Real Madrid vs. Barcelona: 5 Lessons Learned from the 2nd Leg of the Supercopa

Yesterday, the Spanish Supercopa came to an exciting conclusion, with Barcelona edging out Real Madrid once again, courtesy of an excellent game-winner from Lionel Messi.

Yet, despite Barcelona taking home the trophy and the bragging rights, important lessons were learned by both sides. Here, we take a look at some of those lessons.

Lionel Messi Is Currently the Undisputed Best Football Player on Earth

If there was any doubt remaining, it had to have been squashed in this Supercopa.

Going into this second leg, I personally thought the stage was set for Ronaldo to put some question marks back into the debate on who the better player was, or at least close the ever-widening gap between his and Messi's respective reputations.

It appears I was dead wrong.

It could be said that it was "just one of those days" for Ronaldo, but that excuse can't be used on a stage like this.

Messi was absolutely phenomenal. He sent a sublime through-ball in for Andres Iniesta to finish with a smooth chip, then finished with a smooth chip of his own at the stroke of halftime. His bullet into the net in the 87th minute off an Adriano cross won the game, and put the icing on the cake for a magnificent performance.

Ronaldo?

To be fair, he had a decent first half. He scored the first goal for Madrid (although, I have to say, I've watched the replays on that goal about 10 times now and it completely looks like a Sergio Ramos goal to me) and took a powerful shot that Valdes could only push up against the crossbar. He could even be seen playing defense at times!

But he was completely neutralized in the second half. To say he disappeared would be incorrect; he was very clearly visible, trying to trick his way past his defenders and failing time and time again. The frustration eventually got to him and he faded almost completely out of the game.

As his influence waned, Messi's grew, and he was able to win his team the game just when it looked like Real Madrid's late equalizer had sucked the life out of his team and the stadium.

It may just be the Spanish Supercopa, but it's enough for me. Over two legs, Messi was the player of the tie and confirmed to me what many already take as fact: Messi is currently the best football player on the planet.

El Clasico Will Not Be Civil While Jose Mourinho Is Madrid's Manager

Let's be clear here: I'm a huge fan of Jose Mourinho's coaching style. He has an amazing resume, has brought success with him wherever he's gone and I'm fully confident that if anyone is going to lead Read Madrid to success, he's the man to do it.

But there's no denying that he has his faults. And yesterday, we saw one of them: his inability to be a gracious loser.

Some might say that it's good for a manager to not know how to lose, which is a fair argument, but not when it means that you jump into a brawl with your team and pinch your opponent's assistant coach. That's downright childish and wrong.

But that's only the beginning. There's no denying that the Real Madrid players are feeding off of Jose Mourinho's hatred for Barcelona.

At first I was willing to turn a blind eye and say that the players were just getting worked up in the tension and excitement of the game. But Marcelo's tackle made it clear that that wasn't always the case.

The Brazilian left-back went in on Fabregas with a dangerous two-footed tackle that could've easily injured him. Anywhere else in the world, a stupid tackle like that gets you a serious talking to from the coach and maybe even gets you dropped from the team for a couple of games. 

Unfortunately, Mourinho will likely leave the punishing to the Spanish Federation. He is unlikely to tell his players to try and cool down their hatred for Barcelona and focus more on the game.

I don't think that most, or even many, Real Madrid players have a great deal of hatred or even dislike for the players of Barcelona. But there are definitely some, like Marcelo, who are feeding off Mourinho's hate and need him to put them back in line and calm them down.

If he's unable to do that, it's unlikely we'll see a civil Clasico until Mourinho (or Guardiola) leaves.

Fabio Coentrao Is Better in Midfield Than in Defense

Despite getting plenty of game time in both legs of the Supercopa, I'm still stuck with this ugly picture of Coentrao. Oh well.

Yesterday, Fabio Coentrao got his first start at left-back over Marcelo; for me it was a less-than-impressive start. He wasn't able to exert his influence on the game. He made some decent tackles, but overall, he was more solid than spectacular.

He looked a lot better when he slotted back into the defensive midfielder role he's been playing for most of preseason and Marcelo came on for Khedira to play as left-back. He was able to showcase his high work rate and, though he had no standout moments, he just looked more confident and assured in possession.

Going forward, I think Marcelo should remain the starter at left-back, provided he can remember his defensive duties and cool his temper, while Coentrao should start as a defensive midfielder alongside Xabi Alonso.

As much as I like Khedira, he consistently disappears or simply doesn't do enough in Clasicos. To me, he'd be a decent backup for Coentrao, but otherwise I'd like to see Coentrao starting regularly ahead of him.

The Sooner Puyol Comes Back, the Better for Barcelona

It's been a long time since I've seen Barcelona's defense put in an assured 90 minutes of work, and even longer since I've seen them keep a clean sheet. And to me, that's almost 100 percent due to Puyol's absence.

I don't mean to take anything away from Javier Mascherano; he's done well to reinvent himself as a centre-back. But he just hasn't done well enough.

Puyol to Barca is what Vidic is to Manchester United and Terry is to Chelsea. He's the calm, controlling presence that makes everyone feel like everything is going as it should be. And I just can't see Mascherano getting up to that level, no matter how much he tries.

Going further, the Pique-Mascherano partnership just hasn't worked as well as it needs to. Both defenders are hard workers, but their playing styles don't seem to complement each other. Pique loves to go forward, leaving Mascherano often exposed at the back.

With Puyol, this wasn't really an issue because Puyol is more than capable of holding his own against attackers until Pique can track back and help out, but with Mascherano you always get the feeling that he needs another defender to be there to clean up in case he makes any mistakes.

Guardiola has tried playing Abidal and Busquets in the center of defense in the absence of Puyol as well. Both failed miserably, performing a lot worse than Mascherano.

In the second leg of the Supercopa, Barcelona conceded one rather lucky goal to Real Madrid, and a sloppy one late on. If Puyol was on the field, I personally feel that at least one of those would not have occurred.

Real Madrid Are Close to Being Where They Need To Be

In the end, the 5-4 to Barcelona was a good representation of the current difference between the two sides. Barcelona are still better, but Real Madrid are very, very close.

Over both legs of the Supercopa, there were a lot of improvements.

Benzema's confidence is clearly sky high; some improved finishing could see him become one of the world's most fearsome strikers. 

Ronaldo, despite disappearing in the second half of the second leg, looked good overall. He has started to play defense and if he can learn to keep himself from getting frustrated and remain focused and optimistic for the whole 90 minutes, he will go a long way to improving his team's performances.

Finally, Pepe and Coentrao were very apparent bright spots for Real Madrid. Pepe continues to be an amazing tackler and his tackle on Iniesta was absolutely superb. Once Coentrao settles into a clear role with the team, it looks like he'll definitely improve its quality.

At the same time, there were a couple of weaknesses that were exposed.

For the second-straight game, Angel di Maria went missing. Whereas Ronaldo was ineffective in the second half and faded badly, I hardly noticed di Maria on the pitch from the start of the game. Against Barelona that just can't be happening and must be addressed by Mourinho.

Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos also did not have good games. As is often the case for Xabi Alonso against Barcelona, he just seemed to be overrun in midfield. He needs to strike up a good partnership with his fellow defensive midfielder, be it Coentrao, Khedira, or whoever else, to prevent that from happening. Ramos was good going forward, but got cut open by Messi for the first goal and did not look good in defense. 

If Mourinho can continue to expand on the positives from Real's Supercopa displays and work on fixing the negatives, Real Madrid should come much closer to Barcelona by the time the two next meet in the league.

What Do You Think?

What do you think we learned from the Supercopa? Do you agree with the lessons listed here or do you think some of them are inaccurate?

Make your opinion known by leaving a comment below. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the Supercopa and discussing them with you.