The last three weeks have seen Real Madrid and Barcelona play each other three times with a fourth to come tonight, which might be meaningless as Barcelona have won the first leg of their Champions League semi-final 2-0 at the Bernabéu and are practically through to the final at Wembley where we might witness a replay of the 2009 Final, which Barcelona won 2-0 against Man United.

Real in the meantime have won the Copa del Rey and so both teams have won a game each with one draw. This fourth match tonight will be overshadowed by events from last week’s first leg during which Pepe has been sent off and Mourinho was told to watch the match in the stands. After the game he accused literally everything and everyone of being against him and his team. That his team once more had a man sent off might be negligible but he made a big point put of it, constructing conspiracy theories, claiming that Barcelona had friends in higher places. Given the style of play of Real in comparison to Barça every one should be supporting the Catalans as their play is far superior and positive than Mourinho’s team ever will be. Negative tactics hardly pay off.

The game tonight will be the bitter end to a miserable affair and we can call ourselves lucky if we see some football being played amidst theatrical falls and rough challenges on both sides. However, the media fall-out from this will be much bigger and last longer than we might expect. UEFA will charge Mourinho, that is beyond doubt, to which he will of course have his thoughts (that is, if he really does speak his mind for once). And so it will go back and forth and the football will be pushed to the side to this theatre of absurdities, which is a sad and bleak outlook.