Messi vs Ronaldo in Barcelona 2-2 Real Madrid draw
Real Madrid played their best game against Barcelona in the Mourinho era as they held Barcelona to a 2-2 draw at Camp Nou, but were eliminated by a 4-3 aggregate and allowing the Catalans to go through to the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey.
After losing the first leg in Madrid 1-2, Real Madrid dominated a fantastic game that could have gone either way. José Mourinho did not come up with a surprise line-up against his main rival as he had done on their previous 10 encounters and most importantly, played good attacking football.
Pepe was taunted by the crowd during the whole game as the Barça fans screamed “Assassin, Assassin” every time he touched the ball. Real Madrid got off to a surprising good start and on three occasions could have opened the scorecard early on; twice by Higuain and once by Ozil whose great shot from outside the area hit the crossbar.
But even though the Merengues dominated most of the first half it was Barcelona who grabbed the lead on the 43rd minute by Pedro Rodriguez after getting a superb pass from the inevitable Messi. Just three minutes later a roar of delight erupted at Camp Nou as the Catalans made it 2-0 after a powerful shot by Dani Alves into the top corner with no chance of defense by Casillas.
Barcelona started the second half as the dominating team as you would probably expect after that lead. Mourinho then substituted Kaká and Higuaín by Callejón and Benzema on the 62nd minute, and soon after things changed.
With Real Madrid needing three goals to turn the game in their favor, Cristiano Ronaldo gave them some hope as he scored on the 68th minute after a superb through pass from Ozil. Ronaldo made a nice simulation, rounded keeper Pinto and scored from a relatively tight angle.
Real Madrid were level 2-2 only four minutes later after Xabi Alonso made a bad clearance that was intercepted by Benzema who then flicked the ball over Charles Puyol and shot to tie the game and set up an exciting game in the last 20 minutes of play.
Real Madrid tried hard to get another goal that would have qualified them, but Barcelona would not let that happen and once again Real Madrid and Jose Mourinho were unable to beat Pep Guardiola’s men, though this time, the Madridistas gave their rivals a run for their money and probably deserved to win.
Both teams will play this weekend for the Spanish League with Real receiving Real Zaragoza and Barcelona traveling to Villareal. Let’s see how the Bernabeu crowd reacts to Jose Mourinho who was booed by some of Los Blancos fans after their poor showing in the previous game against Barcelona.
