by Laurencio Thu Jan 26, 2012 10:35 am
Grenade wrote: Laurencio wrote:
It hasn't been the same because Real Madrid doesn't lie down and die like they did under Pellegrini. There's always been diving and cheating in El Classico, it's a myth that this was introduced with Mourinho.
I'm not accusing Mourinho of ruining the Classico. I'm just using his arrival of a time phase of when it started to go downhill. There occasional diving and cheating in almost ever game but the current day Classico isn't as bad as it was when Pellegrini was incharge of Madrid.
You've not been paying attention then.
Eight yellow cards, innumerable fouls (and the countless ones the referee missed), and very equilibrated levels of possession meant that neither Barça nor Real Madrid could play ‘their’ game. The ball was lost and recovered and then lost again, there always seemed to be someone writhing in pain on the ground, and then man who was supposed to keep things running smoothly might as well have taken a cattle prod with him instead of a whistle.
[2008]
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=363633&cc=5739
In one match in the 1970s, furious by the referee’s performance, Barcelona fans tore 25,000 seats from the stadium and threw them onto the pitch. In another, a fascist soldier attempted to arrest a Barcelona groundsman on suspicion of being a communist.
There's NEVER been an El Classico without controversy. They've always blamed the ref, they've always got bookings, they've always had diving, and there's always been a hatred between the two, both on the pitch and in the stands.