Barca stays in the moment when adversity strikes versus Real

It is not uncommon for teams to lose their composure when adversity strikes in a match. Whether it be conceding a goal at an inappropriate time in the match, an injury or a player being sent off.

The truly special teams are able to keep cool and stay in the moment when adversity arrives, and Barcelona's performance versus Real Madrid last week was a clear illustration of why they are the gold standard in world football.

Paul Gardner writes of the cool and composed performance that Barca provided in their victory over Real Madrid in the Classico-

Yet Barca made short work of Real. Despite that disastrous start to the game, when goalkeeper Victor Valdes virtually gifted a goal to Real. The game was only 22 seconds old when Karim Benzema pounced on Valdes’s error to put Real 1-0 ahead.

Barca’s reaction to this stunning opening was equally stunning. Because there was, in effect, no reaction. Barca would simply play the way it always plays -- and, of especial significance, goalkeeper Valdes would persist with the very approach that had landed him and his team in trouble - he would continue to try to pass the ball out to a teammate, rather than hoof it downfield.

What we saw for the next 90 minutes or so was simply extraordinary. Real, one of the world’s most powerful teams, certainly one of the world’s most expensively assembled teams, a team packed with brilliant players, reduced to impotence in front of its own fans.

Worse yet for Real was that the humiliation -- for that’s what it was -- was administered by a Barca team that was never puffing and panting and straining to achieve victory. The Barca players played their game, the game we’ve been watching for some years now -- watching it but never tiring of watching it.

Once again we could see Barca dominating a game with ball possession and quick-fire, accurate passing, with players moving smoothly and quickly in magical patterns, or maybe not patterns, maybe just inspired traceries of improvisation ... but movement with an aura of purpose. And of beauty.