madrid look sharp...i know its just the 1st leg of a minor cup...but i honestly think this season we're gonna be very close to barca !

what a goal by villa !

good goal by messi...but dodgy defending led to it imo,,

v unlucky to be 1-2 down at ht...lets see if we can at least draw this match

it was like a smash and grab from barca, 2 shots, 2 goals

Cesc gone officially

madrid really bossing the 2nd half now..we should be a goal or 2 up

2-2 almost certainly won't be enough for madrid to take to the nou camp...we should have won that match and taken a lead into the 2nd leg though

when sahin is fit, hopefully we'll give the 4-3-3 system a try out...sahin and alonso should give us more control in midfield...which we lack against barca

stayed up last night until 3am to watch the spain-brazil u20 WC 1/4 final match...spain were v unlucky
they were the better side and twice recovered from a goal down..but lost on pens !

Couldn't understand why a defender took spain's first pen !

Quie enjoyed last night's clásico, though a bit disappointed by the result. 1st two goals were quality. Messi looked out of form and Barça starting without Xavi, Busquets and Piqué gave us an extra advantage. Barça were v fortunate to equalise and even more so to take the lead, but that's life.

Pepe's a yob. Nothing new there though.

France through to the U20 semis. That's who I'm backing nw, even if it's just because they were my pre-tournament favourites.

Glad to see Cesc finally earned the promotion he'd been seeking for so long.

On that topic, how many starts do you reckon he'll get this season?

i can't see who in barca's midfield he is going to displace in the starting eleven tbh ! I reckon half a dozen starts for fabregas this season (unless barca suffer injuries).

We still lacked control in midfield against barca last ioag.
Hoping sahin when he's put in there with alonso will improve that

Hmm, I can see him playing the Iniesta role at times and sometimes the Xavi role. I expect he'll spend most of his first season adapting to the team.

I'm not sure we lacked control rather than surrendered it. For the 1st 1/2 hour the game was all ours, their midfield wasn't getting a sniff, but we let up a bit. After a shaky start, the 2nd half followed a similar pattern - in the final 20-25 minutes, I think both sides were completely whacked. We played at an extremely strong pace for a preseason game.

thought callejon played pretty well...was quite impressed by him..

alexis sanchez also played quite well in his first clasico

Callejón showed plenty of agression and character, which I'm sure went down well with Mo.

Agreed on Sánchez. Felt the game was a bit too big for Thiago, though he did show a few glimpses of his worth. Alonso worked very well in the defensive side of the game, as did Khedira in the first half.

I agree that we'll need a bit more creation in midfield when we face a full-strength, fully-fit Barça.

Atleti still pursuing Falcao and Osvaldo according to AS. I hope they land them. I'd love to see more teams putting RM & Barça to the test domestically, but on paper the gap is only getting bigger.

renoog's defected to twitter.

renoog's defected to twitter.
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Damn it!

Fire the nukes!

get renoog back on here !!!!!!

falcao, osvaldo and turan would be represent some good summer signings if it happened, and make me think they could (and should get a champions league spot !)

really hoping now that the season is about to start in spain, this place gets busier !

if this place gets busier it would stop me causing so much trouble on the MTL tennis site !!!!!

I think we may need to review our approach to the discussion threads in view of the low visibility on the site and the relatively poorer traffic.

We might need to post discussion articles more often (monthly?) so that they're visible to more users, even though it would mean attracting the odd wum. We've coped with them well enough in the past.

renoog's defected to twitter
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I'm still here!

I'll probably be more active once the season gets into full swing, at the moment this thread seems a little quiet

Hey renoog!

Anyone want to open a new thread for Liga season predictions as something we could review at the end of the season?

E.g. Champion / 3rd place team / Relegation / Points difference 1st last / Top scorer / Top scorer outside the big 2...

P.S. I'm doing my best to remain active here - I have an absolute mountain of work.

renoog is alive

i might look at doing a predictions thread. 3 points for correct score, 1point for a correct result, 10pts for correct score in the bonus game..

i think about it during the week

what a start from Kun! new star of the Premier League

Didn't see it but can hardly say I'm surprised.

don't even know why I was surprised, may even go to the extent that he's the best player in the league now Cesc is gone . We ain't seen nothing yet. We have no chance this season .