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Barcelona tops Real Madrid with late Messi goal to win Spanish SuperCopa

Barca (Reuters Pictures)

If early returns are any indication, the already-must-see Barcelona-Real Madrid rivalry might be reaching a new peak in 2011-2012.

Barcelona captured the SuperCopa after a 3-2 victory in Wednesday's second leg (5-4 on aggregate), with Lionel Messi scoring two goals, including a late match-winner, in a thrilling preamble to the Spanish regular season.

Barcelona twice took one-goal leads, but Real Madrid equalized off two corner kicks that weren't cleared, with Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema finding the back of the net. Benzema's 82nd-minute finish pulled the two-legged SuperCopa even on a 4-4 aggregate, but Messi saved his best for last to begin his season where he left off last year.

New signing Cesc Fabregas had a hand in setting up the winner, playing a ball to Messi, who touched it wide to Adriano. His cross was played back to an in-stride Messi in the center of the box, where the Argentine superstar finished to deliver another piece of silverware back to Camp Nou.

The end of the game was marred by a brawl following Marcelo's red-card inducing challenge on Fabregas, and Madrid manager Jose Mourinho appeared to poke a Barcelona assistant in the eye during the action. 

Highlights from the match (and the brawl) are after the jump:

BARCELONA 3, REAL MADRID 2

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LPXYTLRsgY]

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEH9BmYvz0o]

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What did you think of the match? Do you see Real Madrid dethroning Barcelona as La Liga champions, or do you see Barcelona coasting to another title?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Spencer, if you follow Spanish soccer, you should know that Xavi and Castillas are close friends, they roomed together while playing for youth national team. Macherano and Higuain played together for Argentina and I wouldn’t be surprized if they were on friendly terms. Puyol and Pique are teammates. I cannot believe that you are blasting the players who were trying to calm others down and stop the brawl from escalating.

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  2. Kaka is 100%, a class act. Genuinely spiritual, reverent, down to earth, a St. Nice Guy, one of the hardest working mid-fielders on the planet. You are right he belongs on a team that appreciates his talents and doesn’t engage in the thuggery that Real has sunk to. Mourinho is a genuine horses a**, and should be suspended for at least 5 games. WTF, that kind of behavior just doesn’t belong in organized football at this level, it’s pathetic.

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  3. Kaka needs to get out of RM. He’s too good for his bench role, injuries aside, and judging by the footage he’s clearly above the childish behavior of his teammates.

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  4. I don’t dislike either team inherently, in spite of the unprofessional behavior. Honestly, I wish they hadn’t gone about the brawl like such pansies.

    Clearly, though, I’m not alone in thinking there are other exciting aspects to the sport than watching the same three teams (I’ll lump in Man U) buy all the best players in the world and win everything. I stand by my previous post. I would much rather see a deep run by an underdog and any of the many other excellent teams in Europe win the UCL.

    Maybe it takes a non-European who’s only been following European soccer for 5 years, but bandwagoning isn’t as cool as people think it is.

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  5. I’m neither a Barca nor a Real Madrid supporter, but I do watch Barca play a lot, and I find the assertion that they are divers completely laughable. Yes, that one Barca-Madrid game last year was a spectacular joke of a game, and there was a lot of diving and chippy behavior from both teams. But normally Barca doesn’t HAVE to dive because their style and superior technical ability forces most teams to foul them constantly to in order to stop them. Furthermore, I’ve never seen a great player dive LESS than Messi. In fact, he seems to take it as a point of pride to stay on his feet after the bump in order to get a shot off. He basically NEVER dives.

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  6. A player from one team shouldn’t try to calm down one from the other. Nothing is worse than to have one player in a rivalry game try to calm the other teams player down. It only makes it worse. For example if you were in a fight you’d want your friend to stop you, if someone you didn’t like tried to stop you you’d just probably deck them for getting in your way.

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  7. Yes Madrid plays a very physical style and the ref should do his job and hand out the needed cards, but do you think it helps that everytime a Barce player goes down they grab their face even though they weren’t touched there. Example Pepe fouled and grabbed Pique by the neck but he grabs his face for a more dramatic effect. Every time the ref calls a foul and a barce player grabs their face the whole Barce squad rushes to their aid instead of letting the ref do his job. Yes I understand Madrid is very physical, but the physicality is no different than you witness every week in the EPL. The only difference is how the other team reacts to the foul. And Ronaldo stayed out of it, because he knew Marcello did something stupid and deserved the red car.

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  8. What you don’t seem to understand is that Barça only does that when playing madriz. Why? Well when madriz plays rough as hell as a tactic barça’s tactic is to counter that by making sure they pay for their thuggery. How? By asking for every foul wether its by staying down or going after the ref. Its working.

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  9. Agreed. Though I have to say that honestly, these teams HATE each other, and it just might be useless to complain about all the diving/hacking/fighting, because in a rivalry of this magnitude it may always be there to an extent. So I just choose to focus on what I am actually watching for: exciting soccer. Which, despite the diving/hacking/fighting, seems to also be a part of the Clasico.

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  10. che,boludo y cuantos pases de gol messi dio en la copa america que ni tevez,ni dimaria,ni lavezzi, y ni si quiera higuain la meterion??!! todo no lo pude hacer solo pero lo que pasa es que los argentinos somos muy bocon y con mucha evidia. si vos como argentino no te das cuenta que messi es el mejor del mundo es tambien por las mismas razones…….

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  11. I wouldn’t pray for arguably the two best teams in the world crashing out of the CL. As much as you might dislike them or the fighting they always seem to end up engaging in, they still play beautiful and exciting soccer, and that’s what I want to watch.

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  12. Bingo. Football is a team game. Argentina Messi suffers in comparison to Barca Messi because Argentina doesn’t have Xavi or Iniesta (or Dani Alves). Think of him as the best wide receiver in the world playing with one mediocre quarterback on one hand and with Joe Montana and Tom Brady on the other.

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  13. Barca-RM is like watching what Ali vs. Tyson probably would have been. Two best of the best heavyweights ever battling it out with incredible skill, technical ability, power, determination, strategy, toughness and personal and professional hatred, mixed in with stagecraft, a smidgen of insanity, and an incrediblly high “you never know what’s going to happen” factor. Yes, the brutal challenges and sideline fights have no place in the game, but at least we know the players care.

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  14. to speak on the game, Madrid played very well again. much better than they have in the past against Barca. they got the two away goals they needed, but, once again, choked near the end and let Barca get the game winner. it does suck losing this trophy, but given the team has not played together as much as Barca, these past two games were very promising. Should be a great season!

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  15. you do realize it was the Barca players who left their bench? further, only Ozil and Gonzalo were really trying to lay into someone. Di Maria, Kaka, CR, Xabi, Sami, Ricardo, Pepe (surprisingly), and Benzema didn’t do anything but stand there and watch or try to calm people down. Ramos and Casillas were upset, but they were all verbal. The player who really started it was Marcelo, by tackling as reckless as that, and Pinto, who was shoving everyone he saw.

    Jose has not excuse though, that was childish. No excuse. The guy was just standing there. Maybe the camera didn’t catch him doing something, but still.

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  16. A delusion from what? Reality?

    I’ll agree to disagree. I’m neither a fan of Madrid or Barcelona. As a neutral, my perspective is both sides have been fueling this fire for some time. It’ll only get uglier. However, I will say form a tactical sense, these matches have been exciting.

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  17. Barcelona F**ked the “Kittens” again, Real Madrid should learn that Barca is on a differnet level right now and are a more cohesive team having played together for 5+ years……….

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  18. Great Point. Also, folks forget that for whatever reason no one who coaches Argentina seems to want to employ a proper # 10 to pull the strings (Riquelme or Pastore Anyone?) and without that Messi, Augero, Tevez, or whoever is up top won’t suceed.

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  19. Barcelonasnob

    Haters are gonna hate, but when their beloved are also at fault, people tend to look the other way. The scuffle is a product of both sides and is not at all a result of one side (Madrid). The street runs both ways, and Spanish football is being ruined by both Barcelona AND Madrid

    Reply

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