The football wasn’t attractive, the play-acting was ugly and the hounding of the referee was awful, but one thing shone through in Barcelona’s 2-0 UEFA Champions League semi-final first-leg win at Real Madrid and it was Lionel Messi’s individual brilliance.
For those of us who had anticipated something special from Wednesday’s clash, for over an hour we were greatly disappointed.
Jose Mourinho’s tactics to sit back with men behind the ball, allow Barcelona to control possession, and wait for a mistake was awful on the eye.
But despite the fact Real were inviting Barca on, the Catalans couldn’t capitalise. That in itself was also rather frustrating.
It wasn’t through goalkeeping brilliance which denied Barca, but rather their only inability to get it together.
The half-time scuffle between rival camps was ugly too with Barca’s back-up keeper Jose Manuel Pinto sent off for his part in an unnecessary incident.
Back to the football and all in all, for 60 minutes it was a dour contest which was a gross disappointment.
Then, suddenly, the action burst to life.
Pepe’s high tackle on Daniel Alves wasn’t a great challenge but it wasn’t a red card. But try telling that to Barca’s protesting players who finally were ‘rewarded’ for their hounding of the referee by seeing their harshly reduced to 10 men for the fourth consecutive El Clasico.
Mourinho was right to feel aggrieved. He wasn’t right to carry on the way he did about it. He too was sent to the stands and while he says he didn’t say anything to the officials, he definitely gestured crudely and deserved to be dismissed.
Back to the football, though, and Barca’s numerical advantage did offer the visitors something.
It probably wasn’t the outright turning point of the game, but it offered their game more space simply due to their defensive-minded opponents having a man less.
The introduction of Ibrahim Afellay had an effect too, his ability to get past Marcelo on the right flank enabled Lionel Messi to open the scoring on 76 minutes.
The Argentine’s finish looked simple but at such pace it never is. More impressive, though, was his movement to find the position to finish off Afellay’s sharp work.
Still, with Barcelona enjoying a 1-0 lead late in the contest at the Santiago Bernabeu it wasn’t tie over.
But Messi’s individual brilliance would shine through again, when produced a wondrous goal to seal the victory and, at least according to Mourinho, their passage into the final.
The goal arrived on 87 minutes with the FIFA World Player of the Year outmuscling and outpacing Lassana Diarra in the ball in midfield, before racing past Raul Albiol and through the heart of the Real defence before shooting beyond the desperate Sergio Ramos and Iker Casillas.
It was sheer individual brilliance and finally there some genuine football to talk about after a game shrouded in controversy.
Yep, it was a messy game, but it was actually Messi’s game.
He didn’t play his best for 70-odd minutes, but when it mattered the world’s best player showed he is the world’s best player for a reason. Brilliant.