El Clasico III (April 27, 2011)

Pep Guardiola, Lionel Messi,
Cristiano Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho

After a penalty minimum-goal Real Madrid CF - FC Barcelona La Liga draw at the Santiago Bernabeu, and a very closely contested Copa del Rey Final in which Cristiano Ronaldo headed Madrid to victory, the 3rd Clasico in a span of 18 days arrived! The big fish, the one everyone was waiting for... The UEFA Champions League first leg of the semi-final between Spain's two most prestigious clubs. Expectations were high, tensions were increasing as coaches began to exchange heated words and tactics as well as skills were to be proven!

Having lost the Copa del Rey just a week before at Mestalla Stadium in Valencia, Barcelona were out to prove why they are considered the best in the world and get back to that best by imposing more misery on Madrid in front of their own fans. Madrid on the other hand had just achieved their first victory over the Blaugrana side since the 2007/2008 season, that clear spring night where Barcelona had to line-up and applaud the newly crowned champions as they walked into their home stadium before thumping 4-1, and what sweet victory it was for the Merengues as they got to lift  trophy in front of their biggest rival, that event was followed by a total domination of football at that very same Mestalla Stadium only this time it was Valencia C.F.'s turn! Real decides to bring the bench along with players returning from injury included handing youth product Nacho Fernandez his first team debut, the result was a master class of attack led by hat-trick hero Gonzalo Higuain, brace scorer Kaka and the back-to-his-best Karim Benzema, the result? A convincing 6 - 3 mouthwatering victory that had fans thinking one thing: With all these factors in play, Wednesday's clasico match will be one of the greatest in recent times!

The previous Clasico Champions League semi-final was dubbed the game of the century, held during the 2001/2002 season it was a masterpiece of class where in the first leg at Camp Nou Zidane and Steve McManaman gave Madrid 2 - 0 lead to take back home, where one of Raul's most beautiful strikes and an Helguera own goal saw the whites move onto the final at Hampden Park, Glasgow where Madrid picked up their ninth and final-to-date Champions League title. Arguably both teams have immensely improve since then and are without question not only the best teams in Spain but in the world at the moment, it had all the ingredients to be a Clash of Titans, a universal explosion of football and it's exactly what all of us expected!

For long periods at a time I thought I was watching a movie about the olympic diving competition! Red, blue and yellow shirts went down easier than Nicki Minaj's clothing... It was as if Michael Phelps decided to go Hollywood! Come to think of it, Bayern Munich is no longer FC Hollywood that well deserved title shall now belong to the theatrical skills of the current La Liga champions. Jose Mourinho's team seemed on it's way to at the very least another scoreless draw, which in no means would be a feat as Madrid would have prevented Barcelona from taking crucial away goals to the return leg where Madrid could have taken advantage of that to create chances of away goals themselves, however the entire time Barcelona put forward what was without a doubt their key tactics: Provoke to get someone sent off.

Sergio Busquets of FC Barcelona play acts a foul and is caught faking by the camera

Barcelona received their wish at the 61st minute when, the now widely watched, challenge of Pepe on Dani Alves earned him a red card. TV footage shows clearly that Pepe although nearly hit Alves DID NOT even grace his leg (http://bit.ly/m1fP7x). Alves of course made a nice buffet of Pepe's action and went down as if a sniper got the perfect shot in! Alves abandoned the pitch on a stretcher and Pepe got his early shower, BUT WAIT! Get the... What? Am I seeing this right? Alves is coming back onto the field a mere 2 minutes after he rolled around like Pepe lit him on fire?! It certainly was a surprise to the worldwide footballing community including Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand who right away mentioned via his twitter "If u ever see me go off on a stretcher then run back on to play i give every1 on here the green light to hit me with a #2footedtackle !" (@rioferdy5).

The game was tense from the get go anyways, with Mourinho stating in a pre-game press conference that Guardiola belongs to a new group of managers that complaint about referees who get decisions right (Referring to Pedro's goal correctly disallowed for offside), to which the Catalan tactician responded harshly claiming Jose was the "F***cking king of mind games". War had begun, starting with words, followed by an atrocious game of football. Living in Canada unless you have satellite or digital cable you will hear Hockey this or that, and being a sport where fighting is part of the action it is completely difficult to convinced anyone football is a man's sport when Barcelona play marshmallow soft.

Real Madrid's Pepe gets sent off after Dani Alves' acting

As I have admitted before Barcelona is without a doubt competing to be one of the greatest teams in the history of the sport along with the 1970 World Cup Winning Brazil Team, The "Quinta de Buitre" Real Madrid team of the late 80's, the Cruyff influenced Ajax team of the early 70's and the Milan of the 80's and 90's. However a team that is currently regarded as having immense class, near flawless tactics and "perfect football" should find no need to impose such disgusting play against any team. Madridistas should feel proud that the big boys feel this should be punished and have decided to report such atrocious behaviour to UEFA's conduct board. Let's just hope they bring justice for once, stop favouring Barcelona and make justice for Madrid once and for all!