Barcelona vs Real Madrid: Jose’s side in for another tough evening
Published:You may have missed it, but in between all the Cesc Fabregas transfer nonsense, the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup took place at the Bernabeu on Sunday.
It finished 2-2 with Real taking the lead through Mesut Ozil, before Lionel Messi and David Villa put the visitors in front.
Xabi Alonso levelled things on 53 minutes but Real were unable to force home their home advantage and had to settle for a share of the spoils.
New boy Fabregas is able to play for Barca in the this second leg game – despite being ‘injured’ for Arsenal – and the Catalan side now head into the second leg at the Nou Camp as favourites at 5/6. It’s easy to see why.
Real have won just two of their previous ten games away to Barcelona and last season were on the receiving end of a 5-0 hammering in La Liga.
Despite this, Real striker Karim Benzema is convinced his side has what it takes to win the season’s first piece of silverware.
He said: “I think Madrid clearly deserved to win [the first leg]. Many things have changed from last season. We had a monopoly on possession and we did not let them play.
“That is exactly what you must do against a team like Barca. We now know that we are more than capable of winning tomorrow and lifting the Supercopa. I am sure that the second leg will be an open game and we will go for victory.”
However, while this is billed as a friendly, it’s anything but and, with Barca last losing a competitive home game almost a year ago, it’s hard to see Jose Mourinho’s men getting anything out of this clash.
Backing Barca to win the cup at 1/3 looks like the best way of cashing in.
