Barcelona believe their latest El Clasico victory over Real Madrid will be the perfect tonic as they attempt to eat into their bitter rivals’ five-point lead at La Liga summit. Barcelona beat Real 2-1 in a bad-tempered King’s Cup quarter-final first leg clash in midweek and will start as favourites to wrap up the tie in the second leg at their Nou Camp home next week. Before then, the defending champions travel to Malaga on Sunday while Real tackle Athletic Bilbao. In Wednesday’s feverish cup atmosphere, Jose Mourinho’s Real looked nothing like the side which had won all but one of their last 23 matches and amassed 63 goals so far this season in the league. That lone defeat had also come against Barcelona in December. Real have been stuttering away from home recently where they have only won three out of eight games and looked defensively frail last weekend in the 4-2 win over Real Betis. In midweek, Mourinho preferred to offer a more defensive display where Pepe was once again the villain. The Portuguese attempted to stop Barca with some over the top challenges with the worst offence his crude stamping on the hand of Lionel Messi as the Argentine star lay on the ground. Gerard Pique has not been a regular in the Barca side this season due to injuries and has often been left out when coach Pep Guardiola has played three at the back. He produced a solid performance against Real and said that when Barca play to their potential they are still the team to beat. “That was one of our best performances and when we play like that then we are not going to lose. We have a style of football which we have been playing for many years and we play the same in whichever stadium,” he said.
