Barcelona are still the team to beat

Lionel Messi once again proved that he is the player to beat them all with two goals, including a very late winner, which saw Barcelona take the Spanish Super Cup 5-4 on aggregate over bitter rivals Real Madrid. The first leg in the Bernabeu ended 2-2 and with minutes left on the clock in the Camp Nou, it was 2-2 on the night, 4-4 on aggregate. Karim Benzema looked to have put the tie to extra-time but once again, up popped Lionel Messi with a volley to give Barca the first trophy of the new season.

Cesc already a winner

It was a pleasing debut for Cesc Fabregas who came off the bench late on and this win means that he alrady won more at Barcelona than he managed with Arsenal in the past five years. It was another stormy night in Spain between these two clubs though with one red card being dished out to Marcelo from Real before Villa of Barca and Ozil, who had both been subbed, were also sent off!

Pep Guardiola who was initially saying nothing in the feud between the two teams but eventually let rip during the marathon of games in April had this to say last night;
“The images will speak for themselves. This is going to end up badly if it isn’t stopped soon”.

Jose needs to find a winning formula

The only problem with that opinion is that you get the feeling that Jose Mourinho would be quite happy for the atmosphere of these games to continue. For all that Real Madrid are a tremendous team, Jose has probably worked out that unless Barcelona can be knocked off their stride or taken out of their comfortable football environment, Madrid will not topple them in the immediate to near future. When you consider the amount of talent that Mourinho has at his disposal, this is a rather damning opinion but it says a lot about the majesty of Barcelona.

If Real Madrid want to edge ahead of Barca, they require the games to be scrappy and perhaps with Barcelona losing their calm composure. Anything which can minimise the advantage that Barca have over their rivals has to be of benefit to Jose and he knows how to win tournaments by any means necessary. Mourinho, before the Champions League success at Porto, led them to a Uefa Cup final victory in Seville in 2003. Porto were a great team but their triumph owed a lot to diving and cheating, which for many people took the edge of their achievements. Mourinho would be more than happy if Madrid were to topple Barcelona by any means necessary this season.

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