HARD TACKLE
FC Barcelona walked away from
the first La Liga Clasico of the
season with a point on Sunday
night as Lionel Messi's brace
was cancelled out by two goals
from Cristiano Ronaldo. Real
Madrid took the lead on 23
minutes, exploiting the
Blaugrana's makeshift backline
to find Ronaldo open on the left-
hand side of the penalty area,
and the Portuguese forward did
exceptionally well to score at
Victor Valdés' near post. Lionel
Messi equalized with a real
poacher's effort just eight
minutes later and he even put
Barca ahead just after the hour
mark with a beautifully-str uck
free-kick.
However, Barcelona only held the
lead for five minutes as Ronaldo
equalized on the 66th minute
after beating the offside trap.
Barcelona did have chances to
win the game, as Martin
Montoya's long-range effort
rebounded off the cross-bar, but
on reflection, a draw was
probably the fairest result. Tito
Vilanova's 100% league record
may have come to an end, but
Barca remain unbeaten and eight
points ahead of Los Blancos
headed into the international
break.

Real Madrid coach Jose
Mourinho has disparaged the
endless debate about who is
better, Lionel Messi or
Cristiano Ronaldo, by insisting
the two are simply on another
level.
- Graham Hunter: Clasico
honours shared
- Blog: 'What ifs' for Madrid
- Blog: Golden Messi ensures
point
Messi and Ronaldo each scored
a brace during the 2-2 Clasico
draw on Sunday and Mourinho
has hailed the efforts of the
frontrunners for the Ballon
d'Or.
"I think it should be forbidden
to say who [is] the best player
in the world because these
two are from another planet,"
Mourinho said. "I would like my
player to win [the Ballon d'Or]
because he is champion of the
best league in the world, but I
think they're both fantastic
players."
Despite failing to make ground
on league leaders Barcelona,
Mourinho was quick to
highlight the positives from
the match, including a number
of chances in front of goal.
"I think that the world will be
happy because often these
matches are too tactical and
finish goalless," Mourinho said.
"This match had everything
that people like. Those fans
that are in different time
zones across Europe will have
been awake and enjoyed this
Clasico a lot and perhaps are
already asking for another
one in the Cup or the
Champions League, if we get
through.
"I think it was a great match
and I said so to [Tito] Vilanova.
The league is as it was before
with the same points
difference that there was
before the match. I really
enjoyed my team's display."
While Mourinho was content
with a point at Camp Nou,
defender Sergio Ramos
believes Real had a much
better work ethic than
Barcelona and were
unfortunate not to grab a
late winner.
"Our game and hard work was
better than Barcelona. Anyone
who saw the match would not
have been surprised if we had
won," Ramos said. "On other
occasions we have recognised
that Barcelona were better
but that would not have been
what happened today if we
had won.
"The league is very long, there
[is] a lot of it left. We wanted
to reduce the distance
between us but that has not
happened. We hope to do it in
the coming matches."
After Ronaldo's opener, Messi
scored a brace to give
Barcelona the lead and the
Argentinean was not deflated
by the draw, given Barca's
recent injury dilemmas.
"We're not having too much
luck," Messi said. "We were
missing some important players
today, but we're lucky enough
to have really good players on
this team and they all do an
excellent job.
"It was a great game, we
would have preferred to win
but we need to remember
that Real Madrid are a great
team."
Barcelona defender Adriano
shared Messi's sentiment and
believes the home side was
well prepared for Real's potent
attack.
"We practiced and prepared
for tonight's game at the
Ciutat Esportiva," Adriano said.
"We trained so that we could
stop Madrid's most dangerous
weapon, their counterattacks.
"I played the central defender
role because the manager
thought it was the best thing
to do seeing that Madrid are
very fast. "It's a shame that
we didn't win. We know that
there's a lot of Liga still ahead
and we still have our eight-
point advantage."