SOCCER: PAUL HAYWARDsays the theatricality in this famous rivalry is now too widespread to ignore

THE BEST match-up in club football is blessed by majesty and cursed by risible thespianism. As the heat rises in the corporate and cultural rivalry between these two great institutions we see a reversion to a child-like state, in which players exaggerate the impact of tackles, roll around clutching unhurt faces, mob the referee and brawl on the way to the dressing rooms at half-time.

This is not a pious Premier League interpretation. Goodness knows English football has its dark sides. But the theatricality in these Real Madrid-Barcelona games is now too widespread to ignore. Shortly before the interval in this first leg, Pedro was struck in the chest by Alvaro Arbeloa and went down as if smashed in the face, and our old friend from the Catalan Old Vic, Sergio Busquets, hit the deck after being elbowed by Marcelo, an escalation in tension that produced a melee as the teams left the field for refreshments.

The headline moment in that disturbance was Jose Pinto, Barca’s reserve goalkeeper, slapping Arbeloa. This 18-day, four-match marathon was bound to boil over one day, because both sides have tried to con officials and Barcelona have sought sanctuary from raised aggression with a kind of wincing hyper-sensitivity.

When the teams came back out, mayhem really descended with Pepe’s risky jab at Dani Alves, who reacted as if an unscheduled amputation had taken place, and Jose Mourinho, the Real coach, was sent to the stands after seeing his team reduced to 10 men for the fourth consecutive time in clashes between these clubs.

At the heart of all this, of course, is Madrid’s desperation to escape Barcelona’s artistic shadow. Mourinho, European football’s most persistent agent provocateur, was not built to be humiliated. To him the game is an exercise in power, in subjugation, which is what made his appointment at Real Madrid so compelling. Sparks were bound to fly as he sought a way to reconcile his highly organised and cautious style with the demand in these parts for entertainment. The 5-0 loss at the Camp Nou, then, was an insult he has tried to avenge with ceaseless tactical and psychological pressure.

On the field Real found to their cost that fire-fighting was an invitation to the enemy to inflict death by a thousand triangular passes. A new method was required: more attacking pressure, higher up the pitch, an extra dose of venom in the tackle, more hounding of referees and a beefed-up list of insinuations about Barcelona’s influence over match officials.

In this first leg Mourinho, the arch pragmatist, retook the stage. Real lined up with two lines of fortifications – a traditional back four, plus Xabi Alonso, Pepe and Lassana Diarra packed into defensive midfield positions, to stop the antics of Lionel Messi, Pedro and Xavi, while Cristiano Ronaldo, Mesut Ozil and Angel Di Maria roamed in counter-attacking roles. Andres Iniesta, Barca’s other alchemist, was ruled out through injury.

This was Mourinho not caring about aesthetics or public opinion beyond Spain’s border. Only when you stop Barcelona playing, he reasoned, can you afford to unfurl your own game. An ex-Camp Nou employee himself, he has always played up Barca’s sinister side. So Mourinho has mustered every force: diplomatic, tactical and inspirational, which, to afford him his credit, is a personal trademark. Like Alex Ferguson, he is a master at stoking players to a pitch of late-season fervour, and he is equally good at improving teams as seasons progress. Thus the 5-0 loss softened into a 1-1 draw in La Liga: the foundation for the Copa del Rey victory.

In each of the three clashes a Real player had left the pitch early. The dismissals of Sergio Ramos (in November), Raul Albiol (La Liga, here) and Di Maria (Copa del Rey final) had all been rolled into Mourinho’s conspiracy theories about Barcelona’s political influence and now he has a fresh disciplinary problem to confront following his reaction to Pepe’s ejection. With a man down, this time Madrid could not stop Messi scoring twice to put the home team in dire trouble.

As Real summoned more defiance against an emboldened foe the stadium seethed, controversies lined up to run and run and the game’s two most illustrious teams sent a terrible message around the world. This was not a football match. It was warped political theatre and there is more to come next week.