Real Madrid vs. Barcelona, 2013 El Clasico: An impressive, but controversial Merengues win

Here’s what Jordi was doing when he joined the celebration. It kind of look like a middle finger but I think it’s his index finger. The lack of clarity from the screen shot makes it difficult to tell for sure, but there’s more evidence to look at.

If you watch this video of the incident frame by frame, it seems to absolve Alba of any wrong doing.

Following that goal, one might have expected Madrid to bunker, but they did nothing of the sort. The Blaugrana continued to look absolutely shellshocked and took a battering from Madrid for the rest of the match. In the 88th minute, Cristiano Ronaldo smacked a free kick off the crossbar and Pepe missed his follow-up attempt just wide.

Barcelona could hardly get a hold of the ball in the dying minutes, but threatened in stoppage time on the counter. Sergio Ramos appeared to take down Adriano in the penalty area, but the referee waved play on. The Barcelona players were furious and surrounded the referee, but predictably, their claims came to nothing. Following the final whistle, Victor Valdes berated the official and was shown a red card in a fitting ending to the match.

The facial expressions and body language from Barcelona players after the goal was telling as nearly all off them looked stunned, frustrated and/or defeated. If they can’t find an equalizer in the final minutes of the match all the talk surrounding them at the moment is going to intensify, especially with Madrid leaving several key players out of this match.

For Madrid it’s a deserved lead after they’ve been generating the best chances over the past 30 minutes and in all honestly, they should be up more.

In the 66th minute Pedro earned a free kick in the midfield after being taken down by Álvaro Morata. It’s worth mentioning because in the post-foul fracas, one of Pedro’s teammates appeared to accidentally kick the ball into his head as he laid on the ground.

The match rolled on with some frantic back-and-forth play that mainly stayed in the midfield. Entertaining to watch on one level and a bit dull on another, mainly because we know what these teams are capable of.

For the third straight Clasico match, Varane is putting on a defensive show. Now we just have to see if he can score in his third straight derby as well.

The game slowed down after the Barcelona goal with both sides getting a bit sloppy with the ball. Sergio Ramos nearly gifted Pedro a chance after preventing the ball from going out for a corner but leaving it sitting in the his own penalty area for the Barca froward. Before Pedro could do anything though, Ramos recovered and took the ball off his foot with a well timed tackle.

Messi got a great chance in the 32nd minute with a close range shot from the center of the Madrid box. Fortunately for Madrid the shot was right at Lopez and he stopped it without issue.

Pepe was up to his usual antics in the 26th minute after taking a slight shot on his shin from Thiago. While there’s doubt it hurt, Pepe made the most of the contact staying on the ground for a bit, rubbing his leg, waving his arm in the air and forcing the match to come to grinding halt.

Things seems to have calmed about with 15 minutes left until halftime.

Lionel Messi has pulled Barcelona even and tied Alfredo Di Stefano for the Clasico all-time scoring record with his 18th goal in this fixture.

A minute later there was nothing anyone could do to stop Messi.

Karim Benzema has put Real Madrid in the lead early finishing off a great cross from Álvaro Morata.

Two minutes later Madrid were back after an interception in the midfield allowed Álvaro Morata to run down the left wing and send a splendid cross into the Barcelona area. Benzema blew past Mascherano and tapped the ball past Valdes to put Madrid up 1-0 early.

Another Clasico! Yay!

Jordi Roura should, and probably will, start most of his regular players since Barcelona don’t have any mid-week match during the coming week. In addition his team is on a horrible run of form and while several players could use a rest, they probably could use some more match time to try to work out some of their issues. That’s a fancy way of saying that we have no idea what kind of lineup we’ll see from Barca.

Barcelona is going to win La Liga. Real Madrid will qualify for the Champions League. That’s done and dusted so what is there to play for? Pride, sure, especially in a rivalry like this one, but that isn’t enough to make this the kind of Clasico we’ve come to expect.

Just look at Real Madrid for how little this match matters. They are probably going to look past this match and rest their players ahead of the second leg of their Champions League tie with Manchester United next week. Without the best players out there, and with nothing at stake, it is tough to get excited about this Clasico.

The hits just keep on coming for Barcelona. Today the team announced that midfielder Xavi Hernández will miss another 10 to 15 days after suffering a small tear in his right hamstring.

This injury and Barcelona’s poor recent form seems to lending credence to the idea that the Blaugrana players are getting worn down thanks to an incredibly busy schedule of club and country matches over the past few years.

For all the talk of El Clasico being the biggest club game in world football, there’s an uncomfortable truth for Saturday’s clash. Real Madrid will simply have to rest players ahead of facing Manchester United. There is no alternative - the Champions League is a far more winnable competition than La Liga at present, and United will have a much greater opportunity to rest players. Not only is their squad perfectly-built to allow them to do so, they are facing Norwich City, and hold a 12-point lead in the league. Combined with Real Madrid being behind on the tie in away goals, and needing to attack, fielding the same eleven on both days is simply not an option.

This is, then, not only why players like Luka Modric were signed, but also why José Mourinho was appointed. This is where a great manager can really make the difference - the eye-poking, suit-ruining, medal-throwing smokescreen is exactly that - his team requires no motivation against Barcelona or at Old Trafford. It’s in the minutiae of team selection where the battle will be won - and that’s precisely where Madrid have the upper hand, against Barcelona at least.

Instead, Jose Mourinho knew that his team’s goals needed to be shifted to accomplishing two key goals. Winning the Copa del Rey and winning the team’s 10th European title. Back on December 1st when he allowed Madrid fans to boo him, there were serious doubts that either of those goals could be accomplished given the team’s form. Now nearly three months later, things are looking much better on those fronts.

Madrid’s masterful elimination of Barcelona at the Camp Nou on Tuesday has the team in the Copa del Rey final. More importantly they are flying high ahead of their Champions League Round of 16 second leg match against Manchester United. Mourinho’s side performed so well against Barca that you’d be hard pressed to find anyone, other than hardcore United fans, who’s not thinking that Madrid will go into Old Trafford and get a result.