FC Barcelona draws first blood in the Super Cup Clasico

FC Barcelona drew first blood in the Super Cup Clasico match against Real Madrid. The game ended 3 goals to 2 and sets the second leg up nicely for Barca although they still have a lot of work to do.

The match started off in typical Barca fashion but the first half was pretty scrappy with no goals. Barca always had the edge on this one as they stroked the ball around like they knew best. Real went in hard and the ref let a few loose challenges go unpunished in this first clasico match of the new season.

Messi had a few good chances and one really went begging as Alves knocked the ball over from the right hand side. Minutes later Messi found his left foot but sent his shot wide of the post as the ball flew past Iker Casillas to his right.

First half had lots of fouls and Barca dominated it pretty much. Real didn’t really look to be in the game as at one stage Barca had 70% of the ball possession.

The second half looked to follow suit but by minute 10 Real looked more poised than the first half as they started to move the ball around more freely. 11 minutes into the second half and Cristiano Ronaldo found the net with a header from a corner. Sergio Busquets failed to mark the portuguese star and gave Valdés no chance with a crashing header to his left.

A minute later and Barca struck back with a goal from Pedro who picked up on a Mascherano ball and found the back of the Real Madrid net. 13 minutes later and Messi was stepping up to take a penalty after Andres Iniesta was brought down by Sergio Ramos in the penalty area. The ref had a hard look before adjudging that the midfielder had been fouled. Messi made no mistake and struck the ball to Casillas’ left side.

Minute 33 saw some nice Barca moves in the centre of the field and Iniesta found Xavi with a pristine through ball which he put just out of reach of Casillas to his left. A great goal by Xavi and that made it 3-1 to Barca.

The match wasn’t over though as Di Maria found the mark after a mistake by Victor Valdes. Adriano passed the ball back to his keeper but Valdes couldn’t control it properly and Di Maria pounced like a cat. Valdes could have brought Di Maria down in the box but let the Argentine round him instead to plop the ball in the back of the net. Valdes made a hash of it but it didn’t matter.

The ref added 3 minutes of extra time but neither team were able to add more goals. The second leg of the Spanish Super Cup will be at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid with first blood to Barca.