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Champions League semi-final, first leg

José Mourinho rages at 'plot' to put Barcelona in the final

• Real Madrid coach livid at red cards in 2-0 home defeat



  • Sid Lowe at the Bernabéu
  • The Guardian, Thursday 28 April 2011 <li class="history">Article history
    Jose-Mourinho-007.jpg
    José Mourinho, Real Madrid's coach, watches from the stand after being sent off in the Champions League defeat by Barcelona. Photograph: Alex Livesey/Getty Images

    José Mourinho effectively accused Uefa of fixing it for Barcelona to reach the Champions League final after his Real Madrid team were beaten 2-0 at home by their fiercest rivals in an ugly and controversy-filled first leg of their semi-final.
    Mourinho claimed it was "impossible" for Madrid to defeat the dark forces lined up against them after a night on which he and his defender Pepe were sent off. Two goals by Lionel Messi followed those dismissals to leave Barça on the verge of the final, where they look certain to meet Manchester United.
    Madrid's coach accused Barcelona of wielding untouchable power in European football and said their coach, Pep Guardiola, should feel "ashamed" if he wins a competition that "yet again" is engulfed in "scandal". Barcelona also had a man sent off, their substitute goalkeeper, José Pinto, for his role in a mass brawl as the teams left the field at half-time. The incident was one of numerous flashpoints.
    "One day," Mourinho said, pointedly using the Barcelona coach's full name, "I would like Josep Guardiola to win this competition properly." That was a reference to the controversial semi-final victory of Guardiola's team over Chelsea en route to their triumph in 2009.
    Mourinho, who has had a player sent off in all four meetings with Barcelona this season and with Internazionale in last season's semi-final, said that he did not want to say what he "really thinks" because he feared a life ban but he did insist he felt "disgusted" to be working in football. In the end there was little holding back. The accusation was hardly a veiled one.
    Mourinho claimed his red card and that handed to Pepe were unjustified and that this was not the first time Barcelona's opponents have been singled out for unfair punishment. He reeled off a list of referees whom he said had "favoured" the Catalan side, pointing an accusing finger at those who he sees as engaged in a pro&#8209;Barça conspiracy. He insisted that the evidence is unavoidable and asked: "Why?"
    "If I tell Uefa what I really think and feel, my career would end now," Mourinho said. "Instead I will just ask a question to which I hope one day to get a response: Why? Why? Why Ovrebo? Why Busacca? Why De Bleeckere? Why Stark? Why? Because every semi-final the same things happen. We are talking about an absolutely fantastic football team, so why do they need that? Why? Why does a team as good as they are need something [extra] that is so obvious that everyone sees it?
    "Why Ovrebo [two] years ago [when the Norwegian referee did not give Chelsea a series of penalties against Barcelona]? Why couldn't Chelsea go to the final? Last year it was a miracle that Inter got there playing with 10 men for so long. A miracle. Why weren't there four penalties against Chelsea [in 2009]? Why send off [Arsenal's Robin] Van Persie [in the last 16]? Where does their power come from?
    "It could have been 0-0 tonight, but then suddenly we are down to 10 men and they have a free path to find solutions that they could not find before then: we could have played for three hours and they would not have scored. But today we have seen that it is not difficult – it is impossible.
    "The question," Mourinho continued, "is why? I don't know if it is the Unicef sponsorship or if it is because they are nice guys. I don't understand. Congratulations to Barcelona on being a great team and congratulations for all the other stuff you have which must be very hard to achieve. They have power and we have no chance. Chelsea had bans for Drogba and Bosingwa; Wenger and Nasri were banned for Arsenal; me today. I don't know why. All I can do is leave that question here in the air and hope that one day I will get the response. They have to get to the final, and they'll get there, full stop."
    Asked if Madrid, trailing 2-0, were now out, Mourinho replied simply: "Yes, yes." There was a pause and then he added: "We will go there with pride and respect for football. It is a world that sometimes disgusts me to live in and earn a living from, but it is my world. We have to go there without Pepe, who didn't do anything, without [the suspended] Ramos who did nothing, without a coach who can't be on the bench. It is impossible. And if we score a goal and open up the tie a little, they will just kill it again. Tonight we have seen that we do not have any chance."
    Mourinho sought to discredit Barcelona's 2009 Champions League success and any victory they may have this season.
    "Josep Guardiola is a fantastic coach," he said, "but I have won two Champions Leagues. He has won [only] one Champions League and that is one that would embarrass me. I would be ashamed to have won it with the scandal of Stamford Bridge and, if he wins it this year, it will be with the scandal of the Bernabéu. I hope that one day he can win a proper Champions League. Deep down, if they are good people, it cannot taste right for them. I hope one day Guardiola has the chance of winning a brilliant, clean championship with no scandal."
    On their website, Barcelona responded to the Portuguese's comments by threatening to report him to Uefa. "Barcelona's legal department will study the declarations made by José Mourinho to determine whether to refer them to Uefa," a club statement read.
    "In the post match press conference, Jose Mourinho severely criticised the referee (Wolfgang) Stark and insinuated that Uefa treated Barcelona favourably."
 
Champions League semi-final first leg: Real Madrid 0-2 Barcelona

Barcelona beat Real Madrid but at a cost to the beauty of the game

The dark side of football emerged as tensions ran high between the two great Spanish sides



  • Players-and-officals-from-007.jpg
    Players and officials from Real Madrid and Barcelona clash during their Champions League tie. Photograph: Susana Vera/Reuters

    The best match-up in club football is blessed by majesty and cursed by histrionics. As the heat rises in the corporate and cultural rivalry between these two great institutions we see a reversion to a child-like state, in which players exaggerate the impact of tackles, roll around clutching unhurt faces, mob the referee and brawl on the way to the dressing rooms at half-time.
    This is not a pious Premier League interpretation. Goodness knows English football has its dark sides. But the theatricality in these Real Madrid-Barcelona games is now too widespread to ignore, even after Lionel Messi has implanted a final memory of beauty with one of his slaloming, goalscoring runs.
    Two goals from the world's best player when Real were down to 10 men set up a likely peach of a final: Manchester United v Barcelona, Wembley, 28 May.
    Never mind the stampede for 2012 Olympic tickets, how would they meet the demand for the rematch of Rome 2009? Both United and Barça take two-goal leads home with them for next week's second legs. Unlike the Schalke tie at Old Trafford, this one will be wreathed in acrimony and recrimination.
    When all the poison has washed down the drains, the truth is that Real's fightback against Catalan dominance looks broken. Unless Barça collapse at the Camp Nou, José Mourinho, who staked his reputation on this most complex of managerial tasks, will enter the summer recess with only the Copa del Rey to cuddle. Barça will almost certainly win La Liga and the Champions League trophy looks destined for either the team Mourinho would one day like to coach (United) or the club who have blocked his ascent in Spain.
    This was the kind of spectacle that appeals to fans of televised, live mayhem, and it was a violation of talent and many of the laws of the game, however uplifting Messi's second goal. Shortly before the interval Pedro was struck in the chest by Alvaro Arbeloa and went down as if smashed in the face, and our old friend from the Catalan Old Vic, Sergio Busquets, hit the deck after being caught by Marcelo, an escalation in tension that produced a mêlée as the teams left the field for refreshments.
    The headline moment in that disturbance was José Pinto, Barça's reserve keeper, slapping Arbeloa. This 18-day, four-match marathon was bound to boil over one day, because both sides have routinely tried to con match officials and Barcelona have sought sanctuary from Real's raised aggression with a kind of wincing hyper-sensitivity.
    When the teams came back out, chaos descended with Pepe's risky jab at the knee of Dani Alves, who reacted as if an unscheduled amputation had taken place, and Mourinho was sent to the stands after seeing his team reduced to 10 men for the fourth consecutive time in clashes between these clubs (following the same thing happening to his Internazionale team against Barcelona a year ago).
    At the heart of all this was Madrid's desperation to escape Barcelona's artistic shadow. Mourinho said before Round 3 of the series: "I am the same boss that lost 5-0 to Barça [in November]. Exactly the same. I don't have a magic trick." There m'lud, is incontrovertible proof of his gift for dissemination. Same boss? Don't have a magic potion? Every hour since that dark night was a quest for retribution.
    European football's most persistent agent provocateur was not built to be humiliated. To him the game is an exercise in power, in subjugation, which is what made his appointment at Real so compelling. Sparks were bound to fly as Mourinho sought a way to reconcile his highly organised and cautious style with the demand in these parts for entertainment. The 5-0 defeat at the Camp Nou last year, then, was an insult he has tried to avenge with ceaseless tactical and psychological pressure.
    On the field Real found to their cost that fire-fighting on every blade of grass was an invitation to the enemy to inflict death by triangular passing. A new method was required: more attacking pressure, higher up the pitch, an extra dose of venom in the tackle, more hounding of referees and a beefed-up list of insinuations about Barcelona's influence over match officials.
    In this first leg Mourinho the arch pragmatist retook the stage. Real, on their own turf, lined up with two lines of fortifications &#8211; a traditional back four, plus Xabi Alonso, Pepe and Lassana Diarra packed into three defensive midfield positions, to stop the antics of Messi, Pedro and Xavi, while Cristiano Ronaldo, Mesut Ozil and Angel di María roamed in counterattacking roles. This was Mourinho not caring about aesthetics or public opinion beyond Spain's borders.
    An ex&#8209;Camp Nou employee himself, Mourinho has always played up Barça's sinister side. This week the Real coach turned his rhetorical fire on Pep Guardiola, to no avail. In each of the season's first three clashes a Real player had left the pitch early. The dismissals of Sergio Ramos in November and, this month, Raúl Albiol (La Liga) and Di María (Copa del Rey final) had all been rolled into Mourinho's conspiracy theories about Barcelona's political influence and now he has a fresh disciplinary problem to confront with his own reaction to Pepe's ejection.
    As Messi brightened up a blighted scene, the stadium seethed, controversies lined up to run and run and the two sets of fans denounced each other as "******". This was not really a football match. It was warped political theatre and there is more to come next week.

 
Champions League semi-final first leg: Real Madrid 0-2 Barcelona

Barcelona beat Real Madrid but at a cost to the beauty of the game

The dark side of football emerged as tensions ran high between the two great Spanish sides



  • Players-and-officals-from-007.jpg
    Players and officials from Real Madrid and Barcelona clash during their Champions League tie. Photograph: Susana Vera/Reuters

    The best match-up in club football is blessed by majesty and cursed by histrionics. As the heat rises in the corporate and cultural rivalry between these two great institutions we see a reversion to a child-like state, in which players exaggerate the impact of tackles, roll around clutching unhurt faces, mob the referee and brawl on the way to the dressing rooms at half-time.
    This is not a pious Premier League interpretation. Goodness knows English football has its dark sides. But the theatricality in these Real Madrid-Barcelona games is now too widespread to ignore, even after Lionel Messi has implanted a final memory of beauty with one of his slaloming, goalscoring runs.
    Two goals from the world's best player when Real were down to 10 men set up a likely peach of a final: Manchester United v Barcelona, Wembley, 28 May.
    Never mind the stampede for 2012 Olympic tickets, how would they meet the demand for the rematch of Rome 2009? Both United and Barça take two-goal leads home with them for next week's second legs. Unlike the Schalke tie at Old Trafford, this one will be wreathed in acrimony and recrimination.
    When all the poison has washed down the drains, the truth is that Real's fightback against Catalan dominance looks broken. Unless Barça collapse at the Camp Nou, José Mourinho, who staked his reputation on this most complex of managerial tasks, will enter the summer recess with only the Copa del Rey to cuddle. Barça will almost certainly win La Liga and the Champions League trophy looks destined for either the team Mourinho would one day like to coach (United) or the club who have blocked his ascent in Spain.
    This was the kind of spectacle that appeals to fans of televised, live mayhem, and it was a violation of talent and many of the laws of the game, however uplifting Messi's second goal. Shortly before the interval Pedro was struck in the chest by Alvaro Arbeloa and went down as if smashed in the face, and our old friend from the Catalan Old Vic, Sergio Busquets, hit the deck after being caught by Marcelo, an escalation in tension that produced a mêlée as the teams left the field for refreshments.
    The headline moment in that disturbance was José Pinto, Barça's reserve keeper, slapping Arbeloa. This 18-day, four-match marathon was bound to boil over one day, because both sides have routinely tried to con match officials and Barcelona have sought sanctuary from Real's raised aggression with a kind of wincing hyper-sensitivity.
    When the teams came back out, chaos descended with Pepe's risky jab at the knee of Dani Alves, who reacted as if an unscheduled amputation had taken place, and Mourinho was sent to the stands after seeing his team reduced to 10 men for the fourth consecutive time in clashes between these clubs (following the same thing happening to his Internazionale team against Barcelona a year ago).
    At the heart of all this was Madrid's desperation to escape Barcelona's artistic shadow. Mourinho said before Round 3 of the series: "I am the same boss that lost 5-0 to Barça [in November]. Exactly the same. I don't have a magic trick." There m'lud, is incontrovertible proof of his gift for dissemination. Same boss? Don't have a magic potion? Every hour since that dark night was a quest for retribution.
    European football's most persistent agent provocateur was not built to be humiliated. To him the game is an exercise in power, in subjugation, which is what made his appointment at Real so compelling. Sparks were bound to fly as Mourinho sought a way to reconcile his highly organised and cautious style with the demand in these parts for entertainment. The 5-0 defeat at the Camp Nou last year, then, was an insult he has tried to avenge with ceaseless tactical and psychological pressure.
    On the field Real found to their cost that fire-fighting on every blade of grass was an invitation to the enemy to inflict death by triangular passing. A new method was required: more attacking pressure, higher up the pitch, an extra dose of venom in the tackle, more hounding of referees and a beefed-up list of insinuations about Barcelona's influence over match officials.
    In this first leg Mourinho the arch pragmatist retook the stage. Real, on their own turf, lined up with two lines of fortifications – a traditional back four, plus Xabi Alonso, Pepe and Lassana Diarra packed into three defensive midfield positions, to stop the antics of Messi, Pedro and Xavi, while Cristiano Ronaldo, Mesut Ozil and Angel di María roamed in counterattacking roles. This was Mourinho not caring about aesthetics or public opinion beyond Spain's borders.
    An ex&#8209;Camp Nou employee himself, Mourinho has always played up Barça's sinister side. This week the Real coach turned his rhetorical fire on Pep Guardiola, to no avail. In each of the season's first three clashes a Real player had left the pitch early. The dismissals of Sergio Ramos in November and, this month, Raúl Albiol (La Liga) and Di María (Copa del Rey final) had all been rolled into Mourinho's conspiracy theories about Barcelona's political influence and now he has a fresh disciplinary problem to confront with his own reaction to Pepe's ejection.
    As Messi brightened up a blighted scene, the stadium seethed, controversies lined up to run and run and the two sets of fans denounced each other as "******". This was not really a football match. It was warped political theatre and there is more to come next week.

 
Semi-final, first leg

Real Madrid 0-2 Barcelona: the key clashes

Amid the simmering antipathy and brief moments of magic here's where the battles were won and lost at the Bernabéu


Cristiano-Ronaldo-and-Car-007.jpg
Barcelona's Carles Puyol played out of position at left-back but coped admirably with the threat posed by Cristiano Ronaldo. Photograph: Felix Ordonez/Reuters

Mourinho v Guardiola


Pep Guardiola had suggested the inflammatory mind games would mean little once the teams took to the pitch, though the simmering antipathy shared by those out on the turf transformed this into a spiteful snarl of a match. José Mourinho's tactics had been designed to frustrate and infuriate, granting Barça possession deep, soaking up pressure before springing on the counter. This was supposed to be a throwback to Internazionale's triumph in last year's semi-final, awkward and disjointed, and the Catalan side's heckles were duly raised. The melee on the half&#8209;time whistle reflected the ugly contest it had become. Barça needed to react and find a way of imposing their slick play on the occasion, yet Real's harrying never waned until Pepe's red card tipped the balance. Then Mourinho was dismissed, ending up sitting in the stands and slipping notes to his bench as the fouls, play-acting and bickering threatened to wreck the evening before Messi's 51st and 52nd goals of the season did exactly that to Real's. Guardiola merely braved the catcalls and enjoyed the moment.
Pepe and Diarra v Messi


Mourinho had asked the energetic Pepe and Lassana Diarra to loiter and snap at Lionel Messi whenever the Argentinian was on the ball. That served to clog up the middle, draining the contest of rhythm and sapping the visitors' impetus, with the Real pair constantly pressurising the ball whenever it fell within his zone of influence. Yet Messi is a force of nature. When he could wriggle into space, he was the game's only real entertainer-in-waiting. He dropped deep willingly, hoping to spring from the clutter, and conjured staggering passes in inter-plays with Xavi and David Villa to unnerve Real. He drew a foul from Sergio Ramos that ruled him out of the second leg with one trademark dart, with his task potentially made easier by Pepe's harsh dismissal. That offered more space in which to prompt panic, and his dart across Ramos to convert Ibrahim Afellay's cross, then jinking run through Real's backline, took the breath: brief eruptions of football amid the maelstrom.
Ronaldo v Puyol


Cristiano Ronaldo was initially employed as a lone striker though, having threatened one early tantrum after the supply line stalled and Barça's back five pinged passes contentedly among themselves, Ronaldo was reminded by his manager that this was an occasion to be selfless. Mourinho dragged him out wide early on in the hope that he could charge at Carlos Puyol, who was forced to fill in at left-back by Barça's current lack of defensive options. It was to the veteran's credit that he had been rarely exposed, though Emmanuel Adebayor's introduction at half-time offered Ronaldo the chance to torment him more regularly. There were flashes thereafter of discomfort for the converted centre-back. But for a makeshift defence to have emerged unscathed from the Bernabéu still represented a triumph.
Alonso v Xavi


The midfield pair are their sides' respective metronomes, setting the tempo from the centre. Yet neither will consider this his finest display. Xabi Alonso was peripheral, his work dominated by defensive duties as he sought to maintain his team's shape at all costs. His passing, usually so reliable, was often choked in open play and more obviously utilised from set-pieces, though even those disappointed at times. Xavi Hernández reveled whenever Messi was liberated from the mass of bodies to pluck out a pass, but he clearly missed Andrés Iniesta at his side. The rat-a-tat exchanges were rather stifled until Pepe's departure freed up some space in the middle. He may be more influential in the return.
 
Lionel Messi capitalises for Barcelona as Real Madrid see red again



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Champions League

Real Madrid 0 Barcelona 2
  • Messi 76,
  • Messi 87




  • Sid Lowe at Santiago Bernabéu
  • guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 27 April 2011 22.06 BST <li class="history">Article history
    Lionel-Messi-007.jpg
    Barcelona's Lionel Messi celebrates with his captain, Carles Puyol, after opening the scoring in the 2-0 victory over Real Madrid. Photograph: Sergio Perez/Reuters

    There was fighting and faking but not much football until the 88th minute and then there was a moment of rare beauty. With three minutes to go Lionel Messi scored a truly wonderful goal to give Barcelona a huge lead in this European Cup semi-final. Dashing past five players, he sprinted into the Real Madrid penalty area and slipped the ball smoothly past Iker Casillas to double the visitors' lead and raise his total for the season to a remarkable 52 goals for his club.
    It was one of the finest goals this competition has ever witnessed, delivered by a player who at 23 is already Barcelona's third-top scorer in history and is now being compared not just to the best players in the world but the finest footballers of all time.
    At last, here was a moment that graced this occasion, at last a piece of skill that sat well with the two strongest clubs on the planet. All that anger finally gave way to a moment of awe. Sublime genius won out in the end.
    Not that Real Madrid saw it that way, of course, and they must now go to the Camp Nou and score at least twice without their coach on the touchline. Not only was Pepe sent off here &#8211; the fourth Real Madrid player to get a red card in four clásicos this season &#8211; so was the manager. As for Barcelona, they had the substitute goalkeeper José Pinto sent off as tempers flared at half-time. When José Mourinho and Pepe followed him, it was 0-0 &#8211; more evidence for the black legend the coach has constructed around his opponents.
    Again, he would cite extenuating circumstances and again his side were down to 10 men against Barcelona. Whether that was the difference here will be debated for the next week and beyond. What will not is the quality of Messi who stood before the Barcelona fans at the end celebrating the goal that could be the key to his side grasping the biggest prize this series of clásicos has to offer.
    Things had not started well for Barcelona, either, with the late withdrawal of Andrés Iniesta and the tension of the pre-match press conferences. But, rather than losing the plot, Guardiola may well be hailed as knowing a thing or two about mind games himself now &#8211; even if the reality was that this game was settled elsewhere, not in the press room where Mourinho is, in the Barcelona manager's words, the "puto amo".
    There had been pressure before the game and there was pressure from the start too &#8211; from both sides. The first foul occurred after only 44 seconds, Pedro the culprit as Barcelona sought to asphyxiate Madrid high up the pitch. Speaking of asphyxiation, there was a grab at the neck between Gerard Piqué and Sergio Ramos and twice Barcelona players went down off the ball. And as the sides disappeared down the tunnel at half-time, there was a further set-to. Pinto was at the heart of it and he was sent off, for seeming to punch Madrid's match-day delegate Miguel Porlán "Chendo" in the midst of a row with Alvaro Arbeloa in which another Barça substitute Gabriel Milito was also involved. Then early in the second half, Sergio Ramos floored Messi with a forearm smash.
    But if that said something about the intensity, it did not say much about the tactics. Soon Barcelona settled into a routine of dominating possession. On the quarter-hour mark they had enjoyed 83% of it. Except that "enjoy" might not have been the verb. As Barcelona passed and passed and then passed again, Madrid simply waited, happy to forfeit the ball but not territory. Perhaps they were not so happy &#8211; soon Cristiano Ronaldo was furious, screeching at his players to push higher and press Barcelona as he accelerated around a blue and red triangle, always arriving a fraction too late to reach the ball.
    Madrid did as Ronaldo instructed, briefly hurrying Barcelona. But the pattern re-emerged rapidly. And while Real Madrid felt that they had largely kept Barcelona at a safe distance, there were opportunities.
    David Villa, looking sharper and faster than of late, a goalscorer on Saturday for the first time in 12 games, cut inside and struck a shot fractionally wide of Iker Casillas's right post on 10 minutes. And 13 minutes later, the opening period's best chance fell to Xavi. A wonderful reverse pass from Messi found him dashing into the area but Casillas was out sharply to block the shot. Madrid's response was largely limited to long-range efforts and winning free-kicks, Pepe heading one harmlessly down, until Víctor Valdés was called into action right on the stroke of half time, pushing away a Ronaldo shot and having to block the offside Mesut Ozil's follow-up.
    The trouble on the pitch at the end of the first half was not evident at the start of the second &#8211; Barcelona came out early and, in a role reversal, waited for Madrid. When they came out there had been a change &#8211; Emmanuel Adebayor was on. That gilded substitutes bench was going to have its part to play. Something had to change: this had not yet been a performance worthy of its illustrious cast. There was certainly more desire to chase from Madrid, pushing Barcelona further back, while Adebayor gave them a target to hit.
    But it was a different target that came to the fore: Dani Alves's knee. Pepe launched studs-first into a challenge on the right-back, who crumpled on to the turf, and the referee, Wolfgang Stark, had no hesitation in taking out his red card. Madrid felt that while a card could be justified, its colour could not. Carles Puyol's discussion with Mourinho suggested he might have agreed. Mourinho sarcastically clapped Alves and another red card followed &#8211; this time for the coach himself. The pitch and noise rose a notch.
    Mourinho, who had pleaded for the chance to play Barcelona with 11 men, now had a narrative but not the situation he wanted. Nor, though, did Barcelona have the lead. They almost got it when Villa's shot was parried by Casillas after Xavi had rolled Raúl Albiol and, although the keeper was on the floor, Pedro was stretching and could not quite get into a position to head goalwards. A moment later he was withdrawn, replaced by Ibrahim Affelay. Few could have imagined the impact he would have.
    Messi brought him into the game when he ran at the Madrid defence and smuggled the ball to Xavi, who turned full circle away from Lassana Diarra and fed the substitute on the right. He dashed past Marcelo and crossed low the near post where the Argentinian got ahead of his marker to nudge the ball past Casillas on the volley and open the scoring. Messi, in this miraculous season, still had one more contribution to make and this time it was magical.

 
Lionel Messi capitalises for Barcelona as Real Madrid see red again

Champions League

Real Madrid 0 Barcelona 2
  • Messi 76,
  • Messi 87




  • Sid Lowe at Santiago Bernabéu
  • guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 27 April 2011 22.06 BST <li class="history">Article history
    Lionel-Messi-007.jpg
    Barcelona's Lionel Messi celebrates with his captain, Carles Puyol, after opening the scoring in the 2-0 victory over Real Madrid. Photograph: Sergio Perez/Reuters

    There was fighting and faking but not much football until the 88th minute and then there was a moment of rare beauty. With three minutes to go Lionel Messi scored a truly wonderful goal to give Barcelona a huge lead in this European Cup semi-final. Dashing past five players, he sprinted into the Real Madrid penalty area and slipped the ball smoothly past Iker Casillas to double the visitors' lead and raise his total for the season to a remarkable 52 goals for his club.
    It was one of the finest goals this competition has ever witnessed, delivered by a player who at 23 is already Barcelona's third-top scorer in history and is now being compared not just to the best players in the world but the finest footballers of all time.
    At last, here was a moment that graced this occasion, at last a piece of skill that sat well with the two strongest clubs on the planet. All that anger finally gave way to a moment of awe. Sublime genius won out in the end.
    Not that Real Madrid saw it that way, of course, and they must now go to the Camp Nou and score at least twice without their coach on the touchline. Not only was Pepe sent off here – the fourth Real Madrid player to get a red card in four clásicos this season – so was the manager. As for Barcelona, they had the substitute goalkeeper José Pinto sent off as tempers flared at half-time. When José Mourinho and Pepe followed him, it was 0-0 – more evidence for the black legend the coach has constructed around his opponents.
    Again, he would cite extenuating circumstances and again his side were down to 10 men against Barcelona. Whether that was the difference here will be debated for the next week and beyond. What will not is the quality of Messi who stood before the Barcelona fans at the end celebrating the goal that could be the key to his side grasping the biggest prize this series of clásicos has to offer.
    Things had not started well for Barcelona, either, with the late withdrawal of Andrés Iniesta and the tension of the pre-match press conferences. But, rather than losing the plot, Guardiola may well be hailed as knowing a thing or two about mind games himself now – even if the reality was that this game was settled elsewhere, not in the press room where Mourinho is, in the Barcelona manager's words, the "puto amo".
    There had been pressure before the game and there was pressure from the start too – from both sides. The first foul occurred after only 44 seconds, Pedro the culprit as Barcelona sought to asphyxiate Madrid high up the pitch. Speaking of asphyxiation, there was a grab at the neck between Gerard Piqué and Sergio Ramos and twice Barcelona players went down off the ball. And as the sides disappeared down the tunnel at half-time, there was a further set-to. Pinto was at the heart of it and he was sent off, for seeming to punch Madrid's match-day delegate Miguel Porlán "Chendo" in the midst of a row with Alvaro Arbeloa in which another Barça substitute Gabriel Milito was also involved. Then early in the second half, Sergio Ramos floored Messi with a forearm smash.
    But if that said something about the intensity, it did not say much about the tactics. Soon Barcelona settled into a routine of dominating possession. On the quarter-hour mark they had enjoyed 83% of it. Except that "enjoy" might not have been the verb. As Barcelona passed and passed and then passed again, Madrid simply waited, happy to forfeit the ball but not territory. Perhaps they were not so happy – soon Cristiano Ronaldo was furious, screeching at his players to push higher and press Barcelona as he accelerated around a blue and red triangle, always arriving a fraction too late to reach the ball.
    Madrid did as Ronaldo instructed, briefly hurrying Barcelona. But the pattern re-emerged rapidly. And while Real Madrid felt that they had largely kept Barcelona at a safe distance, there were opportunities.
    David Villa, looking sharper and faster than of late, a goalscorer on Saturday for the first time in 12 games, cut inside and struck a shot fractionally wide of Iker Casillas's right post on 10 minutes. And 13 minutes later, the opening period's best chance fell to Xavi. A wonderful reverse pass from Messi found him dashing into the area but Casillas was out sharply to block the shot. Madrid's response was largely limited to long-range efforts and winning free-kicks, Pepe heading one harmlessly down, until Víctor Valdés was called into action right on the stroke of half time, pushing away a Ronaldo shot and having to block the offside Mesut Ozil's follow-up.
    The trouble on the pitch at the end of the first half was not evident at the start of the second – Barcelona came out early and, in a role reversal, waited for Madrid. When they came out there had been a change – Emmanuel Adebayor was on. That gilded substitutes bench was going to have its part to play. Something had to change: this had not yet been a performance worthy of its illustrious cast. There was certainly more desire to chase from Madrid, pushing Barcelona further back, while Adebayor gave them a target to hit.
    But it was a different target that came to the fore: Dani Alves's knee. Pepe launched studs-first into a challenge on the right-back, who crumpled on to the turf, and the referee, Wolfgang Stark, had no hesitation in taking out his red card. Madrid felt that while a card could be justified, its colour could not. Carles Puyol's discussion with Mourinho suggested he might have agreed. Mourinho sarcastically clapped Alves and another red card followed – this time for the coach himself. The pitch and noise rose a notch.
    Mourinho, who had pleaded for the chance to play Barcelona with 11 men, now had a narrative but not the situation he wanted. Nor, though, did Barcelona have the lead. They almost got it when Villa's shot was parried by Casillas after Xavi had rolled Raúl Albiol and, although the keeper was on the floor, Pedro was stretching and could not quite get into a position to head goalwards. A moment later he was withdrawn, replaced by Ibrahim Affelay. Few could have imagined the impact he would have.
    Messi brought him into the game when he ran at the Madrid defence and smuggled the ball to Xavi, who turned full circle away from Lassana Diarra and fed the substitute on the right. He dashed past Marcelo and crossed low the near post where the Argentinian got ahead of his marker to nudge the ball past Casillas on the volley and open the scoring. Messi, in this miraculous season, still had one more contribution to make and this time it was magical.
 
Real Madrid v Barcelona - in pictures

The best images from the Bernabéu where the giants of Spanish football face one another for a place in the Champions League final





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As fans gather outside the Bernabéu to welcome the arrival of the Madrid team, the sense of anticipation is rising. This may be the fourth instalment of El Clasico this season, but the previous three pale in comparison to what's ahead. Barça's 5-0 league victory last November is a distant memory; even Madrid's recent Copa del Rey triumph seems trivial as tonight's kick-off nears Photograph: Helios de la Rubia/Real Madrid via Getty Images


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'How wrong was I?' &#8211; Wayne Rooney regrets trying to leave United

After questioning Manchester United's ambition last autumn the striker has been made to look daft by their form recently



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    Wayne Rooney rarely indulges in self-analysis but admits he felt he owed it to the fans to make up for trying to leave last year. Photograph: Jamie Mcdonald/Getty Images

    The expression on Wayne Rooney's face was bordering on embarrassment. He shifted on his feet a little. Then he blew out his cheeks, shook his head and, in four words, tried to sum up the lingering sense of awkwardness. "How wrong was I?" he said, and no one listening to him could have been mistaken: this was a statement rather than a question.
    These are the moments when Rooney can look back at the troubled times last autumn and shudder when he thinks of the potential glories he might have missed had he not pulled himself back from leaving Manchester United &#8211; or, to borrow Sir Alex Ferguson's line, realised that the cow in the next field might not be any better than the cow he already milked.
    "Big trouble" are the words Patrice Evra uses to recall that chilly October night against Bursaspor when Rooney went public with his grievances and United's supporters demonised the Liverpudlian with spiteful banners ("Coleen forgave you, Wayne, we won't" and "Who's the ***** now, Wayne?"). Evra remembers "everyone was criticising Manchester United that night, everyone was saying it was the end of the empire".
    That was Rooney's fault, the nadir of a season that has endured some excruciating lows to go alongside the exhilarating highs that culminated in Schalke being out&#8209;passed, out&#8209;thought, outfought and eventually outclassed in Gelsenkirchen. It has been a wild graph of ups and downs but, as Rooney boarded flight TK3671 from Dortmund to Manchester on Wednesday, this was a man contemplating an uncommon form of job satisfaction and just glad &#8211; relieved, if we are being truthful &#8211; that he was given the opportunity to change his mind.
    "I made a mistake," he volunteered and, up close, you could detect he felt uncomfortable with all the self-analysis &#8211; maybe even a little foolish. "You know, when I look back at it now, I'll say it again, how wrong was I? I'm willing to admit that. I've apologised and ever since then I have wanted to try to prove myself again to the fans. I feel I am doing that now."
    Everything is coming together. Rooney had doubted the club's transfer policy after a summer in which they had recruited the unheralded Javier Hernández, Chris Smalling and, most perplexing of all, Bébé. Now the team he suspected would fall short have authentic hope of following up the near-certainty of a record 19th league title with the third European Cup of Ferguson's reign.
    Rooney has seen enough of Hernández to proclaim him as "the buy of the century" and, after looking like someone who was falling out of love with the sport as the leaves started falling from the trees, the man United's supporters serenade as "the white Pelé" has scored 12 times in the 21 games since the turn of the year.
    "I'm delighted with my form at the minute and I'm grateful to the fans for supporting me through it [his transfer demands]," he said, nursing a cup of coffee and noticeably relaxed compared with the player who had concluded that Old Trafford was a place where his career would stagnate rather than flourish. "I hope I've repaid the fans now. I certainly feel vindicated [for changing my mind]. It's going to be a great end to the season if we can get to Wembley and win a Champions League final as well as the league."
    It has been a long road to redemption and everything was so fraught at one stage there will always be some United supporters who consider there is a difference between being a great football player and a great football man. Yet the volume has been turned down on the conspiracy theorists who suspected United had tied Rooney to a new contract purely to hike his transfer price in the summer. "I'm 100% committed to this club," the player said, and this time he deliberately made eye contact.
    Rooney spent much of his spare time in Gelsenkirchen telling the 280,000 followers he has recruited in his first week on Twitter of his love for the Beatles and the Stereophonics, answering fans' questions and swapping the kind of lovey-dovey messages with his wife, Coleen, that suggests he is repairing the damage that has been done in his private life.
    The mere fact that @wazzaroon08 has felt comfortable enough to register on the social network site where supporters can tell him exactly what they think &#8211; Darron Gibson was hounded off within hours this week &#8211; is another reason in itself to consider he is putting the traumas of 2010, his annus horribilis, behind him.
    At the same time there is clear evidence that his relationship with Ferguson is fully healed, from the photographs of them braying with laughter during training at the Veltins Arena on Monday to the manager's affectionate references to "Wazza" in his post&#8209;match interviews.
    "It's been a lot different [in the second half of the season]," Rooney said. "I am a lot happier in my life, a lot happier with the way I'm playing. It's almost been like having to settle down again and I've done that now."
    The lesson of history is that controversies will always attach themselves to Rooney for as long as he is playing. But for now at least Wayne's world, once again, feels like a happy place to be.

 
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