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| Barcelona's French defender Eric Abidal (L) celebrates with Brazilian defender Dani Alves after scoring during the Spanish Cup "El clasico" football match Real Madrid vs Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid. Barca won 2-1. |
It was the third victory in twelve months for the Catalans in the stadium of their biggest rival.
Pep Guardiola is yet to lose in the Bernabeu in four seasons in charge and his team appear to have a psychological advantage over 'los blancos'.
Afterwards Guardiola was happy with the victory and looked towards the second leg.
"We played really well tonight, controlled the game and apart from their goal reduced Madrid to the one header from (Karim) Benzema, but because of their quality anything can happen next week so we'll go home and prepare for that and the league game at the weekend," he said.
Madrid coach Jose Mourinho was less satisfied.
"I did not expect to lose a goal to a dead ball as we did, we were winning 1-0 and at that stage it was a bad result for Barca, it was a bad goal to concede. Psycholgically it hurt us and Barca took control of the game from then on," he said.
"The tie is now difficult for us, it's still open, but difficult."
Mourinho surprised all with an unfamiliar side employing both Karim Benzema and Gonzalo Higuain in attack, while at the back playing the rarely used Hamit Altintop and Ricardo Carvalho who was playing his first game since September.
Both teams started very cautiously with Madrid happy to allow Barca possession in deep positions and when the first attack came on 11 minutes it was to bring the first goal of the evening.
Set free by Benzema, Ronaldo produced a stinging left footed drive from the left hand side of the penalty area that Jose Pinto, Barca's regular goalkeeper ahead of Victor Valdes in the Spanish Cup, could perhaps have dealt better with.
The game suddenly burst into life, Andres Iniesta brought a save from Iker Casillas with a long range shot on 13 minutes and three minutes later Cesc Fabregas found Alexis Sanchez in space only for the Chilean to head onto the bar with Casillas stranded.
At the other end Abidal had to make a last ditch block to stop Ronaldo reaching Benzema with the goal at his mercy, then Lionel Messi burst forward for Barca and forced a near post save from Casillas.
Iniesta should have tested Casillas on 30 minutes from close range after Sanchez played him into a great position.
By this stage Barcelona were possessing the ball in deeper positions and Madrid were counter attacking quickly on the break to make the game an open affair.
Barca were finally level three minutes into the second period when captain Puyol got free from his marker Pepe to head home a Xavi corner.
Iniesta went close again on 54 minutes after a quick exchange of passes with Xavi and two minutes later Benzema hit the post for Madrid when found with a sweeping right wing cross from Altintop.
By the hour mark Barca's short passing game was allowing them to control the tie and Mourinho made some changes introducing Jose Callejon and Mesut Ozil.
Pepe should have seen his second yellow card of the night for an off the ball stamp on the hand of a prostrate Messi on 69 minutes.
However it took more than the dark arts to keep down the irrepressible Argentinian and it was he that conjured up the pass on 77 minutes that found Abidal onside and with the time and space to prod the ball home to win the tie.
A familiar silence came down over the Santiago Bernabeu, the home fans had seen it all before and although Madrid tried sporadically for a way back into the game Barca rarely ceded them the ball.
dtinews.vn
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