Messi puts Barça back on top in 'clásico' series

The red card shown to Real Madrid's Pepe swung the pendulum Barcelona's way in the clásico series in a Champions League semifinal first leg that fortunately for the sport will be remembered for Leo Messi's wonder goal, while José Mourinho's mean-spirited strategy, having now failed, will be mercifully forgotten.

As a noisy Bernabéu crowd, whose pride had risen on the back of the defensively orchestrated tie in this month's league match and victory in the King's Cup final, jeered the referee's decision, the Barcelona players visibly clicked their passing speed up a few gears in the knowledge that the final half hour of this first leg could hold the key to next month's final in London.

Cristiano Ronaldo: "I don't like the way we play but I respect the boss' strategy"

When Xavi was on the ball, it was like watching an accomplished safe cracker, who knew he had just enough time to try the various combinations before success opened up before him. And it did. Ibrahim Affelay, just on as a substitute for Pedro on the right flank, skipped past Marcelo with surprising ease before teeing up Messi to finish from close range.

Barça began to show ruthless relish at the impending victory in hostile territory and Messi's second was as devastating blow to Real's morale as it was pure soccer magic, the Argentinean dribbling through the heart of the home defense from a standing start and sweeping a low shot inside the far post for his 52nd goal of a season which he could bring to a spectacular end at Wembley on May 28 .

But before Pepe's rash challenge on Dani Alves near the hour-mark, the Catalans seemed to be pondering whether to believe the provocative Mourinho's pre-match comment that 0-0 would be a bad result for the 2009 champion. Barça coach Pep Guardiola had clearly instructed his men to stay in full control of the game; at times their low-tempo possession game bordered on the sterile and full backs Alves and Carles Puyol had been ordered to hold their positions, not once supporting an attack near the Madrid goal line.

Guardiola was saying that Barça had had enough of running headlong into the brick wall built by Mourinho specially for this series of games between the deadly rivals, only to be hit by sucker punches on the counterattack, such as the one which brought the only goal of the game in the Valencia cup final last week. The imposing and athletic Pepe had been the personification of Mourinho's ingenious rewiring of his team, something he had surely been plotting since his uncharacteristically gung-ho team selection for the first clásico of his Real Madrid career had seen the all-white team go down 5-0 at Camp Nou before Christmas.

Moving defender Pepe into midfield to create a three-man central barrier alongside Xabi Alonso and either Sami Khedira or Lass Diarra, who got a rare start on Wednesday night, might stifle Barça's approach play but the flip side is how much it dims Real's brightness in attack. The biggest victim is link man Mesut Ózil, who has played a peripheral role in the series so far and was substituted by the striker Emmanuel Adebayor at half time in the Bernabéu. That freed Cristiano Ronaldo from what is for him a frustrating role as center forward chasing lost causes, but also meant that there was even less chance of a clean pass arriving at his feet.

Speaking to journalists after the game, Ronaldo showed loyalty to Mourinho while inadvertently revealing the exact strategy for the first leg. "0-0 was not a bad result and we had Kaká warming up to come on," he said after questioning the "coincidence" that has seen Barcelona ending up playing against 10 men in several major European clashes. Asked how he felt playing alone up front, he said: "I don't like it, but I respect the boss' strategy." Now that strategy has gone up in smoke and Mourinho must try to conjure a game plan for Real to win by two goals in Barcelona.