What I find infuriating is that 355 days ago, on April 27 2011, we conceded the exact same goal to Barcelona in the semis. Afellay skinned Marcelo on the left, and crossed it in the middle and Messi tapped it in. Even that time, it was Ramos who was caught ball watching. A year has passed but nothing has changed. Same shit, same a**hole lol.

I would really take any result as long as we score 1 or 2 goals and have a decent chance going into the 2nd leg. This Bayern team can be deadly. It'll be important to keep our cool, keep our concentration because if we lose our nerve (like we do often) Robben and Ribery can rip us to shreds and the tie is over before we know it. The team that can hold their nerves longer is going to win.

I just went back to Youtube and saw that goal from Zidane. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaQhF-523As "Vamos roberto, vamos roberto, la va a poner roberto la pone roberto ahi esta zinedine. Zinedine engatilla, chutaaaaAAAAAAAAaaa Gooooooooooooooooooooooooollllll golgolgolgolgoooooool! Te quiero zidane! Viva la madre que te pariooo! Goool de zidane! Real Madrid dos, leverkusen uno!" Goosebumps!

Lol! And this is just the beginning. Can you imagine on Wednesday if it's 0-0 after 65 minutes? Jose needs to pull off a tactical masterstroke or else we're doomed!

Anita - referees are a huge part of the game in Spain. Always have, and always will be :) If we can't laugh about it, we'll all go insane from frustration...like last season!

This is actually the part that most annoys me about Barcelona, where they pretend to be something they're not. Granted, they do play some silky football when they have to, and their recent youth teams have been really good - but that's as far as it goes. It's the tip of the iceberg visible above the water and the rest, everyone just assumes that all the other BS that they feed you is true. The stuff about being a club with noble values, the proud and defiant protector of Catalan heritage etc. etc. If you look closer though, you see it for the joke that it is. For us Madridistas, its easy to see because we see it every week. But for the rest of the world, it's times like these where they see the light. No other club runs a propaganda machine as effectively as Barcelona. Heck, no other club has a propaganda machine. Do you remember 2 weeks ago when Barcelona got screwed by the refs? Their GM tried so hard to say "We don't talk about referees, look at Madrid. They lost their 'seniorio' by doing it." And then less than a week later they couldn't hold it in anymore. Like I said, I love it when their carefully preened and manicured image of 5 years or so just crumbles like the makeup it is. 'The greatest team in history' is currently having to bathe in white fire, and I hope to goodness that before the season is over we turn the heat up even more. (To echo Chaval, these are strictly my views and not those of Madridismo,org)

So far the only way we've stopped Barcelona has been to play an enforcer like Pepe in midfield. When monster Pepe thumps down his feet, the little midgets run like hell. I want Mou to repeat that, because cutting out their passing game is key. I don't even think Di Maria will start against Barca. It'll be - Coentrao-----Ramos---Albiol-----Marcelo ----------------Xabi---Pepe---Lass------------ -------------Ozil-----Benzema----Ronaldo--

^ Agree with both of you guys. We haven't looked very good ever since we came back from the break, and a big chunk of the reason falls on Xabi. He's been very sub-par and when he plays bad, the team plays terrible and has to rely on pure determination (like the comeback against Malaga and Mallorca) to win. Xabi will have to REALLY up his game for the Clasicos. It doesn't help that his replacement, Sahin, is crapping the bed big time so far.

Love the pics Karan!

I'm pretty sure we'll see the trivote in this game. Barcelona will most definitely try to mark Xabi out of the game, so I feel like Mou will play 2 hard working midfielders to fill the gaps up front to counter Barca's high intensity pressuring game. Wouldn't mind a trivote at all though, it's worked for us always.

Clearly remember that game too! Most of all a long range free kick from Juninho that had really pissed me off at the time. We were playing with Pablo Garcia (!!!!!!!!) in midfield, haha

Love the interview Gaelle! Your questions are really thought provoking, and in particular, really got me thinking about Cristiano's dribbling. He's definitely, 100% not the same player he was when Man Utd bought him 8 years ago, where he could get past 2-3 men with ease at any time (but which would also turn into the CR7 showoff show). Now I feel like he's overcompensated to the other side. He's very direct in his running, and moves straight towards goal like a steam train. In a straight race, he can easily take any opponent, but I remember in the Supercup against Alves, when the Brazilian's pace was enough to match him, he became quite ineffective. I would now actually appreciate it if he did add a little trickery to his game, but honestly from a guy who scored 50 goals last season you can't really sk for anything.

My heart really aches for Granero and Albiol, but especially Granero who I've followed since he was 17. I understand the substitution of Altintop though, I'm hoping they just want him to get into the run of things after his long lay-off. Hopefully Altintop coming on will stop as soon as we have Sahin back! After that maybe Esteban will start getting some good minutes.

Guys we might be missing the point here, or more likely I didn't make it well enough - First of all, I think Aaron got Gaelle's question spot on. Their style of play is such that they tempt the opponent to run after the ball, rather than going at them like a speeding train like we do. If the opponent stays put, they'll pass it around sideways until the rival either tires or makes a mistake. This is why they get like 75% possession in some games. Anyway, what I was trying to say is - Rayo did the honorable thing and tried to take us on 'tu a tu', and got whooped and we weren't even that good. The press still hailed them for their 'seniorio' On the other hand, Racing did everything they could (legally) to disrupt play and came out with a precious point. I didn't see anything beautiful about it, because there was hardly any attacking from Racing. They did their defensive job well - they pressed as a team and they pressed hard and high and didn't let us settle for even a moment. When we got near their goal they suffocated our attackers. They didn't earn any caballero del honor points, but they were effective. Did they cheat? No. But is this how purists view football? No, because the traditional view is that if you play to defend and dont try to win the game, you're shit on a stick. My perspective is that the game has changed and there's a huge inequality in the league compared to before. 9 times outta 10, teams would be foolish to take Madrid or Barca head on and expect to win. In the same way, we can't try to play 'total football' against Barca, accept all referee decisions against us without a qualm, and still not expect to finish 20 points off the lead. That's why I condone Mou's shenanigans and anything he does to throw the Cules off. Of course I'd have 11 Xabis over Busquets too. I apologize if i made it seem like I'd want 11 conniving, diving, cheating rats on the pitch, but remember even Alonso forced a suspension in the CL, something that would have been frowned upon in the times of Bernabeu. I hope I explained myself better this time, haha

Hubo buen juego, marcamos 4 goles, y ganamos los 3 puntos. Gaelle tiene razon - no se puede pedir mucho mas! Lo unico que me pone nervioso es el bajo rendimiento de Carvalho desde la pretemporada