Forget Lakers v Celtics, Yankees v Red Sox, Bears v. Packers. The best sports rivalry in the world is Real Madrid v Barca, hands down. To stoke these historic fires even further, these times had met twice in recent weeks prior to this match. In La Liga, Real Madrid earned a 1-1 draw lat with Barca, in the Copa Del Rey final, Real Madrid got an extra time goal from Ronaldo to take the trophy 1-0. Of course, then they proceeded to throw the trophy under a bus.
Anyway, we all had a lot to look forward to as this classic rivalry was renewed in a Champions League semifinal. Unfortunately, what we got was something we'd all rather forget. A match that could have been so beautiful turned out to be an ugly waste of time.
We kicked off, and that was about the only thing worth noting before half time. Messi had a decent shot on goal in the 25th minute, but St. Iker saved it. Then about the 40th minute, things got interesting for all the wrong reasons.
For several minutes before this, you could see the diving starting from both sides. The tension started to build and tempers started to flare. Both teams got yellows for tough challenges. Arbeola picked one up for Madrid in the 40th, and Alves for Barca in the 44th. All this did was heighten the tension further.
The half ended with a couple of shots on goal by Ronaldo, but both were saved. As we headed to the half with our 0-0 score, a scrum broke out in front of the tunnel. When coverage resumed for the second half, we found out that Pinto, Barca's backup keeper had gotten a red card for his part.
We all hoped that the second half would be more about football than the amateur theatrics, but it was not to be. Things started out a little better. In the 46th, Messi had a chance off a cross, but it was blocked. He had another chance a couple minutes later, but shot wide. Ronaldo took a shot for Madrid in the 50th but it was blocked at the defensive line.
Things started to get messy again in the 53rd. Ramos ran over Messi and received a yellow. That means he will miss the return leg next week. In the 57th, Mascherano got a yellow for Barca, and in the 61st, Pepe got a straight red for Madrid. Replay revealed hardly any contact on the play, and that Alves totally dived like a Wanker. Things devolved further with Barca players surrounding the ref and screaming at him, and then the Special One himself was kicked off the touchline for mouthing off to the officials. We were in football hell.
The only thing that could save the match was a goal. Fortunately for us, Messi was on the pitch, and he took over. In the 76th, he scored a tap in off of a cross to give Barca the lead and an all important away goal. In the 82nd he amazed everybody with, well I can't describe it. Go to youtube and watch it if you haven't seen it. It was classic, vintage Messi. He would not be denied. The match ended 0-2 to Barca.
It's hard to imagine how Real Madrid comes back from this. They gotta go to Camp Nou down two away goals, and they'll have two players suspended. You've gotta say though, this was an ugly match, and the red card to Pepe as absolute BS. You;d expect better play and refereeing from a match of this importance, but both were severly lacking unless your last name was Messi.
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