that Navas weirdly punches instead of catching.
48 min Real now need four more goals. Tiago is booked for a kick out at Rodriguez, staright into the calf.
GoalGoal!! Real Madrid 1-2 Atletico Madrid (Torres) He's done it again! Once again a dreadfully sloppy pass from Ramos gives it straight to Griezmann who motors 20 yards into the pace vacated by Carvajal who was racing up the touchline. He tapped it to Torres whose turn shrugged off Pepe and he squeezed his shot between Navas's legs

No comments: