With both teams’ minds elsewhere, Real fielded a team studded with pricey rejects and reserves (like Kaka and Essien) but it was good enough to beat Barcelona 2-1 on merit. Benzema sped into the box to open for Real, Messi notched a glorious equaliser, but it was a late Sergio Ramos headed goal that took the 3 points after Ronaldo had come on to inject some energy into a lethargic match.
Barcelona claimed for a penalty in the dying minutes, when Alexis appeared to dive over a semi-challenge from Ramos. Valdez celebrated what will probably be his last “Clasico” by being sent off after the final whistle for insulting the referee.
Barcelona’s malaise continues. Barça fans will wonder why caretaker Roura waited till the 86th minute at 1-2 down to add width with Tello. But these matches may be less relevant to Real’s chances against Man Utd than they think. Nicky Donaldson @spanishkicks and James Bogie @sktickets were commentweeting and casting their mental bilge live from a packed Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid. You can follow their report below.
El Clasico again – Real Madrid v Barcelona, Saturday 2nd March, 1600 by Karen Halligan.
Nicky Donaldson and James Bogie are on the ground in Madrid after a week of careful build-up that has involved several Argentine steakhouses (Bife de chorizo 500g – not a hoof or polo-stick in sight), pacharan for digestion, Manhattans at Malasaña’s Dry Bar and beer (and rum) at Jose Alfredo on Calle de Silva. Various scrapes with the less-than-savoury night-life fauna on the Gran Via backstreets at well after 3 am have added critical insights during our team’s build-up.
J and N have however “steered” well clear of current Madrid traffic black-spots: the posh, soulless (and therefore entirely appropriate) gated communities like Pozuelo de Alarcon that serve the current crop of Madrid football galacto-monsters as both residences and test-driving facilities. It appears that Kazzer Benzema’s court case will rule him out of the France v Spain 2014 World Cup qualifier ! Or will Kazzer be let off scot-free as the Istanbullu bobbies did with the loveable Guti ? Reeeeetch!!!
This attention to things nocturnal has helped our punchy twittmeisters to tip-toe carefully 
around the pot-holes of propaganda, dross and hype circulating around the Madrid football press this week, after Real’s 1-3 victory in The Camp Nou on Tuesday. As Spain’s economy slithers towards an end to its crisis, gaining the world’s confidence at the rate of about about one basis point per month, Chairman Florentino Perez’s junk bonds have been re-rated after a triple A showing in the Cup semi-final. What a difference a King makes! But isn’t la Copa del Rey to football what Monopoly is to Finance ? Whether you regard the silver-haired José Mourinho as standard, moody or just poor, the word on the streets is that RM are back. Barça are the king’s new clothes, prodded by little José’s finger, and exposed to Crissy R’s smug wink after raising a pair of light blue Tom Ford shades. Raaaaalphhh…..
Messi was “non existent” at the Camp Nou (let’s forget two near-goals to Lopez’s right post). Sir Alex was watching, chomping gum and peering through the Catalan freezing fog, and sent dashing back to Lancashire on EasyJet 4759 with a message: how to stop the might of Madrid ? And all of this without…Kaka! Yes, Kackers had seemed finally to be “back” after Madrid’s last Liga escape away to Deportivo, awakening los merengues from a Galician nightmare…for the gallant and God-fearing Brazilian knight, a three-year wait had ended, perhaps. But Ricardo seems to have been forgotten again (thank God). And the clamour for Laudrup to replace Mourinho may also have abated.
The crisis at FC Barcelona has sent chairman Rosello jetting off to see Tito Vianova in New York: should they play Tello from the start ? Why is Villa not back ? Why is Alexis so appalling ? Neymar ? Bale ? A new goally for next season ? Why did we only buy Song for this season ? Is Pujol past it ? Does Messi have a cold ? A new stadium ? AC Milan, oh christ !!!!!!!! Xavi has a forearm fracture that will probably rule him out of both this Clasico and the AC Milan Champions match.
You couldn’t have it more gripping, and you couldn’t have more drivel in the papers. If you can make it to Madrid for the match, buy your tickets for El Clasico here. Failing that, follow our tweetmeisters for a live match feed with scores and min-by-min punchy commentweets. And feel free to tweet in to us with your questions or reactions. Send a twitter message to our reporters on @spanishkicks or @sktickets.
To join in the lively debate on subjects of specific interests with other tweeternauts, label your subject using these hashtags:
- Tickets for the match: #elclasicotickets
- The current state of FC Barcelona: #messiisrubbish
- Jose Mourinho: #fairgroundbarker
- Entertainment, bars, clubs in Madrid before or after the match: #madridbarsandclubs
- How to get to the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium: #bernabeustadium
El Clasico – how it happened – tweet by tweet
| SKTickets | Dear Tweeterlings,This is James Bogie in Madrid welcome to #el lasico Nicky and I will be commentweeting on the big match later |
| SKTickets | Real Madrid v Barcelona 1600 today #bernabeustadium #fairgroundbarker |
| SKTickets | I am predicting a 0-0 draw today. |
| SKTickets | Nicky and I would like to dedicate this teetcast to #muslumbaba who lies in a coma. A great Turkish singer. * |
| SpanishKicks | Sitting in a street terrace in chilly #Madrid, having a couple of beers, amazingly happy to have a ticket for #Madrid-#Barça !! #Clasico |
| SpanishKicks | This is Nicky Donaldson for #SpanishKicks in #Madrid, warming up for what should be a real ding dong. My prediction for el #Clasico? Hmmm.. |
| SpanishKicks | The TV in this #Madrid bar is showing some pretty one-sided preview material, they seem confident of a home win! #elclasico |
| SpanishKicks | Rumours that #Ronaldo will not play today in #elclassico… There will be some disappointed fans but perhaps #Barça will welcome this news! |
| SKTickets | Fans of Madrid and Barcelona are gathering in the squares and fountains of madrid, it a courful spectacle |
| SKTickets | As usual we have met people from Lebanon, Oman and Dubai, Ukraine and Azerbaijan, they love #elclasico and book hotel+tickets packages |
| SKTickets | Tweeting out to Fraser Boyce and 21 Scots in Madrid for el clasico and playing a football match of their own tomorrow also a classic |
| SKTickets | The cry of #viscaelbarça is being heard all over madrid and madrid |
| SKTickets | that puts him up there with guti, roberto carlos and kar benzema, other madrid Berks |
| SKTickets | The thousands of fans rolling up to the bernabeu to see messi take on ronaldo may be disappointed as it appears ronaldo will not play today |
| SKTickets | Outside the stadium I can see that face value is up to 10 times the price tickets are changing hands for |
| SKTickets | Rangers fans who remember John Greig and Colin Stein would have got quite nostalgic watching Real Madrid last Tuesday at Camp Nou |
| SKTickets | I cant see Ronaldo sitting the whole game out, he’ll be itching to have a go at Mascherano |
| SpanishKicks | “@SKTickets: Madrid fans know that if Benzema comes off the bench, he’ll really put his foot on the gas” Thanks James |
| SKTickets | He has taken that role on from Guti.. |
| SpanishKicks | Just taking my seat here in #Bernabeu, #RealMadrid fans making a lot of noise, they expect a big result today. A lot of pride on the line |
| SpanishKicks | #RealMadrid lineup: Diego López, Varane, Pepe, Sergio Ramos, Coentrão, Kaká, Benzema, Essien, Modric, Callejón and Morata |
| SpanishKicks | Barça lineup: Valdés, Alves, Piqué, Mascherano, Jordi Alba, Busquets, Thiago, Iniesta, Villa, Messi and Pedro |
| SpanishKicks | Okay… I have to make a prediction and it’s gonna be an away win #Barça to win by the odd goal. You heard it here first! |
| SKTickets | Maybe the only statistic that matters regarding this weeks clasicos is that Madrid could go 19 points behind Barcelona after this match |
| SKTickets | …madrid will have a job living that one down no matter how many Kings New Cups they win |
| SpanishKicks | There’s about a hundred or so #Barça fans trying to make themselves heard over the #Madrid din… Catalans don’t do away games apparantly… |
| thespainevent | @SpanishKicks Nick, do you think those are the hard knock Barsa fans who throw flares and legs of ham ? Or are kindly butifarra munchers? |
| SpanishKicks | Just a couple of minutes till kick off, many thanks to #SpanishKicks for getting me this ticket, not a bad seat too! #realmadrid #Barça |
| SpanishKicks | 5 minutes in, stadium is buzzing, every time a #Barça player gets near the ball the whistles and jeers are deafening! |
| SpanishKicks | Stadium erupts! 1-0 #Madrid! |
| SKTickets | That reminds me of the 2-6 game 5 years ago Rm scored first then as well… |
| SpanishKicks | Nobody puts #Barça in the corner! tiki-taki is on! |
| SpanishKicks | Gooooolll! #Messi equalises! 1-1 !! |
| SpanishKicks | Messi is now level with Di Stefano as all time highest scorer in Clasico – hard to see Di S nothcing many more though |
| SpanishKicks | And Messi may not be finished…. |
| SpanishKicks | #pepe goes down like a sack of tatties, give the man an oscar! 1-1 in #Bernabeu |
| SpanishKicks | #Messi so close there, you can’t give him an inch of space! Both teams passing very quickly 1-1 |
| SpanishKicks | This Ref is a legend! Players fear him and fans love to hate him, love the way he’s strutting around the pitch! 1-1 |
| SpanishKicks | #pepe on the ground once again, hard to like that guy! Still 1-1 here, let’s have a goal before half-time, #Barça! |
| SpanishKicks | Pip pip! First half over, #Madrid fans speculating that #Ronaldo will come on Messiah-style and give them the winner |
| SpanishKicks | HALF TIME: 1 – 1 – Benzema and Messi the scorers |
| SpanishKicks | Now… Where can you get a bit of half-time grub around here? #pieandbovril |
| SpanishKicks | Decent bit of butifarra here in Bernabeu! Not bad at all. 2nd half here we go… 1-1 |
| SKTickets | Nick, I sense Barca will take conttol of the game in the second half, I just hope we see Cristiano (Tello I mean) |
| SpanishKicks | @SKTickets yep I agree, Iniesta will establish midfield control. #pepe will lose the head before too long |
| SKTickets | Barcelona need to open up the wings more, and that man Tello will do it, that will free up space for Iniesta and messi |
| SpanishKicks | 46′ The game has restarted |
| SKTickets | ’53 That was Barsa’s best move for 4 weeks |
| SKTickets | That was good skill from Jacqueline Modric, the header was messed up by Morata |
| SKTickets | 58′ Mourinho is sending on reinforcements…and Khedira… |
| SKTickets | Golden boy Varane’s last minute tackle foild Villa, Ronaldo and Khedira are on to sharpen up the Madrid play.. |
| SpanishKicks | #yellow for ramos. 1-1 |
| SpanishKicks | And yellow for #Alba. The clásico calls for cards |
| SpanishKicks | 68% #possession. But still the boys are fighting 1-1 |
| SpanishKicks | #Valdes saves the efforts of #ronaldo and keeps 1-1 realistic |
| SpanishKicks | #handmovement competition is in its final heats now. Time to vote for the best #coach |
| SpanishKicks | 83′ GOAL! Sergio Ramos, in fact PURE Sergio Ramos |
| SpanishKicks | The Andaluz bad boy rises pretty much unbothered by 5 Barça defenders to power his header past Valdes from a corner |
| SpanishKicks | Mou wont be happy with that goal: he hates Ramos |
| SpanishKicks | #heels required for the barca defense? 2-1 to the madrileños |
| SpanishKicks | The #silverfox Mourinho almost guides #pepe and #ronaldo into the net |
| SKTickets | Altercation next to me on 2nd tier side view: a Ukranian fatty tries to light a Montecristo No 2 and is all but wrestled to the ground |
| SKTickets | by stewards |
| SpanishKicks | Another #yellow. This time for Alves, and the game is almost up. 2-1 will leave a bitter taste for every #barcelona fan |
| SpanishKicks | Biggest #penalty shout of the season? #ramos stops #sanchez in the box and the ref gives nothing! |
| SpanishKicks | The game has finished and cards are still flying! In the style of true #civil relations, it’s not over yet. |
| SpanishKicks | FULL TIME: 2 – 1: the game ends in the classic clasico full-time brawl, what a great advert |
| SpanishKicks | Don’t look Ethel!!! Valdez idiotically attacking the ref – all over what James Bogie and I thought a pretty bog-standard Alexis dive |
| SpanishKicks | Get over it Vicky boy! |
| SpanishKicks | We are leaving the Bernabeu after a pretty average match – hoping to get some bourbon and coke down in Chueca |
| SpanishKicks | Thanks to Laura Halligan and the Spanish Kicks team for our tickets for Real Madrid |
| SpanishKicks | Remember you can buy tickets for Barcelona v AC Milan here at www.spanishkicks.com |
| * Sadly, Muslum Baba died the morning after the match on Sunday 3rd March, 2013. |
