crinkly_ears | Campeones! Madrid Wins Its First Trophy of The Year: Madrid v. Barca - Part One

Campeones! Madrid Wins Its First Trophy of The Year: Madrid v. Barca - Part One - The Mesuty Spam!

As we know from some of the adorable Samisut in this community recently, the lads took home a trophy last week! Here's our (much delayed) Mesuty match spam with beautiful gifs by our beloved

andriy_7

This is part one.

The game began with some Samisut - in video form - with a dramatic, stunningly beautiful Sami Khedira in slow motion and Mesut looking very sweet indeed during the warm-up.

Bug-eyes was looking very determined!

And was back in Adidas - for those of us who are following the mystery of the vanishing cleats...

For those who missed the games: Madrid entered the match needing a win. They were behind by a single goal but had 2 away goals - a situation that was to ultimately win them the game. Mesut, of course, had assisted the first - a beautiful and determined header by bromantic interest Crispy Ronaldo.

The boys are so good with children!

The stadium was absolutely beautiful and somewhat louder than usual - with fans waving white flags (but not surrendering!)

It was eye-poke victim Tito Vilanova's second clasico in charge. Something he and Mourinho have in common with Mesut: they should have missed the first leg - all of them receiving suspensions in the wake of last year's late-in-the-match riot at the Nou Camp (along with Villa of Barcelona). All were granted clemency a week before the Euros began! What we know about him from the encounter: he can pack a punch, based on his reaction to Mourinho's tug-on-his-ear/poke-in-the-eye!

Madrid's new signing - Croatian Luka Modric, formerly of Tottenham - was on the bench, having arrived in Madrid the day before. He has a splendid, Romanesque nose that is nearly as coin-worthy as Sami Khedira's -

Mesut and other-bromantic-interest Pipita kicked off - Mesut biting the inside of his cheek and lip in that adorable way he has -

And it was Pipita who was to score the first goal in Madrid's absolutely rampant first half. Barcelona's defence was ripped to shreds several times before this 11th minute strike off a speculative ball from Pepe at the back. And as it happens, Pepe and his girlfriend, Ana Sofia, had a newborn baby girl (whose boyfriends will be traipsing up the door to the house in about 14 years to meet Papa Pepe - poor things!) two days before the game!

It's entirely possible that Javier Mascherano (Barca's converted centre-half from the midfield) will never live this goal down. In the book of "how not to defend in the centre" he broke nearly every rule - misjudging the trajectory of the ball, giving his opposite number too much room, and ending up 10 miles away from Pique (who was to make an ass of himself before the night was over - more on that below!) -

Pipita was overjoyed! There were Argentines flying through the air! Madrid were tied on aggregate and ahead on away goals! The crowd was going wild! Yours truly found her migraine had disappeared because of all the drama and resultant high blood-pressure.

Mesut congratulated Pipita, of course!

I so adore pictures of the lads cuddling so you'll have to put up with another one -

Only 6 minutes later it was Crispy Ronaldo's turn to amaze - in what was absolutely the move of the night. Oddly enough, it was Mesut who got the ball in midfield (lunging in to get the ball in a move we don't see very often from an injury-shy Mesut) before it was hoofed up the pitch by Sami Khedira, and back-heeled by Crispy (on the run!) over Pique's unfortunate head -

This gif masterpiece is 23 seconds long!

The comms did note that Pique was unfortunate because "Ronaldo back-heeled the ball to himself, and who could possibly have foreseen that?" Plainly, they do not watch Crispy on a regular basis.

"I'm Crispy effing Ronaldo!"

Not a hair out of place on his splendidly beautiful head!

And Madrid were ahead - 4 goals to 3!

One last look - because it was a beautiful move and because it's no secret I love Mr Slick!

It has been noted before that Mesut always looks the same during games...faintly distraught no matter what is happening!

I mean really - anyone would think someone had died -

And it was an unusual game from him in that he was willing to challenge for the ball more than he usually does.

For the remainder of the half Madrid's midfield entirely stymied Barcelona's, in addition to destroying their defence - as one comm put it "they [Barca] have to calm down and get their passing game back together..." But they never once got the chance.

You shall not pass - in either sense!!

Mesut was also the centre of attention when he was fouled by Adriano (who would be sent off a few minutes later for being the last defender when he stopped a goal-scoring opportunity). His foul, which was a mirror image of one that had been carded a few minutes earlier (Mascherano on Angel di Maria) was not carded - which caused much outrage on the bench.

Quite obviously, Uefa was to blame.

This is a plot!

Por che????

I said above that Madrid were rampant in the first half - and they were. By the end of the first half Barca had had only two shots on goal - one of them off a free kick by Messi (awarded on a questionable foul) which resulted in their goal. On Madrid's side, Pipita could have had a hat-trick. There were 11 shots, 8 on target, for Madrid.