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In keeping with all six of last season's El Clasicos, the two giants of Spanish football served up yet another goal-filled treat in the first leg as Real Madrid managed to bag two away from home to leave everything up for grabs. After a quick-fire equaliser from Pedro at the Camp Nou to cancel out Cristiano Ronaldo's opener, it then looked every bit as though Barcelona were going to cruise home as they raced into a 3-1 lead courtesy of goals from Lionel Messi and Xavi. It appeared as though Barca had one hand on the cup heading into the last ten minutes until Victor Valdes gifted Madrid a second goal following an absolute howler, which should see Iker Casillas remain as Spanish number one for a little longer yet. In last season's Supercup, Barcelona achieved the same 3-2 result...

Brace yourselves ladies and gentlemen, El Clasico is here again. It's time for Spain's finest to entertain the rest of the world with some astonishing high tempo football and unbelievable skill, not forgetting some atrocious play-acting too! Let's concentrate on the good bit though (the football). Barcelona certainly had the edge over their great rivals in this fixture last season, winning three of their six meetings and losing just once to Real Madrid. However, in truth the contests were much closer than those statistics suggest, with only one of the games being decided by more than one clear goal - a 3-1 away win for the Catalan club in La Liga. In fact, the last time these giants met at the Camp Nou was right at the end of last season where the champions returned the favour ...

[b]Madrid have won 11 and lost just one of their last 13 Champions League games at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu[/b] And Jose Mourinho's side have won the most games in this season's Champions League, recording nine victories in 11 fixtures. Of those nine successes, five were at the Bernabeu, and on each occasion Real won by an impressive margin of at least three goals. Meanwhile, if Bayern were hoping to hang on for a draw, they should perhaps think otherwise, seeing as only one of their last 30 games in this competition has ended all square. [b]Bayern have lost their last four Champions league fixtures at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, including the 2010 final against Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan (0-2)[/b] Real are unbeaten in 11 encounters in all competitions at home, nine of which they ...

[u]Bayern Munich v Real Madrid, 19:45, Sky Sports 2[/u] When the Champions League reaches the semi-final stage, does a side's progress to this point of the competition tell us anything about what's likely to happen this week? Most of Real and Bayern's games have come against weaker sides so surely, for example, Real's outstanding form in the competition to date is no guide to how they'll fare against the Bavarian giants. Then again, 10 games is a decent body of evidence so it's possible to draw some conclusions about the team's strengths and weaknesses. [u]Match Odds[/u] Having watched both teams several times this season, my feeling is Real Madrid have a slightly better chance of winning the game. They've won nine of 10 Champions League games and 27 of 33 league fixtures (84%...

[u][b]CSKA Moscow v Real Madrid, Tuesday 18:00, Live on Sky Sports 2[/b][/u] [u]CSKA Moscow[/u] Igor Akinfeev, the club captain and Russia's number one, has been out for months and will be missing again on Tuesday. Coach Leonid Slutsky is also without foreign stars Keisuke Honda and Mark Gonzalez for the team's first competitive game of the year. Perhaps they'll be better for the break - between August and the end of 2011, CSKA were W4-D1-L5 at home in the Premier League and Champions League - or perhaps not. Seydou Doumbia has scored more than half of CSKA's Champions League goals this season (5/9) and 12 of their last 19 in all competitive games, but the home team's best hopes might be the sub-zero temperature and the Luzhniki Stadium's plastic pitch. [u]Real Madrid[/u] Spain's...

You've got to feel for Jose Mourinho. However well Real Madrid play, however many goals they score, however much they entertain, it's never enough. It's never enough because whatever they do, Barcelona seem to do it a little better. Time and time again. But maybe we shouldn't feel sorry for him. Football fans talk about singing when you're winning. When he was winning the Champions League with FC Porto, the Premier League with Chelsea and knocking the same Barcelona out of the Champions League en route to winning it with Inter Milan, there was plenty of singing. There was plenty of boasting, inventing of nicknames and goading, too. He enjoyed those moments, making himself come across as a genius who knew more than his counterparts, prepared better for games than them and motivated his...

I'm not sure whether the draw for the Copa Del Rey is done with a computer or whether there's a whole live televised spectacle with ex-players and pundits picking brightly coloured balls out of a bowl. By the way, I've always wondered why Club Executives present at the draws feel the need to furiously scribble down the team (or teams when it's the Champions or Europa League group stages) that their club is up against. Are their memories that bad? Do they not have iphones and Blackberries to check in case they do forget? Either way, by Real Madrid and Barcelona being drawn together before the final stage, we, as football fans, are treated to an extra game between these two. [u]Match Odds [/u] How you play this market completely depends on what you consider to be the most important factors. Real...

What next for Jose Mourinho? The clasico series is over, and a defeat, two draws and a win (after extra-time) doesn't sound too bad given Real Madrid's first game against Barcelona this season ended in a 5-0 defeat. His methods may be morally questionable, but he did at least narrow the gap between his side and what is surely one of the greatest teams the world has ever known. And yet that may not be enough. The one win came in the Copa del Rey final, probably the least important of the five clasicos played this season. A draw in the league game at the Bernabeu was fortunate; some would argue that that game was almost irrelevant given Barca's lead, but had Real won it, and had they then beaten Zaragoza at the weekend as Barca lost to Sociedad, there would have been only two points in...

First things first. I was surprised Pepe got his marching orders for that challenge on Dani Alves. It was high and a little reckless (even though not much contact was made) but a straight red was inconsistent with the way Wolfgang Stark had refereed the match up to that point. With the possible exception of Sergio Ramos' booking which was for a downright cynical foul, most of the cards brandished up to then were for persistent fouling. Stark got the Pepe incident wrong but the truth is the blame lies with Alves for making such a meal of it. It's not the first time we've seen the Brazilian do this on a football pitch and he's not alone in doing what he felt he needed to be done to turn a finely-balanced match his team's way. What it means though is that Pep Guardiola's team have lost ...