At 2–2, it looked as if everything had returned to square one.
But in reality, as the side that struck back, Barcelona had already seized the upper hand in nearly every aspect.
In the 42nd minute, Ronaldinho continued to carry the ball forward. Raúl tracked back on defense and brought him down, earning a yellow card.
In the 44th minute, Kompany won the ball and Real Madrid tried to counter. Guti, advancing with the ball, was grabbed and taken down by Xavi, who was also shown a yellow card.
Both sides were using fouls to stop each other's attacks.
Because these moments were their best chances to score.
Once halftime arrived, both head coaches were bound to adjust their teams.
That meant the opening stretch of the second half would require players on both sides to observe, adapt, and read the game all over again.
That was mentally exhausting.
In the 45th minute, Su Hang leapt near the edge of the penalty area to contest a header.
Oleguer, arriving a step late, deliberately crashed into Su Hang, violating his cylinder.
Su Hang was knocked sideways and slammed to the ground.
Real Madrid players immediately rushed over.
"What is he doing? Is he trying to kill someone?"
"That move was completely unnecessary—Oleguer's lost his composure."
"Oleguer's decision is incredibly unwise. He's already on a yellow, and that's another bookable offense."
Sure enough, as the referee strode over, several Barcelona players began to panic.
Xavi, Puyol, Thuram, and others rushed in to explain.
But the referee kept shaking his head.
Today, he was determined to be the iron-fisted of Camp Nou!
First: never act on emotion!
Second: never overlook a single wrongdoing!
Third: ensure absolute fairness and justice in officiating!
He knew Camp Nou's fans might never have seen such a righteous and upright referee before—but today, he had arrived!
"Oh! Yellow card! The referee shows Oleguer a yellow!"
"And that's his second! Two yellows make a red—Oleguer is sent off!"
"Barcelona are in serious trouble! They'll have to play the second half with ten men! For a team that just equalized, this is disastrous!"
"You have to say, this referee has real nerve—making calls like this at Camp Nou!"
Even Puyol felt it was surreal.
In recent years, few referees had dared to show Barcelona so little leniency.
"Referee, this is Camp Nou," Puyol kindly reminded him, hoping he might reconsider.
But the next moment, Su Hang stood up and said:
"So what?"
Puyol shrugged and didn't dare continue.
The referee swore this was the greatest sense of security he had ever felt in his life.
A sense of security none of his former boyfriends had ever given him.
Uh… boyfriends?
Su Hang quietly took a step away from the male referee.
Around the stadium, Barcelona fans cursed everything in sight.
"Dive! Su Hang definitely dived!"
"Exactly! He's that strong—how could he fall like that? He must've let Oleguer knock him over on purpose!"
"This is blatant bias!"
"This call is outrageous! Everyone knows you don't get penalties like that at Camp Nou! He already gave Real Madrid a penalty, and now he's given us a red card!"
"I thought I was watching a match at the Bernabéu! Is this really our home stadium?"
"This referee is slandering Barcelona!"
A Real Madrid fan couldn't take it anymore:
"How is it slander? Oleguer's foul was obvious, wasn't it?"
Barcelona fans fired back immediately:
"He's making what we do public—if that's not slander, what is?"
Bang!
As Beckham's direct free kick flew over the crossbar, the first half ended amid chaos and noise.
Both teams' marquee players had shown their dominance.
Su Hang's ruthless efficiency in front of goal.
Ronaldinho's overwhelming attacking presence.
Barcelona had been the pre-match favorites.
But once Oleguer was sent off, the momentum shifted.
At the start of the second half, Barcelona made adjustments.
Defender Silvinho came on, replacing striker Eto'o.
This substitution made complete sense.
Taking off Eto'o instead of Messi signaled Rijkaard's plan to attack through both wings.
It preserved Barcelona's ability to push the ball forward and maintain attacking pressure.
They could still carry the ball into the final third and sustain a threat.
However, they lost much of their ability to deliver the ball from outside the box into the penalty area, greatly reducing their direct scoring power.
If Messi had been taken off and Eto'o left on, the effect would have been the opposite.
They would retain their threat inside the box but struggle to move the ball efficiently past midfield.
This was home turf.
With his job on the line, Rijkaard had to make Barcelona play as attractively as possible—even with one man down.
In the 51st minute, Su Hang dropped into midfield and pulled off a Marseille turn to beat Deco.
But Deco reacted instantly, grabbing Su Hang's shirt and refusing to let go.
Su Hang slipped a through ball to Sergio Ramos, who was overlapping on the right, and was then dragged to the ground.
Ramos collected the ball, waited for Raúl to push forward, and played it ahead.
Raúl charged into the box, but his first touch let him down and the ball ran too far.
Valdés rushed out aggressively and gathered it.
The referee then returned to Deco and showed him a yellow card.
Barcelona's players and fans erupted in protest.
They argued that the match had already gone on so long—why issue a delayed booking now?
The referee explained that Deco's foul had seriously disrupted a promising Real Madrid attack and was a non-technical foul.
Barcelona fans were furious, convinced their team was being treated inhumanely.
They felt Barcelona had suffered massively.
But as commentators checked the statistics, they found that Barcelona had already received eight yellow cards and one red card.
Real Madrid, meanwhile, had only two yellow cards.
If anything, Real Madrid seemed to be the side enduring harsher treatment.
Their players had absorbed far too many fouls.
Despite Barcelona's players being smaller in stature, their challenges were ruthless.
This iron-blooded style persisted into the future as well—embodied by a player named Gavi, a clean-cut youngster who was a "beautiful butcher" on the pitch.
Given Real Madrid's injury crisis this season and the grueling three-front schedule ahead, where every player mattered,
it was hard to say whether Barcelona's foul-heavy approach was deliberate.
They might have been trying to intimidate Real Madrid.
Once fear crept in, Barcelona's job would become much easier.
In the 61st minute, Iniesta and Messi combined with a one-two outside the right side of the penalty area.
Bang!
Iniesta sent a cross into the box.
Helguera slid in with a flying tackle and cleared the danger.
Just outside the penalty area, Ronaldinho battled Diarra for the ball.
Ronaldinho controlled it first, forcing Diarra to use his hands to interfere, and Ronaldinho went down.
The referee applied the same standard to both sides—awarding a free kick and showing Diarra a yellow card.