27th April 2011: Real Madrid 0-2 Barcelona: Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, Champions League Semi Final 1st Leg –

If the first two games had been relatively tame, then the “Game of Shame” made up for that. According to Henry Winter, “this was a game that dignity forgot. There was no respect, no charm, no integrity”. The football had become a sideshow to the manic cabaret that was taking part on the sidelines and, quite frankly, all over the pitch. When he was the manager of Barcelona, Sir Bobby Robson had called the rivalry with Real Madrid a “powder keg”. The fuse was just about to be lit.

Real Madrid again started with Pepe in midfield, giving him licence to chase and harry the Barça midfield. The injured Sami Khedira was replaced with Lassana Diarra whilst Raul Albiol came in for Ricardo Carvalho. For Barcelona, Puyol came back into the side, playing at left back, whilst Mascherano dropped into defence and Keita started in midfield in lieu of the injured Iniesta. As soon as the players walked out, you could tell this game was different. The noise from the crowd was louder, the intensity higher, and straight away there were niggling fouls and signs of frustration.

From the off, neither team wants to give an inch. The first flashpoint comes in the 39th minute. Pedro runs into Arbeloa and goes down like he’s been shot, which leads to handbags between the usual suspects, Busquets is there, Pique, of course, Alonso pushes him back. Half-time comes and it is 0-0, and as the players make their way towards the tunnel, a mass brawl begins. Dozens of players and staff from both sides tangle, José Pinto, the Barça reserve goalkeeper is sent off, and the crowd is whipped up into a frenzy.

The second half restarts in much the same fashion before the turning point. As a ball is played across to Dani Alves, Pepe comes charging in, studs up, and fells the Brazilian right back. Straight away the Barcelona and Madrid players surround the referee, leaving the prone Alves to his own devices. Wolfgang Stark, the German referee, is surrounded in a tunnel of Spanish indignation. He breaks out of the huddle, moves towards Pepe and brandishes a red card. The camera turns to the Madrid players’ protestations, Pepe’s foot was high but it looked a little harsh. Then the camera focuses on Mourinho. He’s not on the touchline anymore but is being smuggled into the front row of the crowd by the stewards. The red card graphic for Mourinho floats up onto our TV screens, and then the cameras cut to a replay from moments before showing Mourinho putting his thumbs up, winking at the fourth official and mouthing “well done”. Madrid were not only down to 10 men but had lost their talismanic coach as well. From that point on you feel the Madrid players expect to lose: they had their excuses already, what happened in the rest of this game wouldn’t really matter. It did to Barça. In the 76th minute, Messi gets the breakthrough with his 51st goal of the season, a relative tap in for him after some good work by the substitute Afellay. And then in the 87th minute, he does it again. Except this is no tap in. It’s one of those moments that will forever be referred to when debating the greatest player of all time. He picks up the ball about 10 yards into the Madrid half, as Busquets just lays it off for him and then moves out the way as quickly as possible. Messi starts centre of the goal, uses his initial burst of pace to beat the defenders, and then just keeps going. Into the Madrid area, one-on-one with Casillas, he tucks the ball beyond him, rolling it into the bottom corner. 0-2, two away goals, both from Messi. The greatest of all time? Probably.

The full-time whistle blows shortly after, and we all know what’s coming next. A tweet posted on the BBC’s live stream of the game sums it all up: “Phew. Finally, the 90 minutes of build-up is over. Now to the real spectacle - Mourinho's post-match press conference!" But it doesn’t come. Not immediately anyway. In an unprecedented move, Uefa lock the two sides in their own dressing rooms, forbidding them from immediately speaking to the press. They know what they’ve witnessed, their premier competition, watched by millions of people around the world, has descended into a complete farce. Eventually, they are let out, Mourinho is naturally “disgusted at the world we live in”, and confirms “yes, we have already been knocked out”. But his comments take on a more serious tone. Mourinho starts to talk about “dark forces” at work and claims that Uefa do not want Madrid to progress and only want Barcelona to win. Essentially, Uefa were fixing the tournament. He also says Guardiola should be ashamed of the way his team had acted, that they were constantly diving and protesting to the referee in order to get Madrid players sent off. Personally to Guardiola, he said, “I would like Josép Guardiola to win this competition properly”. His rant ended by talking up the conspiracy again: why had certain referees been picked for Barcelona games?

"If I tell Uefa what I really think and feel, my career would end now. Instead, I will just ask a question to which I hope one day to get a response: Why? Why? Why Ovrebo? Why Busacca? Why De Bleeckere? Why Stark? Why? Because every semi-final the same things happen. We are talking about an absolutely fantastic football team, so why do they need that? Why? Why does a team as good as they are need something [extra] that is so obvious that everyone sees it?”

Guardiola’s reaction was muted: he refused to comment on the ‘dark forces’ claim and simply discussed Messi’s brilliance and pragmatically talked of how everything was still to play for. In the days after, Barcelona confirmed that they had reported the comments of Mourinho (and by extension Madrid who supported him) to Uefa. In retaliation, Madrid reported Barcelona for hounding the referees. Nothing much would come of the allegations, a few fines here and there, a touchline ban for Mourinho, but the football world had been left stunned, and a dark cloud had descended over the two clubs.