Barcelona beat Real Madrid despite goalkeeper blunder

An embarrassing blunder by Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes handed Real Madrid a Spanish Super Cup lifeline despite slumping to a 3-2 first leg defeat at their Catalan rivals' Camp Nou home.

With Barca 3-1 ahead, and pressing for a fourth goal yesterday, Valdes was caught out inside his own penalty area as he tried to dribble the ball clear only to be dispossessed by a stunned Angel Di Maria who scored into an empty goal.

Pedro Rodriguez, Lionel Messi and Xavi Hernandez had earlier scored second-half goals to give Barca a convincing lead after Cristiano Ronaldo had put Madrid ahead on 55 minutes.

Madrid coach Jose Mourinho questioned the legality of Barca's first goal.

"Barca played well, especially in the first-half when they did not allow us to play, but in the second we were able to change our game a little. It was a good game but their first goal was an error by the linesman and was offside," he said.

Barcelona coach Tito Vilanova, in charge of his first 'Clasico', was happy with his side's performance.

"We controlled the game and we had the chance to go 4-1 ahead at the end, but that's football. We've won and we're ahead in the tie so I'm satisfied," he said.

Madrid had travelled without the injured Pepe as well as Nuri Sahin, Carvalho and Kaka who are all expected to leave before the close of the transfer window.

Vilanova opted for Alexis Sanchez and Pedro Rodriguez to assist Messi.

While Barca did begin to control possession, it took until the 17th minute for the game's first real action when Gerard Pique tried his luck from long range but failed to hit the target.

Two minutes later Messi found Dani Alves with a delightful ball in space on the right and when he received the return pass his left-footed shot just missed the target.

... contd.

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