Tracking Performances of Real Madrid, Barcelona Stars After Weekend Nov. 29-30
Gameweek 13 of La Liga saw both the big two clubs pick up narrow victories in their respective matches, with late goals in both fixtures, too.
We continue our weekly watch of the Spanish league's top stars to see how Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Co. all fared over the weekend—with just one of our six focus players finding the back of the net this time around, a pretty rare occurrence.
Real Win Again
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Real Madrid managed a narrow 2-1 win over Malaga on Saturday, with the opening goal coming early on thanks to a combination between Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema. Gareth Bale later doubled the lead before Malaga pulled one back late on, after Real had seen Isco dismissed against his former club.
Ronaldo's pace and drive down the channels fashioned the first strike, burning past the back line before finding a great cut-back for Benzema to finish well—although there were questions asked over whether the French forward had committed a foul on his marker.
The Portuguese forward has been in deadly form this season in front of goal, but his luck was out at La Rosaleda, despite having his usual clutch of attempts.
Carlos Kameni's ridiculously fast reflexes denied Ronaldo a goal while the score was still 0-0, after Bale's control and pass inside to the edge of the six-yard box, and another from the penalty spot after a defensive mix-up in the second half.
Bale was fairly heavily involved throughout. From his right-sided role, he had space to continually sprint forward behind the defence and look to link play from wider areas; however, he also sought to break infield and shoot on his left foot.
The Welshman should have had a penalty early in the second half when he was tripped by Weligton, but he got his reward for his constant runs beyond the defence after he latched onto a header from Ronaldo, outpaced the defence and scored a high, right-footed shot, giving Ronaldo his second assist.
"Vine: Gareth Bale winning goal and another assist for Cristiano http://t.co/ho9nzW4b2b
— Real Madrid Info (@RmadridInfo) November 30, 2014"
As for James Rodriguez, the Colombian floated between the left and central areas of the pitch and started the move that led to the first goal with a lovely raking pass out wide into space. Real's No. 10 didn't get many shots away himself for once, but he did look to play balls forward from deep for the other attackers whenever possible.
James was a reliable, solid figure in midfield and continued his generally exceptional form from over the past two months.
Player Ratings: Cristiano Ronaldo: 9/10. Gareth Bale: 8/10. James Rodriguez: 8/10.
Barca Beat Los Che
It took until the third minute of injury time for Barcelona to score and seal victory away from home at the Mestalla, but Sergio Busquets' late, late strike was enough for the Catalan side to record a 1-0 victory.
Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar all started in attack once more, as Luis Enrique changed his midfield and defensive lines. While his attack remained unchanged, none were able to make the breakthrough, though two were involved in the late winner.
Suarez saw the game's best chances fall his way, often starting from a right-channel position but frequently playing right through the centre, too. And it was from here that both of his big opportunities to score came along. The Uruguayan has scored for Barcelona in the Champions League but is still awaiting a goal in La Liga, and he's undoubtedly disappointed not to have tucked one away here.
First he latched onto a loose ball after Neymar was tackled on the edge of the penalty box, snapping in a first-time shot from 15 yards. But Diego Alves was alert to make a save from the shot, which was fairly much hit straight at him.
Later on, Suarez did get the better of the Brazilian goalkeeper, as he beat Alves to a bouncing ball, turning away from the keeper, who had left his goalmouth. But with team-mates waiting for a cut-back, Suarez opted to shoot on the turn, left-footed, and missed the target entirely.
Neymar had one of his more quiet matches, although he was continually making off-the-ball runs through the centre of the defence, to his credit.
Rather than this being a game where the strikers were at fault, it was instead the well-marshalled defence and a lack of tempo from the rest of the team that combined to prevent the troika seeing too many clear chances fall their way. That applies to Neymar especially, who worked hard to find gaps but was unable to really see a clear path to goal.
That said, the Brazilian attacker was lucky not to get a red card for a slight, but present, head movement toward Nicolas Otamendi after the centre-back had berated Neymar for a dive (it should have been a penalty, but both players escaped action from the referee).
Lionel Messi was used in a much more withdrawn and creative role for much of the game, as he tried to find the space and time on the ball to unlock Los Che's defence. With just Xavi Hernandez in Barcelona's starting XI as a creative midfielder, Messi was continually called upon to drop off the front line and receive possession, with neither Busquets nor Javier Mascherano having the capacity to play more searching balls forward.
Messi had a few runs that were blocked off and tried time and again to release Alves into space inside the box. Eventually, Messi provided a telling delivery of his own deep in stoppage time by finding Neymar, whose header was saved—only for Busquets to pounce for the winner.
"Great cross by Messi, Neymar's header saved but Busquets taps in the rebound! http://t.co/nUjoX2kxX1
— Barça (@SocialBarca_10) November 30, 2014"
Player Ratings: Lionel Messi: 8/10. Neymar: 6/10. Luis Suarez: 7/10.
Matchday Stats Comparison
| James | 90 | 70 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Bale | 89 | 42 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Ronaldo | 90 | 47 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Messi | 90 | 75 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Suarez | 79 | 36 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Neymar | 90 | 53 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Season Stats Comparison
| Messi | 13 | 10 | 117 | 7 | 2.9 | 4.6 | 4.0 |
| Suarez | 4 (1) | 0 | n/a | 4 | 2.8 | 1.8 | 2.0 |
| Neymar | 9 (3) | 11 | 75 | 3 | 0.9 | 3.3 | 1.8 |
| Ronaldo | 12 | 20 | 54 | 8 | 3.1 | 6.1 | 2.0 |
| Bale | 10 | 6 | 144 | 3 | 1.3 | 3.5 | 1.6 |
| James | 13 | 5 | 219 | 5 | 2.5 | 2.3 | 0.9 |
