Real Madrid Vs. Barcelona 2011, El Clasico: Match Underway At The Santiago Bernabeu

Our first of four El Clasicos in seventeen days is underway at the Santiago Bernabeu, with Barcelona kicking us off in front of a packed stadium and hundreds of millions of fans watching on television. Jose Mourinho and Real Madrid are fielding an experimental shape, and we'll have to see how their 4-3-3 fares against Barcelona. Centre half Pepe has been moved into the midfield in order to contain Barcelona's myriad threats, but it'll take more than a tactical shift for Real Madrid to overturn that 5-0 result from earlier in the season.

This is going to be a fiesty affair, it seems - within twenty seconds Karim Benzema was whistled for a foul on Sergio Busquets - and that's always been a reasonable way of containing Barcelona's passing game in the past. Are Real just going to bully their guests into submission here? If that's the plan, Barcelona aren't going to go down quietly. Sergio Busquets avenging his early foul by taking out Pepe. Four fouls in the first two minutes, all in the middle third, basically sums it up so far.