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While much of the focus of late has been on the intriguing title battle in England, seemingly now heading the way of the defending champs, in Spain, there has been an equally thrilling race building over the past few months.
Just before Christmas, Barcelona, having just won the season’s first Clasico, appeared to have wrestled the title back from their major rival, Real.
Having already established a twelve point lead, with Madrid seemingly in disarray after Juande Ramos had taken over from Bernd Schuster on the eve of the match, you would have been dubbed mad if you thought Real would host Barca at the start of May and be only four points adrift, with a big sniff of the title.
Remarkably, Ramos, the man deemed surplus to requirements at White Hart Lane and hounded out of London, took Real on a run after that loss in the Nou Camp which saw them win 17 from 18 games (an astonishing 52 from 54 points) heading into this latest Super Clasico instalment.
Admittedly, Barca’s form hadn’t been two shabby over the same period (14 wins from 18 and goal-getting records galore being smashed by the likes of Eto’o, Messi and Henry), but the odd slip up, in comparison to Real’s near perfect undefeated run, meant the gap had narrowed by eight points ahead of this return bout.
Naturally, there were some very nervous Barca fans the world over, such is the mindset in following a team that too often plays bridesmaid. No doubt the nerves had been compounded by an inability to breach Hiddink’s yellow brick wall at home mid-week.
Suddenly, Pep Guardiola and his men were feeling the heat on two of their three fronts (they also play in the Copa Del Rey final against Athletic Bilbao this month), so Sunday morning’s game (our time) would provide some insight into their resolve.
It was nervous times early, but after conceding the first it was time to flick the switch, and what wonderful light illuminated when they did.
Soon Messi, Henry and Xavi were running the show, Xavi and Messi picking up the ball centrally, Henry toying with Sergio Ramos down the left, and Eto’o getting in behind Heinze on the other flank.
While we’re used to seeing Messi on the flank in the Champions League, possibly to keep him away from the traffic and physical battles in the middle, here he was deployed centrally, and he often picked up a spot in between the twin screeners (Diarra and Gago) and the central defenders (Cannavaro and Metzelder) to devastating effect.
Real had no answer, as Messi jinked and linked. His telepathic understanding with Xavi was something to behold, and had it not been for some outstanding work from the world’s premier keeper, Casillas, it might have been double figures, and that’s before the break.
On paper, Real can’t touch this Barca outfit. On the field, they couldn’t get within a mile.
All and sundry were rushing to write off Guardiola’s men after Chelsea managed to blunt them in the first leg of their UCL semi final. For mine, I felt Hiddink erred in not having a crack at Barca for at least a fifteen minute period.
Nil all isn’t bad, but an away goal would have provided a more compelling case to deem the Chelsea strategy a resounding success.
The thing is, at home, in the second leg, Chelsea might eventually have to come out a bit, and that will provide the likes of Messi, Xavi and Iniesta with exactly what they want, the space to toy with the Chelsea rearguard.
Hiddink’s best bet, you sense, might be to sit back and wait, for set pieces and maybe even for penalties, for there is little doubt that an open game would benefit the visitors, as Real learnt, especially if Messi has even a quarter of the influence he had here.
If Chelsea does park the bus again, Barca must show far more poise than they did in the first leg. They must demonstrate they have the class and patience to burst the Blues banks and win ugly when things aren’t quite going their way.
However, if the La Liga game was any guide, they’re well up for the task, and I, for one, am prepared to say they’ll do it.
But even if they don’t get beyond the Blues of London, it certainly won’t stop me being among the first to queue for tickets to these proposed blockbusters against the Sky Blues of Sydney and Navy Blues of Melbourne.
Now that would be breathtaking stuff indeed.
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