2010/2011 UEFA Champions League

[Colly]

Murray? Took over from Lunchy on MOTD2, and is fucking annoying.

[Lineker]

A racism row has erupted ahead of the Champions League semi-final second leg between Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Real published a video on their website showing Barca's Sergio Busquets allegedly calling full-back Marcelo "mono" (monkey) during the first leg.

Real assistant coach Aitor Karanka then referred to the "racist insults" in his press briefing ahead of Tuesday's game.

But Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola countered: "My players are an example of professionalism and honesty."

The dispute has further inflamed tensions between the bitter Spanish rivals after a fiery first leg in Madrid, which Barcelona won 2-0.

Barca reserve goalkeeper Jose Pinto, Real midfielder Pepe and coach Jose Mourinho were all sent off, with the Portuguese claiming afterwards that the Catalan side receive preferential treatment from referees.

Both sides submitted complaints to Uefa about the other's behaviour, but they were rejected on Monday. Meanwhile, the European governing body is investigating its own charges against the clubs.

With Mourinho choosing not to speak to the media ahead of the second leg at the Nou Camp, it was left to Karanka to bemoan Uefa's decision not to act on Real's claims of gamesmanship by Barcelona's players.

He said: "The match has been overshadowed by Uefa's resolution - it's on another plane now.

"We have been punished [with the suspensions for Pepe, Sergio Ramos and Mourinho], but there are [barcelona] players who didn't respect the principles of fair play or who made racist insults, covering their mouths, who will be on the pitch.

"We say over and over there are double standards."

Rejecting the accusations, Guardiola insisted the Catalan club taught their players good values through the youth academy at La Masia.

"Real might think we are unsporting but I think exactly the opposite," he said. "Fourteen of 20 players in the squad have grown up in this house and they all respect the values of the house.

"Mourinho was at Barcelona for five years and he knows our values: to win, fight and earn respect by respecting your rival."

Guardiola added: "Tomorrow it all finishes. We are playing for a place in the final, not to beat Real Madrid."

Barca midfielder Xavi also talked about the negative impact of last Wednesday's game.

"From my point of view everything that has been happening is sad," said the Barca playmaker. "It would be nice to talk about football instead and not these ridiculous issues.

"We will try not to let any of this tension affect us, which is negative for football and sport in general. It's impossible but we will try."

Mourinho is banned from the touchline as his side face the exacting ask of overhauling a 2-0 first-leg deficit at the home of the Catalan giants.

Belgian referee Frank de Bleeckere will take charge of the potentially volatile game, with Uefa sending former official Pierluigi Collina to the Nou Camp, where he refereed the 1999 Champions League final, to monitor his performance.

The winner is likely to face Manchester United in the final at Wembley on 28 May.

United play Germany's Schalke on Wednesday at Old Trafford with a 2-0 cushion from the first leg.

Might have to not give the latest El Un-classico a miss after all.

Also, Fergie is set to rest Rooney in Wednesday's game, as he's nursing a tight hamstring. Fabio is also set to miss out.

[Sam]

These matches have made me develop a real hatred of Real Madrid, I've not been particularly fond of how Barca players have been acting either but the way Madrid have played all these classicos has been shit, they just put everybody behind the ball and I hope that tonight they get well beaten.

[stokeriño]

the way Madrid have played all these classicos has been shit, they just put everybody behind the ball

You say this like you've never heard of Jose Mourinho before.

[Starvinho]

0-0 half-time, it's crying out for a goal though. Madrid need to score pretty sharpish if they even want a chance to get through.

[Sam]

Adiós Madrid

[Lineker]

Iniesta is too good.

[Herr Matzat]

When did UFC buy the UEFA and made it a MMA League?

[Starvinho]

Barca are just too good. We've gotta finish the job tomorrow and then everyone will have to have the games of their lives in the final if we want to win.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

One thing you're guranteed with almost every Barcelona match is a good laugh. This time provided by Mascherano. Drop to the floor from what looked like a good tackle, look at the referee, clutch his leg and then proceed to do four bouncing rolls on the ground, gotta love it.

Much better game than the first. First leg was what obviously cost Madrid, shame, but overall clearly a deserved result.

[DavidMarrio]

Busquets should be given an Oscar.

Be tough for United and while I think Barca will win the Champions League, I do think Man Utd have a good chance of winning (as much as it pains me to say) I don't think Barca are heavy favourites but they are only slight.

[Sam]

I hate the way Sergio dives it drives me crazy, but I think it's important to consider why they were so willing to play so dirty this isn't just Barca-Real it's a political thing, Catalonia Vs Spain, which is why these games have been so dirty in my opinion. Although Busquets has always been a twat, acts the hard man and then does ballet like dives.

Happy for Barcelona to be through, imagine the atmosphere near my old place is amazing right now, hopefully United finish the job tomorrow night.

[Jimmy]

If United go through, which I assume they will, any of you United fans planning on making the trip to Wembley?

[Summers]

Masch was pathetic.

[Colossus]

These matches have made me develop a real hatred of Real Madrid, I've not been particularly fond of how Barca players have been acting either but the way Madrid have played all these classicos has been shit, they just put everybody behind the ball and I hope that tonight they get well beaten.

In the first game, he went against Barça head-to-head, and got 5-0. I would defend too

[Starvinho]

If United go through, which I assume they will, any of you United fans planning on making the trip to Wembley?

Not me because I can't afford a ticket. The tickets will be like goldust though, there are only 25k for the United fans and I'm pretty sure season ticket holders would get first dibs on them. If I was single and working though then I would be giving it my best shot to get one, but it looks like I'll be watching it down the pub as per usual. Not that that's all bad mind, I did the same in 2009 and apart from losing it was one of my best nights out ever watching football, I just hope we win this time!

[IAceI]

Peek-a-boo

[Summers]

Stolen that.

[Lineker]

Real Madrid players vented their anger at the referees after their Champions League semi-final defeat by Barcelona.

After a fiery first leg, Real trailed 2-0 and with the score at 0-0 in Tuesday's return tie at the Nou Camp, Gonzalo Higuain had a goal disallowed.

Real winger Cristiano Ronaldo said: "Next year they might as well give the cup directly to Barcelona."

And Real goalkeeper Iker Casillas declared after the 3-1 aggregate loss: "We feel tricked by the officials."

Real players were already incensed following the first leg at the Bernabeu last week when red cards were shown to their Portuguese midfielder Pepe and coach Jose Mourinho, who was not in attendance at the Nou Camp.

And their sense of injustice grew after Higuain's second-half strike on Tuesday was controversially ruled out for a Ronaldo foul on Javier Mascherano.

"The team is sad, but we knew it was an uphill battle," Ronaldo said on the Real Madrid website.

"The name of the match is Mission Impossible IV. Once again it was the referee that didn't allow us to dictate the outcome. We knew we could beat Barca, but the referee didn't let us.

"Higuain's goal was good. Pique pushed me and I landed on Mascherano. He didn't used to fall to the ground in England, but he's picked up the bad habit of doing it here like everyone else."

Casillas added: "It has happened again - just like it always does."

And midfielder Xabi Alonso complained: "Many bad decisions were made against us and we are not happy about that.

"We think we did a good job but we feel decisions really went against us."

Lionel Messi scored twice with Real down to 10 men to put Barca in control of the tie after the first leg.

In the return, Higuain's strike was disallowed just before Pedro fired Barca in front. Although Marcelo equalised for the visitors, Barcelona comfortably held on to make it through to the Wembley final with a 3-1 aggregate victory.

After the first leg, Mourinho had claimed that "against Barcelona, you have no chance", and Alonso agreed with his manager after the second tie.

"When we scored the first goal it would have been totally different," added Alonso. "If Higuain's goal had stood it would have changed everything, our position would have been much stronger and after that it was much more difficult.

"Until the sending off of Pepe in the first leg we were doing really well and it looked like it was going to finish 0-0 and with tonight's result we would have gone through.

"Mourinho was really upset that he couldn't be supporting the team in the stadium but he gave us lots of advice before the game."

Real assistant coach Aitor Karanka said the performance of referee Frank de Bleeckere backed up Mourinho's comments.

"Mourinho was right," said Karanka. "He said that it would be impossible for us to go through. Tonight proved that it was impossible and 100 million people saw it - there is nothing more to add."

And Ronaldo continued the theme, saying: "Whoever knows anything about football knows that Barcelona get preferential treatment. We knew something would happen. We knew that if we scored a goal that everything would be done to keep us from going through.

"This isn't good for football. We should just stay home and allow Barcelona to play alone if things don't change."

"Barcelona have a lot of power off the pitch. We would have drawn 0-0 without the Alves incident and tonight's draw would have seen us through. There are no differences between the teams as was seen thoughout the four matches.

"We won the Copa del Rey by playing fairly. I don't feel that Barcelona were better than us, but rather that they have a lot of help from the referees."

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola refused to be drawn into yet another war of words, instead focusing on his side's achievement in reaching their third Champions League final in six seasons.

Barca are likely to face Manchester United in the final at Wembley on Saturday 28 May, with United taking on Schalke in their semi-final second leg at Old Trafford on Wednesday leading 2-0 after the first game in Germany.

"I don't have time for that, it has been a tough 20 days and we have played the richest team in the world many times," said Guardiola, who has seen his team face Real four times in the last 18 days in La Liga, the Spanish Cup final and the Champions League.

"The referee may have had an influence but we were very good in the second match."

Former Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon says the club has been damaged by Jose Mourinho's behaviour during the European semi-finals with Barcelona.

Real were dumped out of Europe by their bitter rivals this week but the two ties were overshadowed by the behaviour of fans, players and club officials.

Boss Mourinho was sent off in the first leg for disputing a red card and is also in trouble for later comments.

"To talk like that has been harmful for Real Madrid," Calderon told BBC Sport.

A bad-tempered first-leg match erupted at half-time when there was a fracas on the touchline as the players were leaving the field, which resulted in Real reserve-keeper Pinto being shown a red card.

Real were later reduced to 10 men soon after the interval when Pepe was sent off for a high tackle on Dani Alves.

Mourinho was subsequently dismissed himself after being seen to sarcastically mouth "well done" to the fourth official.

"It's clear that against Barcelona you have no chance," the Portuguese later said. "I don't know if it's the publicity of Unicef [the club's shirt sponsor], I don't know if it's because they are very nice, but they've got this power.

"I don't know if it's the friendship of [spanish football federation president Angel Maria] Villar at Uefa, where he is vice-president."

His comments and the behaviour of both clubs led to Uefa charging the Spanish rivals.

Barcelona also said they would report Mourinho to Uefa over his comments, with the Catalan club saying: "We want to stand firm when the war of words passes certain limits and we believe Mr Mourinho crossed this line yesterday."

Both cases will be heard by the Uefa Control and Disciplinary Body on 6 May.

Tuesday's second leg, which Barcelona drew 1-1 to progress 3-1 on aggregate, did also not pass without incident.

This time however, Mourinho was not involved.

Madrid's players vented their anger at the referees, after Gonzalo Higuain had a goal disallowed, and the club could now face further charges.

Real winger Cristiano Ronaldo said: "Next year they might as well give the cup directly to Barcelona."

"The team is sad, but we knew it was an uphill battle," Ronaldo said on the Real Madrid website.

"The name of the match is Mission Impossible IV. Once again it was the referee that didn't allow us to dictate the outcome. We knew we could beat Barca, but the referee didn't let us.

"Higuain's goal was good. Pique pushed me and I landed on Mascherano. He didn't used to fall to the ground in England, but he's picked up the bad habit of doing it here like everyone else."

Casillas added: "It has happened again - just like it always does.

"We feel tricked by the officials."

And midfielder Xabi Alonso complained: "Many bad decisions were made against us and we are not happy about that.

"We think we did a good job but we feel decisions really went against us."

But Calderon has blasted the behaviour of Real's players and manager.

"Big clubs should not blame the referee for their mistakes or their defeats," said Calderon.

"We invested £400m in the last two years to be a very important and strong team so if you lose you cannot blame injuries, bad luck, referees or nothing. If you lose you have to congratulate the rival and that is all.

"What he [Mourinho] did in terms of talking about Uefa and referees is not acceptable at all."

[METALMAN]

"The name of the match is Mission Impossible IV."

I LOVE Ronaldo.