Posts Tagged Guardiola
2009 Champions League Final ~ Barcelona vs Manchester United (Full Classic Match)
Posted by 4Dfoot in Full Classic Matches on March 7, 2012
It’s May of 2009 and Sir Alex Ferguson is closer than ever to achieving his long-standing goal: winning two successive Champions League trophies.
Having beat Chelsea on penalties in 2008, Manchester United appear to be an ever stronger team this year around.
They have tremendous experience in Van der Sar, Ferdinand, Giggs and Scholes, as well as dynamic talent in Cristiano Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez.
United comfortably brushed aside Arsenal in the semi’s, and if they can now beat Barcelona, surely they’ll go into history as one of football’s greatest teams.
But there are also voices saying similar things about Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona. Their possession-based playing style is winning admirers from all over the planet, and all that’s lacking to confirm their status as a truly brilliant team is that silver trophy. Ol’ Big Ears.
Barcelona are plagued by defensive problems though. Abidal is suspended. Dani Alves and Maxwell are injured. Can Cristiano Ronaldo – the holder of the Ballon d’Or – take advantage?
Read the rest of this entry »
2009 Champions League Quarter-Final ~ Barcelona vs Bayern (Full Classic Match)
Posted by 4Dfoot in Full Classic Matches on February 25, 2012
This match confirmed the growing suspicion around Europe that Barcelona, this season, were something truly extraordinary.
Certainly, Barcelona had been synonymous with quality football for years, with Ronaldinho regularly setting Champions League nights alight with his magic moves. And when Pep Guardiola sold off Ronaldinho and Deco, many feared that Barcelona would lose some its charm, its creative touch. Instead, the team started playing better, more disciplined, more aggressive, more collective, more dominant, than ever before.
FC Bayern, on this night, were nothing more than willing victims.
1997 Cup Winners Cup Final ~ Barcelona vs Paris Saint-Germain (25m Highlights)
Posted by 4Dfoot in Full Classic Matches, Highlights on February 13, 2012
Paris Saint-Germain nowadays finds itself propelled forward by vast Arabian riches. To which ultimate destination, we don’t yet know. But it looks likely that the club will reconquer the status it enjoyed in the mid nineties, when PSG was a side famous in Europe for quality football. A 1995 Champions League semi-final and a 1996 Cup Winners Cup triumph serve as proof for their ability.
Perhaps by 1997 they were no longer as good as they had been. Djorkaeff, Ginola and Weah had left for more prestigious clubs. But Brazilian playmaker Raí, the younger brother of Sócrates, still wore the blue-rouge with pride. Under his guidance, they reached the Cup Winners Cup final once more. And Barcelona, PSG’s opponent in the final, were Rai’s favourite opponent. Playing them on three different occassions, he had ended up as winner all three times.
Could Raí do it for a fourth time? Could PSG beat that care free Barcelona of Ronaldo, Figo and Bobby Robson?
Read the rest of this entry »
1994 Champions League Final ~ AC Milan vs Barcelona (49 min HL)
Posted by 4Dfoot in Full Classic Matches, Highlights on February 8, 2012
The wait had been long. The two dominant sides of the early 90′s had evaded each other for far too long.
Sure, AC Milan had triumphed over Barcelona in 1989 UEFA Super Cup, but Cruyff’s Dream Team was still in its infancy then.
Five years onward, AC Milan and Barcelona finally clashed, in the most suitable of occassions: The Champions League final.
Milan, however, was no longer the side it had been. The three Dutch stars – Rijkaard, Van Basten, Gullit – were gone. Captain Baresi and the new talent Lentini were injured. And under Capello, Milan’s play wasn’t as impressive as it had been under Arrigo Sacchi.
Barcelona on the other hand looked better than ever. They had just won La Liga for the fourth time in succession. And in Romário, the Catalans had the world’s greatest goalscorer.
It was with casual self-confidence therefore that Cruyff declared that Milan were a shadow of their former self and that Barcelona would easily win…
Read the rest of this entry »
1997 La Liga ~ Barcelona vs Real Madrid (Full Classic Match)
Posted by 4Dfoot in Full Classic Matches on January 28, 2012
The real reason El Clasico is the greatest club match in the world is because no other game features as many brilliant players all together on the same field.
The 1996/97 edition, played in the Camp Nou, was no exception to that rule. In response to a poor 1995/96 season, both Barcelona (3rd in La Liga) and Real Madrid (6th in La Liga – how unthinkable today), spent heavily over the summer, reinforcing their squads with big name players.
Spearheading Bobby Robson’s joyous Barcelona side is a 20 year old Ronaldo. Slim, fast, skilled and a amazing finisher, Ronaldo is already the world’s best player. And he’s surrounded by creative quality: Guardiola, De La Peña, Figo, Giovani and Luis Enrique.
But as always, Real Madrid’s collection of superstars forms just as impressive a list: Hierro, Roberto Carlos, Redondo, Seedorf, Raul, Mijatovic, Suker. And with Fabio Capello as coach, there were no doubts about the defensive strength of this side.
1992 European Cup Final ~ FC Barcelona vs Sampdoria (Full Classic Match)
Posted by 4Dfoot in Full Classic Matches on January 24, 2012
The 1991/1992 season brought us the last official ‘European Cup’ campaign. From September 1992 onward, Europe’s prime tournament would be known as the Champions League. Suitably, the last European Cup final was hosted in Wembley – Europe’s most prestigious stadium – and featured two sides who had never won the European Cup before. Sampdoria and Barcelona.
1992 Intercontinental Cup ~ Barcelona vs São Paulo FC (Full Classic Match)
Posted by 4Dfoot in Full Classic Matches on December 17, 2011
This game is unique in that it’s the only official clash between the two greatest prophets of attacking football.
Johan Cruyff and Telê Santana. Two men who will be remembered forever for failing to win a World Cup with their country. Cruyff as a player in 1974. Santana in 1982 as coach.
But now, in 1992, one of them is about to win the World Cup for clubs.
Both teams deserve it. Cruyff’s Barcelona and Santana’s Sao Paulo play football with an ambition beyond merely winning. They aspire to play beautifully. To score more than the other team, rather than concede less.
Inevitably, the result is a classy game. One-touch football, great demonstrations of skills, and consistent fair play. This is clearly one of the finest Intercontinental cup games in history.
The stars of Barcelona are the genius Laudrup, the hot-tempered Stoichkov and the midfield master Guardiola. Playing an early version of the possession and one-touch football that Barcelona today has become synonymous with, Cruyff’s Dream Team was years ahead of its time.
Sao Paulo was equally strong, however. Their excellent striker Muller was provided with balls from the masterful Raí – Socrates’s younger brother. A young Cafu was marauding along the right flank, while the midfield was guarded over by the 38-year-old Toninho Cerezo. Seven months earlier, the same Cerezo had played for Sampdoria in the Champions League final with Barcelona. He had lost that game. Could he now take revenge?
2009 La Liga ~ Real Madrid vs FC Barcelona (Full Classic Match)
Posted by 4Dfoot in Full Classic Matches on December 11, 2011
The pinnacle of Pep Guardiola’s first season as Barcelona coach, and a game that will surely be remembered for ages to come.
After winning the Champions League in 2006, Barcelona thought they could keep dominating world football with their team built around star player Ronaldinho. But the best player in the world increasingly lost his motivation, and with it, his fitness and his form. Over the next two seasons, the team slowly disintegrated, and the soft hand of coach Rijkaard could do nothing to prevent it.
In the summer of 2008, Rijkaard was at last fired, with former Dream Team captain Pep Guardiola assigned as his replacement. Pep immediately offloaded Ronaldinho and Deco, choosing instead to make Lionel Messi the grand star of the team, with the reliable and disciplined Xavi and Iniesta as playmakers. It worked wonders, as Barcelona quickly started playing a brand of football superior even to that played by Rijkaard’s Barcelona in its best days.
But on 2 May 2009, nothing yet had been won. Hiddink’s Chelsea had proved an incredibly tough opponent in the first leg of the Champions League Semi-final, and in La Liga Real Madrid – with a revitilized Raul and an unstoppable Arjen Robben – had been winning match after match.
The week of truth had arrived, with two huge challenges in four days awaiting Barcelona in first the Santiago Bernabeu and then on Stamford Bridge. This was the week where Barcelona could write history.
Starting with El Clasico.
Sacchi claims his AC Milan was better than Guardiola’s Barcelona. Is he right?
Even the most loyal AC Milan supporters will readily admit that Barcelona is currently a better side than AC Milan.
But how do Pep Guardiola’s men measure up against the legendary Milan that won two successive European Cups in 1989 and 1990?
The monopoly on European football that Barcelona enjoys today, mirrors the iron grip AC Milan had over Europe in the late 80′s.
The coach who built up that all conquering Milan – Ariggo Sacchi – believes his old side was superior to the current Barcelona.
His exact wordss leave little room for nuance. “I coached the best team in history”.
Is he right? A comparison of the achievements both sides have recorded gives us the definitive answer.
Read the rest of this entry »
All-time FC Barcelona team
Posted by 4Dfoot in Best of All Time on November 21, 2011
Creating an all-time team for FC Barcelona is an even more daunting task than creating an all-time team for Brazil.
Not even Real Madrid has had as many brilliant attacking players as FC Barcelona.
The club has seen five different FIFA Player of the Year winners: Romario (1994), Ronaldo (1996), Rivaldo (1999), Ronaldinho (2004, 2005) and Messi (2009, 2010).
Then there are the legends from the 60′s: Kubala (voted greatest Barca player ever), Kocsis, Evaristo and Suarez (voted best Spanish player of the 20th century). In addition, there are the Dream Team greats Stoitchkov, Guardiola and Laudrup. And what to think of Eto’o, Henry, Overmars, Ibrahimovic, Figo, Schuster, Hagi, Luis Enrique, Kluivert, Xavi, Deco and Iniesta?
Oh, and we shouldn’t forget Cruyff and Maradona. One thing is certain: this won’t be easy.
Read the rest of this entry »
All-Time Best XI’s
Quotations
Pictures
Forgotten Footballers
Most Popular
Tactical Analysis (Video + Text)
1974 World Cup ~ Holland vs Brazil
Full Classic Match
2005 CL Final ~ AC Milan vs Liverpool
Player Compilation
Dennis Bergkamp
Highlights
1994 La Liga - Barcelona vs Atletico
