Champions League - Super Messi stuns Real
Lionel Messi swooped twice to give Barcelona a 2-0 win in a bad-tempered first leg of their Champions League semi-final against 10-man Real Madrid at the Bernabeu.
The World Player of the Year guided the ball home at the near post with 14 minutes remaining to break the deadlock before he reverted back to type from his goal-poaching cameo for the second on 87 minutes, a wonderful individual effort that saw him dance through the Madrid defence and finish past Iker Casillas.
The Argentine's match-winning brace - his 16th and 17th goals in his last 16 appearances in the competition - gives his side a clear advantage heading into the second leg at the Camp Nou next week.
Madrid will be missing midfielder Pepe for that game after the Portuguese received his marching orders for a studs-up challenge on Dani Alves after just over an hour of play.
Barca also had a man sent off, substitute goalkeeper Jose Pinto, following an unsavoury scuffle as the teams headed down the tunnel at half-time, while Madrid coach Jose Mourinho was sent to the stands for his sarcastic protestations in the aftermath of Pepe's dismissal.
That a game billed as a meeting of two of Europe's most exciting sides soon descended into an ugly pitch battle was regrettable but, given the frequency with which the two teams have met over the past week, hardly surprising.
Victory for Barca was their first in this four-match mini-series of Clasicos, going some way to avenge Real's win in the Copa del Rey final after the first meeting ended in a draw in La Liga.
With Ricardo Carvalho suspended, Raul Albiol came in at the back for Real and the defensively-minded Pepe was employed as a holding midfielder just in front of the back four.
Madrid's aim was clear from the outset: stop Barca playing. And Mourinho's tactics worked well enough during a tense, cagey opening 45 minutes that was far from easy on the eye.
Pepe, Lassana Diarra, in for Sami Khedira, and Xabi Alonso did a good job of stifling the creative instincts of the visitors and given their reluctance to get forward and support Mesut Ozil, Angel Di Maria and Cristiano Ronaldo, they barely troubled the Barca back line.
Just once was Victor Valdes called into action during the opening period, the keeper doing well to beat away Ronaldo's swerving drive from 25 yards as the half-time whistle approached.
At the other end, and despite Barca's far superior possession, goalscoring chances were also at a premium as their celebrated attack force - missing the injured Andres Iniesta's vision - was largely frustrated.
David Villa, fresh from breaking his scoring drought at the weekend, cut inside and flashed a shot wide of the upright on 10 minutes before Messi managed to unlock the defence with a superb pass through for Xavi on 24. The World Cup winner brought his international team-mate Casillas into his first action of the night with a sharp shot that required an equally smart save.
But otherwise, the first half was far from a classic 45 minutes of football.
Given the pattern of play during the opening period and the bad blood between the two sides, frustrations boiled over as the players headed down the tunnel at half-time. The melee, which saw Pinto square up to a member of Madrid's staff, ended with him being sent off and a crotchety, niggly second half ensued.
Pepe also saw red on 61 minutes although, despite the clear feelings of the Barca players who surrounded referee Wolfgang Stark, his challenge on Alves was probably more worthy of a booking than a straight red card.
Mourinho was as incensed at the decision as the home crowd, and his mocking of the fourth official ended with him being sent to the stands, where he sulked for the remainder of the game.
A man down, and the writing seemed to be on the wall for Real, although they nearly hit back with a Ronaldo header that flew over the bar soon after.
That proved as much as they could muster, as Villa stung the fingers of Casillas and Pedro headed wide from the rebound to signal Barca's intentions to grab a crucial away goal.
It came soon after, Messi adopting the unfamiliar guise of poacher to turn substitute Ibrahim Afellay's cross in at the near post on 76 minutes.
And a second duly arrived with three minutes remaining as Messi gave a stark reminder of his immense talent, gliding through the ragged Madrid back line before slotting past Casillas to furnish the game with at least a brief touch of class and send his side a step closer to a third final in five years.
Comment 468 - 487 of 487
why doesn't messi perform when they play against chelsea 11 vs 11? i would have likened his goal to maradona's in 86 world cup against england or ronaldihno style goal if it was 11 against 11. i m more that 100 per cent sure if pepe was on the field and real palyers not afriad to tackle cos of risk of being sent off, he wouldn't have been able to do that. for me he is not one of the best ever but he can try n get there one day cos he got the skills n talent to emulate the likes of maradona, pele, ronaldo (brazil), zidane, ronaldihno etc
Messi is a great player but the funny thiong is that every time he will score the best when the opponent played with 10 players and worsened when the referee is "wearing" same jersey as Messi... Nice huh
if i have to be honest i thought watching the game...oo gosh thats a clear red, it seems that what Dani Alves did is the masterpiece of diving, the sound as if he is hurt , a couple of cm before being touched falling with the absolute precision exatcly into the momentum of Pepes leg. The perfect dive ( He has to be ashamed of)!! However if Pepe has reached him he would have been seriously injured. Busqets and Pedro (also di Maria) look stupid in the eyes of the soccer fans and we are fed up with that.!!
Mourinho started a verbal war before the game, Pep returned in an ironic manner.!! On the pitch Real has (especially against Barcelona, maybe only against them )a style in which they are seeking more to destroy Barca's game rather than play their own, which sometimes comes to be brutal. In addition comes the ''always competiotion and hatred''.
Come on!! You got the two best players in the world, maybe the best coaches at the moment (with SAFof course), bring it on the pitch next time....gosh!! in the name of soccer!
The REALITY is?
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Barcelona AND Real Madrid CHEATED at their Sport lastnight.
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Both teams incapable of playing Football due to CHEATING impulses.
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They are NOT good enough and HAVE to resort to feigning and conning the Ref in order to gain advantage.
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If Barcelona were as great a team as some make out then they would NOT have to CHEAT.
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History will see them as average due to their NEED to CHEAT.
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Its that simple,at the end of the day Barcelona CHEAT....that is a FACT.
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Emotions aside Barce and Real are CHEATS.
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Do I blame their religious piety? yes I do,its not a coincedence that the religious CHEAT more than the NON religious.Research has proved this FACT.
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Research has also proved that religious Footballers have more Tattoos.
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Research has also proved that in all societys, apart from the mauri society in NZ, the lower the IQ the MORE Tattoos a person gets.
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This is FACT absolute FACT,Stupid people get more branding...eh I mean Tattoos.
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Actually I mean Tittoos as those who get them are generally Tit's....... FACT.
Brendan it seems that you have a heart break because we the kings usually brak hearts it seems your an arsenal IDIOT
Hope Barcelona give us a show at Wembley and beat the @#$% out of United.
Can`t deny the fact that barca is the best team in the world currently but Real still have an outside chance of making the final .People r saying that Mourinho is trying to play mind games with barca so that they take it easy at the second league. But football is football anything can happen we might c schakle n real at wembley o the other way around.Barca has been excellent in europe with only one defeat to arsenal .
Arsenal can`t match with the top guns because:
1.lacking a leader to command them when they r losing o a goal down
2.Can`t defend leads
3.lack belief in winning
4.need to reshuffle their to the right balance
5.lacking a experience goalkeeper,2 big center halfs,a holding midfielder and a out and out striker to partner van persi
6.do not need to spend big but spend right e.g chris samba,,cahill was avalaible in jan but wenger did not c that n same goes at the summer when a bit more money could have secure the services of mark scwharcer
Why dont the deluded barca supporters on here get a bloody grip and watch all there games over again...Messi,pedro,iniesta,xaxi etc who are all great footballers are also cheats who dive,feign injury and try to get opposing players send off in every game...Funny when Ronaldo falls to the ground hes a cheat but any Barca player does it and they couldnt possibly be cheating...Barca a great team to watch but they get away with everthing on the pitch and always have....PITY...
A final is a final and MU are the only team which can fac eup to barcelona.. not on skill as they unfortunately failed at showing, but SAF is SAF and it will be a great final.. the two best teams generally in Europe at it again. Bayern and Real are two teams which are up and ocming again by all means but it still remains a BArca mammoth followed by a weaker MAN U 2nd. But in a final it is pretty even, 60/40 barca or even 55/45? Either way, let us first make sure we qualify, both.. and then it's game on!!! :)
Visca El Barca!!!
Albert Smith: You should tell yoru country and area and yourself to perhaps drop the link between a faith in on'es God and football mathes , which are entirely human :)
well pointed out nitwhit... sheesh, normally the level of any 'football' insight on yahoo is about 0.3. Nopw I see pretty well observed ocmments.. wow. and now for the return leg! ;)
Radica: Lets teach yo some physics... it is physically IMPOSSIBLE for alves to fly into that twirl without the sum of forces changing into the particular direciton which it had... indeed, the contact is not on the leg... it is on the foot and ball.. should it have been red? I would say no, and I am THE cule ;) I would say yellow and tell him to calm the f*** down but he got a red for the dangerous lunge.. which is also defendable. But saying oh, he iddn't hit him or it was nothing is just a deluded reality kid.
In any competition, there will involve politic and scandal for the sake of who has more power and influence...
we will see in CL final whether M.U or Barcelona has more power of scandal to win the trophy...
In any competition, there will involve politic and scandal for the sake of who has more power and influence...
we will see in CL final whether M.U or Barcelona has more power of scandal to win the trophy...
In any competition, there will involve politic and scandal for the sake of who has more power and influence...
we will see in CL final whether M.U or Barcelona has more power of scandal to win the trophy...
jeejlow.. entirely ocrrect. and ranters are ranters.. uneducated kids or mourinho rofl. Cules LAUGHED at Real when we say them signing Mourinho, that is how low they have stooped and it shows over and over and over again. AND he has th enerve to rant that he world is disgusting as he is mirroring himself and then thought his own delusions should be adopted by THE WORLD. L O L.
See you in Camp Nou for a hi5 madrid!
There was no foul!
You can watch on YouTube, watch?v=G2oRXFRl6QE.
I realy don't understand the commotion. Even if Pepe's red card might have been a yellow one, then in my opinion both Marcelo and Adebayor deserved the red card in his place. Mourinho has a choice between the worlds finest attackers, and all he does is playing AT HOME 4-5-1, hoping to get lucky via Adebayor. If I were a Madrid fan I would be mad at Mourinho in the first place. How can you accept a strategy based on keeping a scoreless draw in your own home. It's madness. Even more so since the second leg of the competition showed Madrid's impotence playing that way, and the Copa del Rey was a fine example of how Madrid is in fact able to dominate Barça playing agressively.
And to all those who say that Barça was nowhere, and that ball posession counts for nothing as they kept it on their own side, booo to you. At least they had the ball from time to time. I haven't seen such a shameful performance since Inter Milan came to Camp Nou last year. At least Inter had a reason for playing that way, defending a 3-1 lead away. What's Madrid's excuse?
As for the red card. If Mourinho's strategy is based on keeping 11 players on the pitch he might tell them before the match to behave. The question is not whether referees favour Barça by sending of 1 Madrid player every match. During both clasico's a Spanish referee had to send a player off. Dito in the copa del rey. Now a german referee does the same in the CL. Maybe Madrid fans have to start asking themselves whether it is possible that Madrid in fact have to resort to rant and foul play to stop Barça from overrunning them.
Or just believe that the whole world is against you. Result is the same. Barça owns you.
All haters n enemies of barca don,t understand futbol.
It doesnt matter.. Man Utd will floor Barca in the final.. Beating the @#$% spaniards as they did in the semi last year? messi is only DECENT player barca have!..i truelly hope Real madrid Hammer them next week!!!..
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