Real Madrid - 1, Barca -1

FC Barcelona failed to muster three points against ten men Real madrid

FC Barcelona maintained their eight points lead at the top of table with a 1-1 draw at the Santiago Bernebeu. Messi never had scored against Mourinho and Ronaldo niether against Barca coming into this match. In the end both of broken that dubious record were broken courtesy of penalties on either end. Mourinho will claim moral victory as he managed to draw with Barca with ten man. So this result put Wednesday's final a huge affair.Guardiola started with Puyol who just came back from injury. He partnered Pique, Alves and Adriano in the defense. The midfield had Iniesta, Xavi and Busquets, Messi, Pedro and Villa made the attacking trio. Mourinho went with a tighter defense with Pep playing a deep lying midfielder role. We believe that he will employ this tactic, but never expected him to do this in the League match. They had Ramos, Albiol, Carvalho and Marcelo in defense. Pepe played the deep lying midfielder role. Khedira and Alonso played the usual double pivot role in midfield. Mari, Benzema and Ronaldo made the attacking trio. Without Ozil, this was a very defensive set up and Mourinho was looking to break Guardiola's winning streak with such a line-up.

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Real Madrid vs Barca, The Return of El Clasico

FC barcelona vs Real Madrid Clash promises to be a Classic

Update: Puyol has been declared fit and is included in squad.

So it's officially starts tomorrow - The Grand Series of El Clasico. FC Barcelona will be going to Bernebeu to kill any ray of hope that lingers in the Real Madrid fans and players' mind of lifting the La Liga trophy. The funny part is that they may not have to force a victory to do that. Guardiola's boys enters this game in a bouyant mood, aided by the fact that they have registered five consecutive victories against their arch rivals. Not only they have done that, they have scored 16 goals in that process and the last match ended in a massive 5-0 victory at the Camp Nou. So, why shouldn't they be bouyant. But resting on the laurels of the last 5-0 victory could backfire on them. Real Madrid may be eight points behind us but they have looked more like a team than they appeared in the previous encounter. Add to that Real Madrid is playing at the Bernebeu, a fortress for most of the part of their season(barring Sporting defeat). Most of the top team across Europe and Spain have tried to defeat them this season at their home but only Sporting succeeded. So its better to treat it like our own Hercules defeat.

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El Clásico Series Grand Preview

The War Between Barca and Real Madrid will begin this Saturday

So, it's officially on - The El Clasico Grand series. In a La Liga season, the two classic encounter between Real Madrid and Fc Barcelona is always the most anticipated and the most followed event. In most of the season, it also tends to be the most decisive considering the domination of the Spain's top two in top flight football. But in recent memory or the time since I have followed La Liga, I have never heard of five Clasico matches in a season - one has been done with and the rest four are just days away from us. In the start of any season every Barca or Real Madrid fans biggest dream is not only to win every silverware available but also to beat their greatest rival on the way to it. Usually such wishes remain simply dreams, but this season they have wings attached to it. It is difficult to predict who will emerge from this Grand series victorious and the extend of that victory. Already war calls are ringing from both band aided mercilessly by numerous accusations hurled at each other, through media channels loyal to each other. What I am attempting to do here is to break up each of these clashes and highlight the most important.

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