Barcelona wins ill-tempered Supercup by beating Real Madrid 3-2

It was a Barcelona-Real Madrid match that went on expected lines. The usual ingredients were all there; some superb play by Lionel Messi and in turn, Barcelona, some excellent catch-up by Real Madrid and what is now becoming a norm, an agitation between the players and the addition of the fuel by the team’s support staff to turn it into a brawl.

With the teams tied at two goals apiece and with around five minutes to go, it was a Messi whose goal won Barcelona the Spanish Supercup at the Camp Nou. Barcelona had earlier held Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu by a 2-2 scoreline as well and that meant that till before that Messi winner, the match was going to need a shootout.

As it turned out, Messi ensured that there was going to be no need of the tie-breaker as he shot past the hapless Real Madrid goal-keeper, Iker Casillas to win it for Barcelona in the 87th minute.

However, it all ended in a bad way. There was a scuffle which also saw Madrid boss Jose Mourinho smash his hand into Barcelona assistant coach Tito Vilanova’s face as the fans looked on for what was turning out to be something of a rule than an exception.

The issue began when Marcelo fouled the new-comer Cesc Fabregas and that led to a scuffle between the players in the highly ill-tempered battle. An angry Barcelona side protested and after an ensuing brawl, there were three red cards handed out; Marcelo and Mesut Ozil of Madrid and Barca’s David Villa, all been sent out.

Earlier, it was Messi who set up the first goal for Andrés Iniesta Luján in the 15th minute, before the equaliser came from Cristiano Ronaldo only five minutes later for Real Madrid. Messi brought his team in front once again just before the interval Karim Benzema smashed home the equaliser in the 82nd minute to push up the chances of a tie-breaker. It was Messi’s winner that saw Barca home.

This was manager Pep Guardiola’s 11th major trophy with the club, bettering the previous record that had been set by Johan Cruyff.

However, Guardiola did warn that incidents like the one at Nou Camp could end up in being something nasty alright, even as Real Madrid goal-keeper Iker Casillas accused the home side of throwing themselves to the ground.

Barcelona captain Xavi said, “You can be aggressive or over enthusiastic but Marcelo went in to hurt Cesc. It’s good that today justice has been done.”