Valdés slip leaves Supercopa wide open

Di María pounced on a mistake by Víctor Valdés to keep the Supercopa more in the balance and less in Barça's favour. He pulled the scoreline back to 3-2 after an unusual warm-up Clásico in which Both Barcelona and Madrid were both a long way from their purest states. Andrés Iniesta and Xavi both shone a little brighter than the rest and tipped this slightly strange affair that had an air of summer hangover about it in the balance of Barcelona. Iniesta, a special player, fooled Ramos to win a penalty and supplied Xavi with the pass to make it 3-1 in a textbook move.

Barça, at times a little erratic and lacking the control that has dominated their performances in recent years, faced a Madrid side with little fight. Mourinho must have felt worse than normal. It mustn't sit too well with him that one of his teams, normally defined by their reliability, let a 0-1 lead (a powering header by Ronaldo) slip inside of three minutes and then went down 3-1 to their arch enemies who weren't even playing on top of their game. Di Maria?s goal, however, must have brought some relief and would have avoided a hurricane inside the dressing room. The Supercopa will be decided in the Bernabéu.

Early images of the encounter seemed relaxed - suntans and hugs and kisses between rivals in the dressing room gave a particularly summary feel to the tournament, no matter how banal. Stress clearly hadn't reached any extremes yet. Mourinho, king of the verbal, could be seen sat casually in his seat as if he were without a care in the world. But he cares as much as Tito Vilanova does, who shook hands with the Portuguese coach before taking his place in the dugout. It's true to say that Barça had a few thorns in their side - they only found happiness at points during the last campaign, and the defeat to Madrid, losing La Liga, Messi's penalty miss and the bitter departure of Guardiola was still hurting. Barça needed to get into gear before Madrid.

Mourinho was without the exuberant Pepe, who normally drives the team on, and preferred to stick to the plan that would bring him victory. Madrid dealt comfortably with what Barça threw at them in the first half, with wayward shots from Piqué (16'), Messi (19'), Messi (29'), Xavi (40') that hardly bothered Casillas. Madrid didn't have one shot on target, though the threat of their second goal here last season hung in the air. Cristiano and Benzema failed to connect and Barcelona enjoyed possession without making full use of it. The two sides went into the tunnel 0-0 at half time.

The start of the second half also felt like they were coming to after a lengthy summer nap and never looked like producing any goals. Two goals in three minutes changed all that. Cristiano's powerful header, reminiscent of his goal with Portugal that booked their place in the semi-final in Euro 2012, put Madrid ahead. Ronaldo had seemed a little of the pace before that moment, as had Messi, who strangely disappeared somewhat after the half hour mark. Barça pulled things level and then turned the game on its head as Iniesta forced Ramos into conceding a penalty. Messi converted to exorcise the ghosts against Cech. It was now Iniesta's turn to shine in a series of dazzling moves that left his opponents trailing. Xavi was put through by Iniesta and, as we've seen before in other Clásicos, came face to face with Casillas and found the back of the net without a second thought.

Both teams looked shell shocked by the scoreline and the game seemed so bizarre that it could only end with what happened next. An unusual error by a goalkeeper of Victor Valdés' quality left the result at 3-2. The game was full of toing and froing, mistakes and controversy (Madrid believed Pedro's goal was offside), but in the end the outcome was a fair one. Whoever wants the Supercopa most will have to show it in the Bernabéu.