The darker side to Barca’s beautiful game

IT’S the morning of Barcelona’s Champions League semi-final first leg at the Bernabeu, and Pep Guardiola has a special DVD for his players.

This isn’t a medley of goals and Gladiator clips like the movie he showed before the 2009 final though. It’s a very different kind of motivation.

The Barcelona squad grow gradually more enraged as they watch a montage of unpunished Real Madrid fouls from the clubs’ recent Copa del Rey final. In one moment, there’s an overzealous Pepe challenge, the next an Alvaro Arbeloa stamp on David Villa.