'No tension between Real, Barca team'

Posted Saturday, September 03, 2011 by Supersport.com

Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque said on Friday that conflict between Real Madrid and Barcelona has not spilled over into the national team.

Tensions between the two sides boiled over during last month's Spanish Super Cup.

Barcelona beat Madrid 3-2 in the second leg of the tournament on August 18 to secure a 5-4 aggregate victory after the match ended in a mass brawl that saw three players sent off.

Madrid coach Jose Mourinho poked Barcelona assistant coach Tito Vilanova in the eye in the final minutes of the match, allegedly in response to a series of provocations and insults from the Catalan bench.

"There is no problem within the national team. The players know the difference between the league and the national team, they know they represent Spain," Del Bosque told a news conference ahead of La Roja's friendly clash with Chile on Friday night in Switzerland.

Barcelona and Madrid contribute 14 of the 24 players in Del Bosque's squad for the match against Chile as well as the Euro 2012 qualifier against Liechtenstein four days later.

Spain lost their place at the top of Fifa's ranking for the first time since winning the World Cup in South Africa last year after going down 2-1 to Italy in a friendly on August 10.