Barcelona vs. Real Madrid: Madrid demolish Barca at the Camp Nou

At the root of all this is something that their exceptional performances have obscured. Barcelona have, essentially, not progressed in five years. Their transfer activity over the whole period has been nothing less than a disaster - only the fact they were starting from such a ludicrously high standard has kept them from wasting their prime years.

Then there was the deal for Zlatan Ibrahimovic. There was an arrogance in discarding him so recklessly, and we cannot be certain where it came from, but it must undoubtedly go down as one of the worst pieces of transfer business of all time. Having jettisoned Samuel Eto’o, an astonishing player with a rare combination of discipline, selflessness, and ruthless goalscoring ability, Zlatan Ibrahimovic replaced him at ludicrous expense. The experiment was abandoned after a year, at the cost of around 60 million Euros, as Barcelona refused to play to the strengths of their new signing and saw themselves stifled in Europe by a team that, gloriously, contained Eto’o and was led by their future nemesis in Mourinho.

If that goal didn’t end the match, the one Raphael Varane scored 11 minutes later certainly did. With Barcelona pressing forward even harder than normal, they were left susceptible to counter attacks, and Madrid won a corner on a surge forward. Mesut Özil took and found the head of Varane, who rose up above everyone and powered an absolutely spectacular header into the net, scoring his second goal in as many matches against the Blaugrana.

Barcelona attempted to claw their way back into the game with an array of attacking substitutions, but with Madrid three goals ahead and with an advantage on away goals, their incentive to take risks in attack was gone. Even so, Mourinho’s men continued to look dangerous on the counter for the rest of the match. They switched off late, allowing Jordi Alba to net a consolation goal for the Blaugrana in the 89th minute.

Raphael Varane has finished off the game for Real Madrid with a headed goal that was reminiscent of his goal in the first leg. Madrid now lead 3-0 and this one is all but over.

It didn’t help.

Update: Real Madrid 3-1 Barcelona, full time.

Madrid answered back on the counter in the 50th minute when Fábio Coentrão got an excellent chance from close range that was saved nicely by José Manuel Pinto.

Real Madrid have a lead in El Clasico, thanks to Cristiano Ronaldo.

There are six players, three on each team, that could miss out on the Copa del Rey Final if their team advances today and they pick-up a yellow card.

Pay attention to those players today to see if they adjust their play at all to try and avoid picking up a card. Easier said than done of course, especially in the pressure cooker-like environment of the El Clasico.

Barcelona have put out a first choice lineup with the only major change being José Manuel Pinto starting in goal over Víctor Valdés. Since this is a traditional thing with Pinto starting all the Copa del Rey matches, it’s not a surprise at all. In front of Pinto is the cast of usual suspects you’d expect to see from a healthy Barcelona side these days.

• Full coverage of El Clasico: Barca battle Madrid for Copa del Rey Final place

There’s a problem with that view, however. The thing is: of course he looks calm, in control, and like he has a master plan. It’s José Mourinho, for christ’s sake. He’d look like that if he was in his twenty-fifth year in a Turkish prison, because looking like you’ve got things under control is often more important than actually having a clue what to do.

This is even more the case in football management, where motivation and psychology are key - even Brian Clough wasn’t like that all of the time - he knew when to give someone a big hug and mug of Ovaltine as well, even if they’d just had a shocker. Another disciplinarian, Jock Wallace, may have threatened to kill Gary Lineker at half-time in a reserve game in which his team were winning 2-0 and Lineker had scored both goals. Of course he did. But the next game he probably told a keeper who’d thrown five goals into his own net that he was Yashin reincarnate.

The two sides drew 1-1 at the Bernabeu in the first leg, which has Barcelona sitting pretty. They are back at home, where all they need is a win of any kind to advance to the final and end their rivals last chance at domestic silverware.

Could Villa return to the starting XI and give Barcelona the edge they need to break through against Madrid and can Madrid keep their disastrous season from getting worse by avoiding elimination at the hands of their rivals? We’ll find out on Tuesday.

It’s fair to say that we’ve become conditioned to seeing Barcelona play the game at a ridiculous level that enables them to pick apart even the best teams in the world. We expect to see it every time they walk on the pitch, but recently we’ve not been getting that high performance level.

If Marcellus and Horatio were discussing the state of this Barcelona team, I think they might say something like this: Something is rotten in the state of Catalonia.