El Clasico: Real Madrid No Closer to a Cure for Barcelona's Brilliance

For the best part of 20 minutes, Real Madrid gave the impression they'd found a cure. Jose Mourinho's team were pressing Barcelona with such ferocity that the world's best midfield couldn't find a pass. El Clasico was an orgy of white swarming red and blue.

An estimated 500 million television viewers had been treated to a fabulously frenetic and fascinating opening—sparked into life by a goal after 23 seconds that cast the most assured football outfit in the world as a shivering wreck in the grips of an irresistible revolution. The hype had already delivered, and we were just getting started.

Madrid's early approach was all about tempo and territory, and came straight from the Mourinho playbook that delivered success to Chelsea and Inter Milan. Barcelona love a pass, so stop them passing. And the higher up the pitch you press, the less fluid they become as a result.

Validation for Mourinho's tactics arrived inside a minute. Victor Valdes stuttered under intense pressure and kicked a clearance straight to Angel di Maria. A scramble ensued and Karim Benzema, the poster child of Madrid's resurgence this season, was on hand to smash home the fastest goal in El Clasico history.

Barcelona were on the canvas before they'd thrown a punch, and the rare smell of Catalan blood invited a flourish. Benzema went close with a header soon after; then Cristiano Ronaldo skewed a poor finish wide with Di Maria in a glorious position to his right. Meanwhile, Barca stuck to their script and waited for inspiration.

On 30 minutes they finally found some. Lionel Messi floated past Madrid's heavy artillery, then invited Alexis Sanchez to shoot into the bottom corner and draw the match level. It was a lesson in cutthroat counter-attacking savagery that Madrid could not heed. And for the remainder of the match they would look back on those early opportunities as a lovestruck teenager does the one who got away.

They would also look back on the moment Messi could have been sent off, but in truth a second yellow for his foul on Xabi Alonso would have been harsh. That's not to say it wouldn't have been handed to a player of a lesser, or more violent, reputation. But to cling to that is of no service to the progress Madrid still need to make to turn this most epic of rivalries on its head.

They'd be better served looking at the failures of Ronaldo, who suffered the kind of torrid evening we've seen him have all too often on the biggest stage. Gone was the strutting world-beater, and in his place the greedy, misfiring schoolboy who shoots on site and doesn't appear interested in putting the hard yards in.

If there's one comparison to make between Ronaldo and Messi, the two attacking greats of the modern game, it's that Messi's patience never falters. By his standards this was a peripheral performance, but still he worked hard and still he showed willing in every area of his game. And still he made a telling contribution in providing his team's opening goal.

Barca's second was as ugly as they come—a wild deflection of Xavi's shot taking it past Iker Casillas to put the visitors ahead. Fortune favors the brave, so they say, and to that end you can't deny Barca's enduring football philosophy deserves a slice of luck every now and then. Mourinho cursed it afterwards all the same.

"Football is a game, and details and luck form part of it," Mourinho said. "Without taking anything away from our opponents, luck was the difference.

"When we were 1-0 up we had the chance to go two up with an opening which normally with a player as fantastic as Cristiano Ronaldo would have taken, but we didn't.

"Their second came from a deflection, and no one can see it was anything other than luck. We had another chance at 2-2 and almost immediately they scored a third, which was a psychological blow."

The Special One had missed the point. Xavi's goal was a fluke alright, but Ronaldo's failure to convert his chances was the result of poor execution. And what of Barcelona's superb first and third goals? Luck was nowhere to be seen when Cesc Fabregas stooped to head home Dani Alves' cross and kill the game on 66 minutes.

From there on in Barca reverted to type—hushing the Bernabeu with their slick passing and reinforcing a superiority that has seen Pep Guardiola's team unbeaten in six straight visits to Madrid. The notion that this was Madrid's year destroyed, and Mourinho's miserable El Clasico record continued (just one victory so far for The Special One, in the Copa del Rey final).

Guardiola outclassed Mourinho, Messi outclassed Ronaldo, and Barcelona outclassed Madrid. It's a bitter pill to swallow for Madridistas—the taste of which just won't go away. For that we can only hail the brilliance of Barcelona, and their unswerving belief that football will find a way.

Mourinho's spoiling tactics worked for 20 minutes, but Barcelona go a lot longer than that. And so will their run of success unless The Special One comes upon a more effective antidote.