Barcelona is a city known for artistic architecture, inspired by Gaudi, Picasso and Dali. Madrid is a city renowned for it's financial and commercial strength. And never have the two principal football teams of the cities been more accurately represented than in the present day. Barcelona set the benchmark globally, for the beautifully artistic football they produce, whereas Real Madrid have recently adopted a hard-line business approach to their football, with more graft than craft.
The game, nicknamed El Clásico, can be likened to no other, with it's historical, cultural and social heritage. Not even the Glaswegian derby can rival a match involving a team from Spain's capital, voted the best team of last century, and a team hailing from the alternative city. The passion of the encounter had even rubbed off on Arjen Robben, as the Dutchman was seen cheerleading the Madrid faithful within the first two minutes, upon winning a corner for the home side.
The amount of stars on show is simply frightening, but a rather encouraging fact for the purist is that five of the Barcelona starting eleven were from Catalonia. Real Madrid, on the other hand, consist of a lot more foreigners, but it was the Spanish-born Ramos who would play a part in the opening goal. He received the ball of Diarra, skipped past Eric Abidal and fired a terrific cross into the Barcelona penalty area. Higuain had evaded the defence, to accurately header beyond Valdes in the visitors' goal.
Barcelona are known and revered world-wide for their craft and artistic approach to football, but they showed they are not short of fighting spirit. Thierry Henry, who had been playing cat-and-mouse with the Madrid backline for the opening twenty minutes, started to roll back the years to his Arsenal days. First, he left Ramos for dead on the wing, cruising past him with ease, before reaching the Madrid box and flicking towards Eto'o at the back post. He could not apply the finishing touch to Henry's effort, to provide the perfect response to Higuain's opener.
However, Henry evaded the offside trap on the 18th minute, getting on the end of Messi's beautifully-weighted chip and sliding past Iker Casillas comfortably. His calm jog towards the Barcelona bench betrayed the energy he was exerting in the first half.
El Clásico is one of the rare fixtures that never disappoints, and it was another sumptuous football feast, played more in the spirit of a basketball match. The end-to-end nature of the game brought another two goals before the half-time interval, and both went the way of the visitors. It was the Frenchman, Henry, who would one again prove the bane of Madrid, when he glided past Cannavaro before he was cynically brought to the ground just outside the box. The Barca set piece routine, orchestrated by Xavi, was finished off by the skipper, Carles Puyol, who was criminally left with a free header nine yards from goal. As could be expected, he did not miss.
Real could have found their response just a few minutes later, when Higuain's quick feet evaded the on-rushing Barca defenders, and the ball bobbled through kindly to Robben. He, however, could not match the composure shown by Henry moments earlier and instead, he fired straight at the feet of Valdes.
Some clever play between the dutchman and Lassana Diarra was finished with a through ball to Higuain just seconds later. He powered onto the pass, and steamed past the leggy Abidal, before firing the ball clean across the goal. Even though the ball evaded Raul in the six yard box, Alves met it with his foot just a yard from goal, but it cannoned into the unaware Casillas, who gratefully snatched the ball up at the second attempt.
Dani Alves was the centre of attention just two minutes later, as he left the Madrid midfield for dead, leaving a three-against-three situation. Ignoring Eto'o to his right, he flicked the ball to Messi on the other side, who was left to pit his wits against Casillas. However, ignoring Eto'o on the far side of the box, he fired straight at the Spanish number one, who punched the ball away.
The Argentinian maestro could have scored just before the half hour mark, also, when a passing masterclass between him and Xavi was overplay of the highest order. Messi eventually decided to shoot from the penalty spot, after Xavi's assist had left Casillas stranded, but it would be the Spaniard who foiled Barcelona again, diving back across goal and pouncing on the ball.
But the Argentinian eventually got his goal, when Xavi caught Lassana Diarra in possession in his own half. The ball bobbled through to Messi, and Cannavaro tried to get back whilst covering the on-rushing Xavi, but it proved to much for the former World Player of the Year, and Messi simply tapped the ball past the best goalkeeper in the world and into the Madrid net. The tug of war with the La Liga title was strongly pulled towards Catalonia with the goal, and the 80,000-plus crowd packed into the Bernabeu knew it.
The Madrileños were given a kiss of life by Sergio Ramos on the 56th minute. The Spaniard was left unmarked by shambolic defending and met Robben's astounding delivery to leave Casillas no chance. Ramos, never short of flamboyance and passion, celebrated with passion and complete virulence, as he had brought the momentum back in Madrid's favour, or so he thought.
Despite not being able to provide the perfect response in the first half, Henry put 4-2 ahead just two minutes after Ramos' header. Xavi's beautiful through ball tempted Casillas out of the Madrid goal, but the Frenchman won the race, reaching the ball first to tap into the net from all of thirty yards. From this point forward, it was not a contest.
Real, like they did against Liverpool, lacked conviction and passion in the biggest match of their season, as too many players went missing and the best team of the 20th century looked completely toothless. For Barcelona, it was the complete opposite; all of their big players came to the fore on the big stage as the Catalonians looked paralysingly potent in attack. The opposition was not provided by some rookies; this was a Madrid side littered with stars and littered with money.
However, such was Guardiola's comfort and confidence, he brought off the man of the match on the hour mark. Just before Henry left the field, Messi would have a chance to get his second of the match. Alves and Eto'o combined beautifully on the edge of the box and it was the Spaniard who had a free run at goal. He picked out the unstoppable Messi on the penalty spot, who took his eyes of the ball, as he sliced it wide of the target.
And it was Lionel Messi who would provide the main threat for Madrid again, with his inch-perfect through ball to Iniesta. He could have given Barcelona a three goal lead, but forever the flag-carriers of overplay, it was never that simple. Instead, he decided to take a few more touches, but was clumsily bundled over by Lassana Diarra in the box. The Barca players appealed, but it was in vain, as the referee, maybe scared of embarrassing Madrid in their own stadium, waved away the claims.
Messi was proving just what a player he was, and was single-handedly destructing the Spanish champions in the second half. He finally got his second of the match when he combined with Xavi on the edge of the box. Xavi, showing typical Catalonian artistry, slid Messi through on goal. This time, their was no mercy, and no mistake from the Argentine, who sent Casillas the wrong way. 5-2 down at home to your biggest rivals, could things get any worse? Yes, they can.
Gerard Pique, once of Manchester United, capped off a terrific individual performance as he marauded into the Madrid box. He was first to react when the ball went loose, spinning on the ball and firing past Cannavaro and Casillas, who had both left the goal-line in anticipation of a cut-back.
The most frightening thing about Barcelona was that they took their foot off the pedal when they went 4-2 up. Players were rested for the Champions League tie with Chelsea, and the passing was slowed down to walking pace. The game was played at Barcelona's pace throughout and the general feeling was they could have stepped up the pace at any time. They did step up the pace after going 1-0 down, and scored two goals in four minutes. Who knows how many they could have got had they went all out for ninety minutes?
There would be one more chance for the visitors before the referee blew the final whistle. The substitute, Bojan, skipped past Heinze on the line and found his fellow countryman in the box. Messi had drifted infront of Diarra, but again did not make a sufficient contact with the ball. It is no exaggeration to suggest that Messi could have, and maybe should have, had five or six goals on the night.
Many are labelling this team as the best Barcelona team ever, trumping that of Maradona's and Cruyff's, and whilst that may be true, no-one can deny how good, and how traditional, Barcelona are. The five starting Catalonians has already been mentioned, but couple that with the fact that Barca do not throw massive amounts of money around, and it is easy to see why they are such a proud team. The last two Champions League competitions have shown that Barcelona are the only team in Europe that can rival the English monopoly, and they rival it without betraying their well-revered traditions. The artistic beauty seen in their passing and craft is only matched by that of the city itself, and that is how football should be. They are one of the few teams that maintain pride and identity in the modern game, and it is for these reasons that they deserve to be La Liga Champions.
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