Anything can happen in Barcelona

Posted Monday, August 15, 2011 by ESPN

Real Madrid assistant coach Aitor Karanka is confident his side can get a winning result in Wednesday's Spanish Supercopa second leg in Barcelona.

Madrid and Barca shared four goals in a thrilling first leg which ended 2-2 and Karanka believes they can still win the trophy in the away leg despite being held at home by their bitter rivals.

"Real Madrid tonight performed like they did in the preseason, of which we are proud," Karanka told the club's official website.

"Tonight's match is the result of everything we worked on this last month. It is bittersweet when you draw after doing everything in your power to win, but the team is in better shape than it was last year and that's what we'll take from the game.

"The final score is what it is. We did a good job, just like in the preseason. It's a shame we didn't win given our excellent performance and the many chances we had to score. We still have to play a match in Barcelona and we want to continue improving.

"Anything can happen in Barcelona with this result."

Real opened the scoring through Mesut Ozil after some good work from Karim Benzema. The Frenchman picked apart the Barca defence before laying on a ball for Ozil to slot past Valdes and into the bottom right-hand corner.

Barcelona replied through David Villa and took the lead through Lionel Messi but Madrid equalised in the 53rd minute with a measured shot from Xabi Alonso. The former Liverpool man found the corner of the net with an effort from the edge of the box.

It's all to play for with the scores locked at 2-2 in Wednesday's second leg.