MADRID: Barcelona came from behind to beat holders Real Madrid 2-1 in the first leg of an increasingly bad-tempered Spanish Cup quarterfinal in the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday.
Second half goals from veteran defenders Carles Puyol and Eric Abidal overturned a half-time Madrid lead for whom Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo scored.
The France fullback, Abidal, who extended his contract with the Spanish and European champions on Monday, galloped on to a floated Lionel Messi pass 13 minutes from time and calmly slotted past Iker Casillas to give the 2011 runners-up the advantage for next week’s second leg in Barcelona.
“We won this game but we have to be careful in the return match because that’s going to be another tough test,” Abidal, whose goal was only the fourth of his career, said in a television interview.
It was the third victory in twelve months for the Catalans in the stadium of their biggest rival.
Pep Guardiola is yet to lose in the Bernabeu in four seasons in charge and his team appear to have a psychological advantage over ‘los blancos’.
Afterwards Guardiola was happy with the victory and looked towards the second leg.
“We played really well tonight, controlled the game and apart from their goal reduced Madrid to the one header from (Karim) Benzema, but because of their quality anything can happen next week so we’ll go home and prepare for that and the league game at the weekend,” he said.
Madrid coach Jose Mourinho was less satisfied.
“I did not expect to lose a goal to a dead ball as we did, we were winning 1-0 and at that stage it was a bad result for Barca, it was a bad goal to concede. Psycholgically it hurt us and Barca took control of the game from then on,” he said.
“The tie is now difficult for us, it’s still open, but difficult.”
Mourinho surprised all with an unfamiliar side employing both Karim Benzema and Gonzalo Higuain in attack, while at the back playing the rarely used Hamit Altintop and Ricardo Carvalho who was playing his first game since September.
Both teams started very cautiously with Madrid happy to allow Barca possession in deep positions and when the first attack came on 11 minutes it was to bring the first goal of the evening.
Real forward Cristiano Ronaldo had put the home side ahead with a breakaway goal in the 11th minute before Barca captain Carles Puyol flung himself at Xavi’s corner to power a header past Spain team mate Casillas for a 49th-minute equaliser.
