Real Madrid v Barcelona - live!
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Jose Mourinho swans down the staircase towards the pitch like... ah but you already know how he's swanning. And we're off! The first 30 seconds sees a display of fine tiki-taka - from Real Madrid. A minute's gone and Barca have hardly touched the ball. The noise is unbelievable.
But here we are in 2011. And what an atmosphere there is in the Bernabeu. Dear me. The teams take to the pitch. Real look very relaxed. Barcelona still look shell-shocked from their defeat in the cup final, after which both Lionel Messi and Pep Guardiola looked dead behind the eyes. That 5-0 seems a long time ago at the moment. Guardiola has, of course, been forced to spend this week putting up with Mourinho repeatedly jabbing his finger in the centre of his chest, asking him what he thinks about that then.
In the second leg, referee Reg Leafe disallowed four goals, three of them by Real. "Leafe was Barcelona's best player," said Real president Santiago Bernabeu after the match, a fact borne out by footage which offers little supporting evidence in the way of foul play. Alfredo di Stefano muttered darkly of a Uefa conspiracy, suggesting the ruling body were fed up with Real's domination of "their cup". But he had to face facts: Real had been dumped out of Europe for the first time ever, and by their bitter rivals to boot.
Both legs were refereed by Englishmen and on both occasions Real blamed the officials. In the first leg at the Bernabeu, Real were 2-1 up with three minutes to play when referee Arthur Ellis ignored a linesman flagging Sandor Kocsis offside, waved play on, then blew for a penalty when the Hungarian was fouled. Barcelona equalised and for the first ti! me in th e tournament's history, a team left Real's stadium unbeaten.
Barcelona's single triumph over Real on this stage, meanwhile, came in the second round of the 1960/61 competition Barcelona had just won their second La Liga title in a row under Helenio Herrera (though they had since parted company with the Argentinian manager), while Madrid had recently given their signature performance, thrashing Eintracht Frankfurt 7-3 in the 1960 final.
This is the fourth time the two Spanish giants have been drawn together in either the Champions League or the European Champion Clubs' Cup. There have been two previous semi-final meetings, and Real have won them both. They triumphed 6-2 on aggregate in 1960, with a pair of 3-1 victories, and 3-1 on aggregate in 2002, the hard work there being done at Camp Nou with a 2-0 win. Some of the greats through the ages scored for Real in those games: Puskas, Gento, Di Stefano, Raul, Zidane and, er, McManaman.
Referee: Wolfgang Stark (Germany).
Barcelona: Valdes, Dani Alves, Pique, Busquets, Puyol, Xavi, Mascherano, Keita, Pedro, Messi, Villa. Subs: Pinto, Jeffren, Milito, Afellay, Fontas, Roberto, Thiago.
Real Madrid: Casillas, Arbeloa, Sergio Ramos, Albiol, Marcelo, Alonso, Pepe, Diarra, Ozil, Ronaldo, Di Maria. Subs: Adan, Kaka, Benzema, Granero, Garay, Higuain, Adebayor.
You'll thank me for tempting fate like this when a nine-goal thriller unfolds from: 7.45pm BST.
That's an end to the hyperbole, though. Parts one and two, in La Liga and the Copa del Rey, were nothing short of appalling. And with Jose Mourinho having now worked out exactly how best to get under Barcelona's skin, both on and off the pitch, don't expect too much expansiv! e entert ainment tonight.
Hola! And welcome to part three of the El Clsico tetralogy. It's the semi-final of the Champions League, the biggest club competition in football, between the two grandest clubs in Spain the world, and the two best sides to boot. Great!
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