[ 2011-04-28 ]

Messi scored twice in an ill-tempered Champions League semi-final

Barcelona ensure night of the long dives ends on a high note
Soaring beauty triumphed over ugliness in the end
last night through the dazzling feet of Lionel
Messi. Thanks to the brilliant, little maestro, we
were left with an everlasting memento of
football’s power to lift and inspire.

Without his 51st and 52nd goals of an incredible
season, the second a dribble of stunning quality,
we would have been left with the fights and the
dives, the two real red cards and the other
imaginary ones waved disgracefully by both teams
every couple of minutes.

Messi brought goals and joy and, for Barcelona,
almost certainly a deserved and cherished place in
the Champions League final at Wembley against, in
all likelihood, Manchester United.

And who is complaining? Only the bitter, twisted
figure of José Mourinho, who spent the last
half-an-hour of the game sat behind a fence,
sending notes to his bench, having been dismissed
for showing sarcasm in every possible way — a
wink, a thumbs-up and repeated applause —
following the dismissal of Pepe in the 61st
minute.

The straight red card for Pepe for a studs-up
challenge on Dani Alves was entirely justified
but, of course, Mourinho has to see a foul
conspiracy in every defeat.

It is too much for him to admit that Barcelona
were the better team or that it was a measure of
the Catalans’ excellence that he had to deploy a
brutish centre-half like Pepe in central midfield
in the first place. You would have been given
short odds on that big, bald figure being shown a
red card.


Real were entitled to their defensive, pragmatic
tactics, and they worked demonically hard to
shackle Barcelona last night, but there was only
one team who played a game the world had tuned in
to watch.

And the planet beyond Madrid will delight that
Barcelona, capable of such beautiful football,
managed to wriggle free of Real’s shackles even
if Pep Guardiola’s team brought shame on
themselves with their disgraceful feigning.

In that respect, Mourinho is entitled to complain
about Barcelona’s sanctimony. They have some of
the worst play-actors in the game with Pedro
Rodríguez and Sergio Busquets, who has a career
in Hollywood after football, the worst offenders.

They also had a man sent off, when José Pinto,
the reserve goalkeeper, was dismissed at half-time
for allegedly slapping Álvaro Arbeloa as a large
group of players clashed when they headed into the
tunnel for the interval. Police and stewards were
forced to dive in, as blows were exchanged.

If it was that sort of night, it was because
Mourinho wanted it to be from the moment he wound
up Guardiola the day before. He wanted combustion,
he wanted trouble, he wanted mayhem, he wanted
Barcelona rattled. He thought, wrongly as it
happened, that they would crack.

It was an evening of punches and shoves, kicks and
dives — when the stewards even had to intervene
in the press box at the end of a horribly
fractious evening to stop fans attacking a
reporter. All day it had been debated which of the
two managers could claim to have won the pre-match
verbals splattered over acres of Spanish
newspapers. Had cackling Mourinho rattled cool,
suave Guardiola?

Or was the applause given to Guardiola by his
players on his return to the team hotel after his
four-letter response a sign that he had fired up a
Barcelona team without one of its best players in
Andrés Iniesta, half a defence and perhaps a
little of its usual confidence after defeat to
Real in the Copa Del Rey?

Only one way of knowing, out on the field, and
Barcelona certainly did not play like a team cowed
or vulnerable, taking the game to Madrid
relentlessly in the first half.

Real again came to harass and harry. Their
formation might best be described as 7-3 given
that none of Xabi Alonso, Lassana Diarra and Pepe
had any other priority than to snap into Barcelona
like guard dogs who have spotted an intruder.

It was classic Mourinho, inspiring a creative
player like Alonso into a vigorous tackler just
like he had done converting Samuel Eto’o to a
shuttling winger at Inter Milan. Pretty? Not in
the slightest. This is him, his nature, his
style.

There was some football, too, though precious
little in a stadium that had buzzed with
anticipation at kick-off, with a giant white
banner beseeching the Real players: “We live for
you — so win for us”.

“El puto amo” the fans sung to Mourinho,
borrowing the phrase, “the f*****g boss” that
Guardiola had scathingly used the previous day.

The tension was high but the football mostly a
let-down for those who had, unrealistically,
believed that this might be an open game. At one
stage Messi had four white-shirted minders but he
could not be shackled forever. A wriggling run and
superb reverse pass to Xavi Hernández created the
best chance of the first half but his low shot was
alertly saved by Iker Casillas.

After the half-time punch-up, both sides came out
more revved up than ever, with Sergio Ramos
quickly into the book for a foul on Messi,
ensuring he will miss the second leg.

Real’s chances of holding Barcelona diminished
hugely when Pepe had to make his long walk.

Barcelona were on top and, in the 76th minute,
Ibrahim Afellay squared for Messi to earn reward
for a committed run by scoring at the near post.

The visiting team would have settled for that but
then Messi, with three minutes to go, embarked on
his long run straight through the heart of the
Real defence. The ball rolled gently into the net
and Barcelona, surely into the final.

“He’s only 23, and already the third highest
top scorer at Barcelona! It’s absolutely
incredible. That’s the beauty of our football
and the way we play,” Guardiola said.

Meanwhile, Mourinho was exploding into his
conspiratorial rant. He thinks the world wants
Barcelona into the final. It is not hard to see
why.

Source - The Times(UK)

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