El Clásico: 10-12-2011

Ronaldo eyeing up Messi

The scene was set for yet another dramatic clash between the elite of world football.

A game which featured all three Balon D’Oro nominees, two thirds of the candidates for FIFA World Coach of the year award and two teams who between them could boast a collective score line of 138-23 in all competitions since they last crossed paths back in August’s Super Cup.

In midweek Pep Guardiola attempted to deflect the focus away from the enormity of his side’s encounter in the Santiago Bernabéu by speaking about how events elsewhere merited more attention than a mere game of football, namely those in Brussels, where the future of the Euro was being mulled over yesterday. Needless to say his efforts were in vain. As perilous a state as the EU finds itself in economically, the truth of the matter is that financial recessions just doesn’t generate as much passion or interest as El Clásico does.

Football’s most decorated club in recent years toe-to-toe against the most decorated club of all time - Real Madrid versus FC Barcelona - and, for the first time since becoming coach at Chamartín, José Mourinho found his team heading into the match as favourites.

Despite having been a different class coming into tonight’s game, los blancos will no doubt feel their recent surge in form a hallow consolation as once again they succumbed to the mesmerising football of their arch nemesis in a 3-1 home defeat and thus threw away a great opportunity to effectively wrap up the title race at such an early stage into the campaign.

Mourinho fantasising about a bolt of lightening taking out Messi

As it stands now the two teams are neck and neck in first position, with Real having a game in hand. However, even with that advantage, today’s result will be a massive psychological blow for Mou’s team as their self-created bubble was so savagely burst in front of them and talk of a shift in power towards the Spanish capital will be very much muted as a result.

With most of the pressure being heaped on Barcelona going into the tie, Pep kept his cards close to his chest and the multiple selection imponderables remained that way until close to kick off. Speculation about which formation would be employed (the work-in-progress 3-4-3 or tighter 4-3-3)? Who would appear up front with Messi? And whether Gerard Pique or Charles Puyol would play were closely guarded secrets the Barça coach was in no mood to reveal to the press.

Having made no secret about his intentions to start with a 4-3-3 formation with a three-man trivote in the middle of the park, the two main points of discussion surrounding Mou’s starting XI were, would Lass Diarra start in the middle along with Sami Khedira and Xabi Alonso or do a job as right back, as question marks hung over Alvaro Arbeloa’s fitness. And who would get the nod to accompany Di María and Ronaldo up front, Karim Benzema or Gonzalo Higuaín?

In the end the Special One couldn’t resist a surprise. Presumably because Arbeloa wasn’t 100% to start, utility man Fabio Coentrão started at right-back while Khedira made way for Özil in midfield, meaning that the trivote idea was ditched in place of a 4-2-3-1 formation. The system that had provided their 15-game winning sreak and best utilises the attacking prowess of Ronaldo, Özil and Di María, with Benzema getting the nod up top.

Meanwhile Pep made some eyebrow raising selection choices of his own, with both David Villa and Javier Mascherano being sacrificed. Going with a 3-4-3, both Pique and Puyol partnered each other at the back alongside Eric Abidal, while la pulga was accompanied by Cesc and Alexis up front.

Much of the build-up to the game focused on how improved Madrid have become this season and their relentless pressing game was highlighted as a real worry for their visitors. Nonetheless, no one expected them to come out of the traps in the manner with which they did.

Twenty-four seconds was all Benzema needed to justify his inclusion, scoring the quickest goal in Clásico history. However the creation of the goal owed more to a horrendous error from Victor Valdes than a great Madrid move, the Barca keeper made a hash of a routine clearance straight from kick-off by gifting the ball to Di María whose failed through ball was blocked only as far as Ozil and his deflected shot looped towards the poaching Frenchman, who was able to adjust his stance and volley in from close range.

An amazing start, which madridistas probably thought was a just the beginning of a memorable night. Unfortunately for them it soon became one they’ll quickly want to forget.

Apart from the opening goal, the high-octane start produced few clear-cut opportunities for either side. Messi got the better of Ramos in the fifth minute after the wet surface caused the centre-half to lose his footing, but the ensuing run and snap shot was safely palmed away by Iker Casillas for a corner.

Ronaldo, again failing to live up to his world-class reputation on the big occasion, was guilty of glory hunting soon after, when a wonderfully delicate pass from Benzema to feed the Portuguese talisman in should have been laid off to Di María, who was in a much better position to score. Instead he went for the spectacular shot, leathering it well wide.

Messi punished such greediness minutes later with yet another mazy, chaos-creating run through the Madrid midfield, beating Lass and Ramos, then playing a superb vertical ball into the path of Alexis who, with plenty still to do, cooly shrugged off the hot-on-his-heels Coentrao and Pepe before rifling the ball well out of Casillas’ reach into the bottom left hand corner.

For all the talk before the match of referee, David Fernández Borbalán’s anti-madridista bias from certain corners of the Spanish sporting press (guess which ones), he handled the game well. However just before half-time he had a big call to make as a late challenge by Messi on Alonso which wasn’t punished with what would have been a second yellow card for the Argentine. Overall though, the ref was fair. All five yellows he produced were bookable offences and this time Mourinho will have to accept his side’s inferiority to a far stronger team than blame the referee for the result.

The equaliser signalled the start of Barca’s dominance in the game, and from that point on Real were a shadow of the team which has performed so dominantly this season.

Alexis levels matters

Soon into the restart things went from bad to worse for the home side, when Xavi, on his 600^th appreance for the blaugrana, attempted a speculative effort from outside the box and his, admittedly well struck, shot took a wicked deflection off Marcelo which wrong-footed Casillas, who could only watch helplessly as the ball bounced in off the post to make it 2-1, seemingly in slow motion.

Soon after and against the run of play, Ronaldo failed to make things level with a golden opportunity from a ball swung in from the right that the former Manchester United man only needed to direct into Valdes’ net from all of six yards out with no one marking him. Instead he headed it wide and had to look on in pain as Cesc Fabregas was on hand to show him how to finish with his head just a minute later.

Xavi mid fishing anecdote 

From Ronaldo’s miss Barcelona started a lightening fast sweeping move involving the ever-present Messi who released Alves on the right who then sent in a perfect cross towards Madrid’s back post which Cesc met with a powering header that flew into the back of the net. At 3-1 the game was over.

A speculative shot from Benzema, cutting in on his right, could have provided the home side with a lifeline had the recently introduced Higuaín been able to get on the end of it as it zipped past Valdes’ goal, however, it was beyond his reach and there were to be no more chances for the home side.

The game ended to a deafening cacophony of booing and hissing from the home support. Barcelona put an end to any doubts about their mental resolve and quietened and detractors who were pointing to their poor (by their standards) away record, by strolling to what in the end was an easy three points.

Back to the drawing board for Mou, who will have to lift his squad’s spirits ahead of next week’s trip to Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán to face Sevilla.

FT: Real Madrid 1 (Benzema 1) Barcelona 3 (Alexis 29, Marcelo (og) 52, Fabregas 65)

Real Madrid: Casillas; Lass (Khedira), Pepe, Ramos, Marcelo; Coentrão, Alonso; Di María (Higuaín), Özil (Kaka), Ronaldo; Benzema.

Barcelona: Valdés; Alves, Piqué, Puyol, Abidal; Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta (Pedro); Cesc (Keita), Messi, Alexis (Villa)

Fact: In 82 years of La Liga only twice has a team lifted the title after losing a clásico at home. Barca 28-29 & Madrid 75-76 

El Clasico's Fire Power Under the Lens

With the world coming to a stand still this Saturday night to watch the two titans of Spanish and, let’s face it, world football battle it out, I take a look at both Real Madrid and Barcelona’s forward line ups.

Real Madrid

First of all in the white corner a reluctant mention must go to Ángel Di María, who is in the form of his life at the moment and with his 11 assists (the most by any player in any of the top five European leagues) and three goals is thoroughly justifying the €30 million Mou coughed up to Benfica for him. Although certain elements of his game continue to frustrate this blogger, i.e. his persistent diving, his all round play this season has been top drawer and more so than ever he will be a real threat to the Barca back line as his creative streak shows no signs of petering out.

Di Maria: A moment of hand puppetry after scoring

2011/12 has been Real Madrid’s best ever start to a season. Breaking the previous club record of 46 goals in the opening 14 games, held by the 1959/60 team, which included DiStefano, Puskas and Gento, the current squad has notched up an incredible 49 goals. That’s an average of 3.5 goals per game.

Obviously without Cristiano Ronaldo running riot in midfield things would be very different. Rampant in midfield and devastating in front of goal CR7 is in blistering form this year, and apart from his 17 league goals he has also turned provider on six occasions. El Clasico, and it’s fair to say the big occasions in general, have not always produced the best from the 26 year old, however, scoring the winner against the old enemy in the Copa del Rey final this year will have boosted his already astoundingly high confidence no end. And while previous encounters between the sides at the Bernabéu have seen the former Manchester United ace come up short in comparison to Lionel Messi in the never-ending battle to find out which one of them is the world’s greatest player, this time round the surrogate father is almost unplayable at home. His eye for goal is keener than ever, as his six goals and four assists in six league games go to prove.

Nonetheless, the Portuguese maestro is not the only blanco Pep will be concerned about.

Karim Benzema and Gonzalo Higuaín are also making waves, if not significant ripples, in the scorer charts with 19 league goals between them. Mourinho’s fondness for a 4-2-3-1 formation, in order to exploit space for Ronaldo and Di María to prowl the wings and cause havoc, means that the two forwards are used interchangeably, usually on a game-to-game basis.

Last night against Ajax in the final group game, just for the hell of it, the Special One started with both of them together. Any inkling either player had about this experimental tactic being repeated on Saturday was nipped in the bud my Mou after the game when he said, “Saturday is a different game and Cristiano, Di María and either Benzema or Higuaín will play”.

The fact that it was the former Lyon man who came off early in Amsterdam could be interpreted as the French man being rested ahead of the big clash on the weekend.

Benzema, having originally struggled to settle in, now looks at home in Madrid, thanks in no short part to having the club’s sporting director and fellow Gaul, Zinedine Zidane as a mentor. Benzema has always had the necessary level of natural talent to fit in at the club but previously seemed to lack the psychological strength an institution like Madrid requires. He is coping far better with the competition within the squad now though and seems to be enjoying his football once again. Of the two forwards he is probably the more complete player: able to play as the lone man up front or drop deeper if needs be, as he showed when filling in for Di Maria in midfield recently.

"No hard feelings mate"

All the same, Higuaín is by no means a second rate striker and could easily feature. The affable French-born Argentine is as cynical as they come, holding the best goals to games ratio of all la liga players: only seven starts and seven appearances as a sub in the current campaign have produced 12 goals from Pipita.

Barcelona

While Mourinho’s decision as to who will start between Benzema and Higuaín is anyone’s guess, los culés have one player who (failing a natural disaster or a well orchestrated abduction by Madrid fans) is guaranteed to start, the untouchable Argentine, Leo Messi. A superlative heavy homage to la pulga (the flee) is wholly unnecessary, as we all know what the wizard from Rosario is capable of: 17 league goals and 7 assists since the beginning of the season speaks for itself. Even though only one of these goals was scored on the road (against Athletic), the Santiago Bernabéu is a particularly fruitful hunting ground for the number ten, where in this calendar year alone he has silenced los merengues no less than four times in three games, including during the Champions League semi-final, when he took on the Madrid midfield and back line singlehandedly in a mazy, one-man-against-the-world style dribble before cooly slotting the ball into the back of Casillas’ net.

Gentlemen before battle: Ronaldo and Messi

Pep’s selection conundrum comes in the form of choosing between the other world class strikers at his disposal. Whether the Philosopher (as old buddy Zlatan affectionately refers to him) sticks with the 4-3-3 formation, which he has employed for most of the season, or reverts to a tighter 4-4-2, in order to quash Real’s midfield, remains to be seen. Going on previous encounters I’m willing to hazard a guess at the former, in which case the chances of making the starting XI would be much more favourable for the likes of David Villa, Alexis Sanchez, Pedro or this season’s Masía revelation, Isaac Cuenca (Adriano still out with a knock).

Having to play in a system that’s designed to best utilise star man Messi requires the other forwards to adapt, and in some cases play out of position. This is definitely true for Villa, who for his standards has had a pretty quiet season so far. Rumours that he and Messi don’t get along with each other should to be taken with a grain (if not a shaker) of salt, however, there is no denying that El Guaje is being played wider than he’d like, and seeing as he doesn’t offer much in terms of defensive duties or build up play this puts extra pressure on his finishing ability. Nonetheless, even on his quiet days the number 7 is capable of scoring goals from thin air, like during his last run out at the Bernabéu when he cut in on his right and curled the ball spectacularly into the top corner of Madrid’s net to equalise, having done little else up until that point.

 Infectious yawn: Villa and Pedro

There is also the prospect of Alexis Sánchez, whose arrival to the Camp Nou was somewhat overshadowed by all the drama surrounding Cesc Fabregas’ return to Catalonia. The Chilean didn’t have an ideal start to his la liga career, picking up a hamstring injury against Real Sociedad, which saw him side-lined for most of October and lost him his place in the pecking order. However, in recent weeks he has found the frightening form which made him such a hit in Udinese. Fast, skilful and willing to track back, Alexis is a versatile forward who can play anywhere along the front line and even drop deeper into midfield if called upon to.

No one expected new boy Cuenca to hit the ground running in the manner which he has since coming into the Barca first team. While he may not have exactly been blessed in the looks department, the precocious 20 year old makes up for this with his footballing talent. A definite crowd-pleaser, he possesses all the hallmarks of an azulgrana: pace, pin-point passing, invention, intelligence and finishing. As Guardiola so eloquently put it after another fine performance against Levante on Saturday, “Physically speaking he might not be popular with the ladies, but on the field he does things that will amaze you. He does his work perfectly!” Playing out of his skin against BATE in the Champions League last night and contributing to all four goals will have done his chances of starting his first Clasico no harm.

Girl repulser, Isaac Cuenca 

That leaves Pedro. Ankle problems have limited his playing time this season and, although, lasting the whole 90 minutes on Tuesday night against BATE he probably lacks enough match time to merit a start. Saying that, his work rate, passing and knack for scoring important goals will ensure that he remains an ace up Pep’s shirt sleeve and is likely to feature at some stage during the clash.

Verdict

The stage is set for another epic encounter and this time Madrid has the upper hand because of their six point advantage going into it. That said Barca are sure to have fire in their bellies and will do whatever it takes to close the gap between the clubs.

Osasuna 2 Real Betis 1

How cruel a mistress football can be sometimes. Real Betis, the self proclaimed unluckiest club in Spain, fell victim yet again to this most stony-hearted of sports, where hard work and performing better than your opponents count for nothing if they score more goals than you. This time the merciless culprits of the los beticos defeat were Osasuna, who had their goal keeper, Andrés Fernández to thank for staying in the game long enough to grab the winner with the last kick of the game that finished 2-1.

The Reyno de Navarra was probably the last place Pepe Mel wanted to visit today given Osasuna’s excellent record at home this season and the precarious nature of his position as the Betis coach. On the back of a nine match run which had only produced a solitary point, this was make or break for the Madrileño. The hostile atmosphere in the Navarra stadium has subdued most opposition attacking line ups, with José Mendilibar’s side having only conceded three goals there before tonight’s encounter in the league.

With this in mind, Mel went for a more pragmatic approach than usual. Out with the “easy on the eye” passing nonsense and in with a more resilient and solid mentality. Beñat made way in order to implement this change and Mario was pushed up into midfield to tighten things up.

Despite Andrés being forced into a save, in which he tipped the ball onto the woodwork in the 6^th minute from a Salva Sevilla free kick, this retinkering didn’t have much of an impact and the home side, while not creating much in the way of chances, controlled possession for the entire first half.

Los Rojillos capitalised on this just before the break with, you guessed it, a set piece. A corner taken by club veteran Francisco Puñal, who tonight became the club’s most featured player ever in La Primera División with 451 appearances, found Miguel Flaño completely unmarked on the back post to head it in.

Whatever Mel said during his (can’t resist the pun) “pep” talk at half time clearly pumped his players up as evidenced by their hell for leather approach in the second 45 showed. Bravely Mel also decided to bring on another forward to get the creative juices flowing, as it were, with Ustaritz making way for Ruben Castro.

The away team hassled the apparently impenetrable Osasuna defence relentlessly from the off, starting with a José Cañas’ shot in the 53^rd minute which took a wicked deflection causing the ball to loop tantalisingly towards the goal, however, a back-tracking and outstretched Andrés, who was to have a very busy Sunday night, got a hand to it to put it over the bar. The 24 year old was on hand again just minutes later when Roque Santa Cruz found space in the area but his strike was slapped away by the keeper and eventually cleared away from danger.

The Manchester City loanee had another chance soon after when he shuffled inside and out to get away from his man only to see his left footed effort whizz wide of the right post and out for a goal kick.

Minutes later Andrés frustrated the visitors again when a tussle in the Osasuna box ended with Ruben Castro shooting from close range on the right but the acute angle and keeper’s face denied the Gran Canarian striker.

However, Mel’s men finally got their goal in the 79^th minute, when a nice passing move culminated with Jonathan Pereira finding Ruben Castro alone on the back stick to side foot it home. One all, and Betis showed no signs of being content with just a draw. Pereira had a go at taking the lead himself with a rasping shot towards Andrés’ near post, but the the keeper was quick to get down low and put it out for another Betis corner.

With normal time almost up Ruben Castro struck the bar with a header and los verdiblancos must have thought that was to be their bad luck for the day. How horribly wrong they were. In the third minute of injury time a clinical direct free kick on the edge of their box was converted by Javad Nekounam to settle the game and ensure the Basque team took all three points.

FT Osasuna 2 Real Betis 1: Flaño 39, Castro 79, Nekounam 93

Fact: Ruben Castro has hit the woodwork four times this season. A number only equalled by Agirretxe this season in the league.

Racing Santander vs Villarreal

Three wise men: Juanjo (left) with Castaños and Pinillos

The numerous distractions away from the pitch during the week didn’t seem to adversely affect the Racing Santander players today, as they took on Villarreal at home in a bitterly cold and half empty Sardinero. A spirited display by La Primera’s most troubled club saw them take all three points in what was a valuable and important win.

With the honourable departure of Hector Cúper midweek, technical director, Jaunjo González and his trusted duo of Fede Castaños and Pablo Pinillos were left to stir the Cantabrian ship against the invading Yellow Submarine. This they managed to do successfully,  rousing a fighting mentality from the team, which has not been a common feature of late. The return of Gonzalo Colsa in defensive midfield, who started his first game for the club in over six months, was a huge boost to the home side. The 32 year worked tirelessly throughout the encounter and showed why he is considered the heart and lungs of the team.

Meanwhile, Juan Carlos Garrido had a selection headache for the first time in a long time, with both Cani and Nilmar finally available to help reinforce the attack after their injuries. In the end the ex-Levante coach opted to start with Cani in midfield and stuck with Marco Rubén alone up front. Jonathan de Guzman was sacrificed so as to better utilise star man, Borja Valero, who because of squad deficiencies had been pushed back deep into midfield in recent games, a position which hampers his creative talents.

This jinking around with the line up didn’t have the desired effect, as Racing’s compact five-man was able to close off the lines of distribution to the likes of Cani, Valero, Hernan Pérez and Rubén. The visitors appeared frustrated and short of ideas for the entire first half, only managing a single paltry shot, which was off target.

Los racinguistas were by far the better side to begin with, and the fruits of their labour came in 27^th minute when a wonderful triangular move between Arana, Colsa and Adrián caught Villarreal off guard leaving Arana to tear up the right flank and wipe in a dangerous cross which Christian Stuani obligingly headed into Diego Lopez's net.

Villarreal’s flatness continued throughout the first half with their best move culminating with Toño in the Racing goal easily smothering a Cani cross which was meant for the maraudering Marco Ruben on the back post.

Racing could have made it two nil just before the whistle when a threatening corner kick by Papakouly Diop fell to an unsuspecting Colsa who couldn’t get a proper hold of the ball and stir it in.

Garrido changed things up for the second 45, taking Cani and Ángel off to bring on de Guzman and Nilmar. The shake up nearly worked, when in the 52^nd minute former Mallorca talisman, de Guzman launched a missile of a shot from about 30 yards which just whistled over Toño’s cross bar.

However, this invigoration soon petered out and it became obvious that Villarreal simply weren’t at the races today. Even with Racing beginning to tire and losing their original intensity, Garrido’s men could find no way through and would be punished for such a lousy first half performance.

With 17 minutes to go Juanjo took off Pedro Muintis for Christain Fernández in a clear move to rough out the storm and hold on to their narrow lead. His defensive decision could, and probably should, have ended in disaster had Ruben been more clinical after a great act of technical brilliance from Hernán Pérez on the right found him free on the back stick in a clear goal scoring position. Instead the argentine struck his shot into the heel of Marc Torrejón and the ball went out for a corner.

The match finished with Racing deservedly being crowned winners. Whether their rejuvenation was a once off, a phenomenon often occurring to teams keen to impress a new coach, remains to be seen. Villarreal’s woes on the road show no signs of letting up though, which real cause of concern for them.

FT: Racing Club de Santander 1 Villarreal 0: Stuani (27)

Fact: Juanjo continued his 100% record managing Racing today. His one and only other time in charge of the team resulted in a 4-1 victory to put Salamanca out of the Cup in 2009.  

Javi Martínez: The Unsung Lion

On top of the World (left to right Navas, Martínez, Ramos)

Club Athletic de Bilbao has filled plenty of column inches in the Spanish press this season since the arrival of new coach, Marcelino Bielsa. The argentine has revolutionised the way the Basque outfit plays, moving away from its very British style of long ball physicality to a more creative and thoughtful strategic approach.

That’s not to say that los leones have forsaken their domineering presence on the pitch in order to adopt this more aesthetically pleasing style. The intensity is still there, only now it has been coupled with fast, intricate passing, a combination which makes playing against them quite a suffocating experience, as Barcelona can testify to after they just about managed to take a point away on their travels at the beginning of November.

Much of the club’s success is down to the players, among whom whippersnappers Iker Muniain and Ander Herrera have received oodles of praise for making this transition to free flowing football so seamless. Obviously both of these youngsters are tremendously important for the club, however, as devastating as their attack minded approach might be for opposition defences, it wouldn’t exist if not for the irrepressible Javi Martínez doing the less glamorous work in behind them.

Martínez, only 23 years old himself, has been a stable in the Athletic midfield since joining from Osasuna in 2006 at the tender age of 17, for a reported €6 million. Such a high value was placed on the relatively inexperienced teenager because of the clear potential and maturity he consistently showed throughout his time in the Rojillo cantera, with more than a few comparisons between him and Patrick Viera being made.

Tangled up in (Claret and) Blue

His professional development hasn’t slipped under Vicente Del Bosque’s radar, getting the call up to the Spanish team on a number of occasions, including last year’s World Cup finals in South Africa, for which he was the youngest player included in the triumphant 23 man squad.

Due to the unrivalled abundance of world-class talent within La Roja midfield, Martínez only featured very briefly during the tournament, coming on for Xabi Alonso against Chile in the group stages. However, not perturbed by the competitive nature within the national team, he decided to represent his country again this year during the European Under-21 Championship in Denmark, where yet again he tasted victory alongside fellow “lion”, Ander Herrera when Spain beat Switzerland 2-0 in the final.

Prior to Bielsa taking charge in Bilbao, Joaquín Caparrós was Martínez’s mentor at club level. Under his tutelage, the Navarra born tower block carved out a regular place for himself as one of two pivots, remaining a fixture in the position while others had to scrap it out for the second defensive midfield spot, like Pablo Orbaiz, Ustaritz Aldekoaotalora, and Ander Murillo, all of whom went on to leave the club, while Andoni Iraola was pushed back into defence.

Now, under the more adventurous and tactically astute Bielsa, Martínez has found himself playing centre half more and more, probably due to his massive presence on the field, aerial dominance, his ability to read the game and his penchant for no-nonsense passing.

So far he has adapted well to the change of position and the Athletic defence looks the stronger for it. Previous comparisons to Viera now seem redundant, his current style, of playing the ball out from the back and starting the build up play, is more akin to that of Gerard Piqué, his team mate in the national side. Something Del Bosque is no doubt taking note of as he starts to draw up his squad for the impending Euros next summer. Martínez has a greater chance of starting for La Roja in defence, where the competition for places is not nearly as fierce as it is in the middle of the park. Puyol and Piqué’s partnership is beginning to wane as a result of injuries and age, especially for the former.

Such reliability and consistency at the highest level has understandably caught the eye of a fair few prestigious admirers, including Real Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan and both sides of the Manchester blue and red divide. What prevents most of these clubs from signing him is a contract that expires in June 2016. The only way around this for any potential suitors is by coughing up a whopping €40 million to exercise the get out clause.

Quite a hefty sum by anyone’s standards with the possible of exception of Manchester City who, under the stewardship of club owner Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, have shown a willingness and ability to meet almost any price asked of them, as the €910 million already spent by the oil Sheik demonstrates. As far as the Sky Blues are concerned this €40 million would be pocket change as Manchini’s war chest appears to know no limits, at least until the FFP rules come into effect.

The Spaniard would be a welcome addition to the City line-up, where he could act as an alternative to Gareth Barry in the midfield. Stronger in the air, tougher in the tackle, equal in terms of aggression and definitely more spritely than the lead footed Englishman, Martínez’s one drawback would probably be his pass completion rate compared to Barry’s. His versatility could also see him play across the back four, in place of Joleon Lescott or Vicente Kompany.

Despite City’s wealth, Athletic are not worried about having their player poached away any time soon. The noises from within San Mamés signal that he is happy and settled where he is. Saying that, every player has his price and the lure of the Premier League might eventually become impossible to say no to.

Fact: Martínez made his debut as a centre half in a preseason friendly against Tottenham this year, which ended in a 1-1 draw. 

Levante vs Sporting Gijon 27-11-2011

Levante’s proverbial gingerbread house was blown down weeks ago (or however that story’s supposed to go), but today at least the Valencian outfit was able to restore moral and keep it’s floundering fairly tale campaign alive, for now at least. After three defeats on the trot, today Nacho Martínez’s side recorded it’s biggest victory of the season so far, by spanking Sporting Gijon 4-0 at home.

Manuel Preciado, who is fondly remembered in the Ciutat de València stadium for securing promotion back to la Primera for Levante in 2004, was given no favourable treatment by his old club today, as his Sporting’s recent impressive run of form came crashing to an end after an uninspired performance.

Barkero celebrates after scoring the opening goal

Levante started the brighter of the two but some wasteful play early on by Javi Barkero gave the impression that it was going to be one of those days for the home side: first in the 10^th minute when his touch let him down after a well placed Javi Venta pass picked him out running in behind the Sporting back line, and again, in the 16^th, after a deftly cushioned pass from Juanlu left the former Real Sociedad man to wriggle past Botía only to sky his shot well over the bar.

The Basque redeemed himself on 20 minutes when Koné, after bearing down on Canillas on the right, intercepted the left-full and bee lined towards the Sporting goal only to unselfishly square it across to Barkero, who side footed it home. One nil Levante.

The first half played out with Levante the stronger side, but that’s not to say Sporting didn’t have their chances. A David Barral header which, luckily for Ballesteros went wide of the mark, should have seen the visitors level the score in the 34^th minute. Miguel Ángel de as Cuevas was also culpable of some poor finishing soon after when a corner from the right fell to him on the back post, but instead of finding the net he blasted the ball into the ground for Munúa to easily gather it up.

The second half had barely started when Levante extended their lead. This time Juanlu, who was a thorn in the visitors’ right side all afternoon, dangerously fired the ball towards goal which Alberto Lora blocked only for the equally dangerous Valdo to slot it in from the back stick.

Gustavo Munua made a vital reflex save moments later from a close range Barral header to prevent a fight back from the come-from-behind specialists (Sporting having already come back to win against Mallorca and Getafe this season). The move culminated in Koné steaming through the middle, with Ivan Hernandez only able to chase the Ivorian’s shadow, before the Levante striker rounded Juan Pablo and put his own name on the score sheet.

The game was over very early into the restart but Levante made absolutely sure of it with half an hour to go. This time a beautifully taken Asier Del Horno free kick, which Juan Pablo got his finger tips to, bounced off the woodwork only to be met by the insatiable Koné who notched his second of the afternoon with a simple tap in.

The comprehensive opening 15 minutes of the second half sunk Sporting and with a four goal cushion Levante’s veterans were able to take their foot off the gas for the last third of the game and see out the tie with a clean sheet, having never really being troubled.

Levante’s real acid test comes next week when they face Barcelona in the Camp Nou. Whether they can get their impossible dream season back on track or get punished by the recently wounded European Champions remains to be seen but today’s result will keep everyone’s favourite underdogs in fighting mood. Meanwhile, Preciado’s men will have to dust themselves off quickly for the impending visit of league leaders, Real Madrid next week.

Full Time: Levante 4 Sporting Gijon 0 (Barkero 20, Valdo 46, Koné 51, 61)