Real Madrid Vs. Barcelona, Super Cup: Merengues Win On Away Goals

Real Madrid Vs. Barcelona, 2012 Spanish Super Cup: Final Score, Los Merengues Win The Day 2-1, Win Cup on Away Goals

After an opening 45 minutes that featured one of the most ridiculous back heel flicks you'll ever see, some great saves from Victor Valdes and a straight red to Adriano, you would think things might calm down a little but this is El Clasico right? Well, yeah but oddly, it did calm down.

For reasons that will only be known to Jose Mourinho, Madrid hit the brakes in the second half choosing to defend their lead rather than pressing for more. Barca took advantage and began their seductive snake dance in the midfield, slowly lulling Madrid to sleep and picking at them with passes. It wasn't until the 62nd minute that Barca got their first great chance of the half. Javier Mascherano found Pedro with an excellent diagonal pass that sent the attacker in against Iker Casillas. The Madrid keeper was up to the task, making a tremendous save to deny Pedro.

Valdes came up big again for Barca, keeping them in the match, with a great save on Sami Khedira in the 68th minute. Jordi Alba wasted a beautiful ball from Messi in the 77th minute, he got behind the Madrid defense but botched the touch and had to settle for a corner.

Madrid had their chance to finish the tie in the 79th minute as Gonzalo Higuain got behind Mascherano and hit the post with his shot. Mascherano deserves credit for getting back in the play and making a slight deflection on the ball that helped it stay out of the Barca net.

In the end, Los Blancos held on to win the match 2-1. The tie ended 4-4 on aggregate but Madrid claimed the Super Copa on away goals. The trophy is nice, but the psychological victory will probably mean more to Mourinho and his players as they can now focus on getting their La Liga campaign back on track.

Just in case you were wondering, Alex Song made his Barcelona debut, replacing Sergio Busquets in the 75th minute. Meanwhile, Madrid's new signing Luka Modric also made his debut in the 83rd minute, replacing Mesut Ozil. The final seven minutes or so had a nice, "players than used to reside in North London" feel to it.

For more on the Blaugrana, head over to FC Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes. For more on Los Blancos, check out Real Madrid blog Managing Madrid.

Real Madrid Vs. Barcelona, 2012 Spanish Super Cup: Halftime Score, Madrid Leads 2-1, Adriano Sees Red

Madrid gets two quick goals, Adrian is shown a straight red and Lionel Messi scores late to pull Barca back. Just another 45 minutes of El Clasico action.

Madrid started the game on the attack, putting early pressure on the Barcelona defense. Gonzalo Higuain was especially troublesome and forced an excellent early save from Victor Valdes. Higuain didn't miss second chance in the 11th minute, taking advantage of a bad mistake by Javier Mascherano who mishandled a long ball by Pep, and beat Valdes low to give Madrid an early 1-0 lead.

More mistakes in the 18th minute cost Barca again. Mascherano and Pique completely fouled up possession allowing Cristiano Ronaldo to execute an absolutely magical back hell chip over Pique before settling the ball and beating Valdes to give Madrid a 2-0 lead. Valdes had to do better on the shot after Ronaldo's poor second touch have him time to recover. Madrid put the ball past Valdes for a third time in the 23rd minute but it was waved off as Pepe appeared to push Mascherano on the set piece.

It got worse.

In the 28th minute, Adriano had no choice but to pull down Ronaldo who was on the cusp of a breakaway and was shown a straight red card by the match referee.

Then it got better, at least a little.

Down to 10 men, Barca seemed to settle a bit after the red card and just before halftime, Lionel Messi worked some of his magic and pulled a goal back for the Blaugrana. It's 2-1 at halftime, but it's 4-4 on aggregate with Madrid still holding the advantage on away goals.

What a wild half...and there's still 45 minutes (at least) to go!

For more on the Blaugrana, head over to FC Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes. For more on Los Blancos, check out Real Madrid blog Managing Madrid.

Real Madrid Vs. Barcelona, 2012 Spanish Super Cup: Adriano Sent Off For Barca

This is just going from bad to worse for Barcelona. And it's going pretty swimmingly for Real Madrid. The hosts nearly go 3-0 up only to see Sergio Ramos' headed goal end up ruled out for what looked like an imaginary foul on Gerard Pique. That doesn't matter much -- Madrid are so thoroughly in control that even Lionel Messi gets flustered, going in studs-up on Pepe. I didn't write that sentence backwards.

Aaand then there's a breakaway, with Ronaldo once again tearing through the centre. The only man nearby is right back Adriano, who was supposed to be playing on the left, and the fullback employs a rugby tackle to bring him down. Adriano's the last man back, and has to be sent off. So he is. Barcelona are down to ten men, and Sami Khedria nearly scores on the subsequent free kick, smashing a header straight at Victor Valdes. As things stand, it's 2-0 (4-3) to Real Madrid.

Alexis Sanchez is hauled off for Martin Montoya, by the way. Disastrous for Barca.

Real Madrid Vs. Barcelona, 2012 Spanish Super Cup: Ronaldo Doubles Madrid's Lead

Well Real Madrid will be feeling in a happier mood now. They're 2-0 up and leading 4-3 in the Spanish Super Cup after yet another defensive mistake from Barcelona. The hosts are playing well, smothering the Catalans' attacks and then hitting them incredibly hard on the counterattack, and they're reaping their rewards.

Another long ball over the top sees Cristiano Ronaldo isolated against Gerard Pique, and it looked as though the big defender would be able to get there first. But a slight deflection gave Ronaldo a chance, and he took it brilliantly, popping the ball way into the air with a backheel and racing past Pique. The Portuguese's second touch wasn't particularly great, which allowed Victor Valdes to get set, but the goalkeeper couldn't stop the blistering shot, and it was 2-0.

Then Gonzalo Higuain managed to get through the defence again, and Valdes is forced into yet another save. Good grief, Barcelona are getting torn apart here.

Real Madrid Vs. Barcelona, 2012 Spanish Super Cup: Higuain Opens Scoring

Oooh, that's a big save by Victor Valdes. The Barcelona goalkeeper made a catastrophic error in the first leg of the Super Cup, gifting Angel di Maria the goal that made it 3-2, but he's stonewalled Gonzalo Higuain here in the first chance of the match.

The Barcelona defence was uncharacteristically open, allowing a simply diagonal to find Higuain in the box. The Argentinian turned smartly, escaping his man and creating room to shoot, but his attempt to go across the goalkeeper was thwarted by a smart stop by Valdes, who came flying off his line to keep the score at 0-0.

Buuuuut he can't stop the second one. A simple ball over the top completely undoes Javier Mascherano, who makes a hilarious attempt at a clearance which completely fails to make contact. That allows Higuain to race through the middle and slot past Valdes. 1-0 Real Madrid, 3-3 on aggregate. Game on.

Real Madrid Vs. Barcelona, 2012 Spanish Super Cup: Game Underway; Dani Alves Absent

We're off and running in what is already our second Clasico of the 2012/13 season. Barcelona have the advantage in the second leg of the Super Cup, having beaten Real Madrid 3-2 at the Camp Nou, but it's still tight enough that the hosts have a real chance of winning this thing. That said, with one point from two games in the league, you wouldn't put much faith in Los Blancos overcoming Barcelona here.

Not a whole lot has gone on so far, although there is some team news to report -- Adriano was announced in the lineup but it's pretty clearly Jordi Alba starting in his place, with Adriano on the right. Dani Alves is the man absent; presumably the right back was injured in the warmup. The closest we've come to any real action is Alexis Sanchez claiming a penalty after getting a slight nudge from Marcelo as both contested a Pedro cross. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Real Madrid Vs. Barcelona, 2012 Spanish Super Cup: Lineups

It looks like Carles Puyol has not recovered from the fractured cheekbone he suffered over the weekend -- there were rumours that the Barcelona captain would tough it out and play, but he doesn't even make the bench. For Real Madrid there is, unsurprisingly, no start for new midfielder Luka Modric. Instead, we get the standard double pivot of Xabi Alonso and Sami Khedira, both of whom should probably try to play better than in their first leg of this tie. Gonzalo Higuain will start up front, while Raul Albiol is nowhere to be seen. Thank goodness.

And, of course, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are both playing. That means you should probably watch this match.

Real Madrid starting lineup (4-2-3-1): Iker Casillas; Marcelo, Sergio Ramos, Pepe, Alvaro Arbeloa; Xabi Alonso, Sami Khedira; Cristiano Ronaldo, Mesut Ozil, Angel di Maria; Gonzalo Higuain.

FC Barcelona starting lineup (4-3-3): Victor Valdés; Adriano, Javier Mascherano, Gerard Pique, Dani Alves; Sergio Busquets, Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta; Pedro, Lionel Messi, Alexis Sanchez.

Real Madrid Vs. Barcelona, 2012 Spanish Super Cup: Game Time, Live Updates, TV Schedule, Streaming, And More

Real Madrid have not gotten their season off to a good start. They draw against Valencia and then were beaten by Getafe in the league, results which sandwiched a 3-2 reverse in the first leg of the Super Cup against Barcelona. Yes, this is a glorified friendly. But with everything going against the defending La Liga champions at the moment -- except, perhaps, the arrival of Luka Modric from Tottenham Hotspur -- you'd have to imagine that Jose Mourinho and company will want to send out a statement here.

Angel di Maria's late goal (read: Victor Valdes' incredible mistake) will have given the hosts belief that they have some hope of coming back from their first-leg deficit. Can they? We'll find out shortly. Here's how to watch the game:

Game Date/Time: Wednesday, 4:30 p.m. ET, 10:30 p.m. local

Venue: Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid, Spain

TV: ESPN Deportes (U.S.), Sky Sports 3 (U.K.), GolTV (Canada)

Streaming online: ESPN3

We'll have updates throughout the day and live coverage of the match in our Real Madrid vs. Barcelona, 2012 Spanish Super Cup StoryStream. For more on the Blaugrana, head over to FC Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes. For more on Los Blancos, check out Real Madrid blog Managing Madrid. For more from around the world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on twitter.

Real Madrid Vs. Barcelona, 2012 Spanish Super Cup: Welcome The Mid-Tie Reinforcements

Victor Valdes' late error on Thursday set up a potentially thrilling Super Cup second leg between Real Madrid and Barcelona. Will one of the clubs' new boys become a club hero in their debut off the bench?