Barcelona held off a late fightback from Real Madrid to progress in the Copa del Rey courtesy of a 4-3 aggregate over their arch rivals.
Second half Real Madrid goals not enough to progress
Barcelona held off a late fightback from Real Madrid to progress to the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey courtesy of a 4-3 aggregate over their arch rivals at Camp Nou.
Jose Mourinho's men created the better of the first-half chances and Mesut Ozil's thunderous drive off the crossbar was unlucky not to open the scoring.
Against the run of play substitute Pedro slotted Barca in front and they doubled their advantage before half-time through Dani Alves' world-class strike.
Real scored in the 68th minute through Cristiano Ronaldo with substitute Karim Benzema levelling the score on the night four minutes later.
One more goal would have seen Real progress on the away-goals rule, but Barca held on while the visitors finished with ten men after Sergio Ramos was issued a second yellow card.
Drama
The drama started before the game as Mourinho started Pepe despite his stamp on Lionel Messi in last week's 2-1 first-leg defeat. However, in line with a much more offensive approach from Mourinho, Pepe started in central defence with Kaka and Mesut Ozil drafted into midfield.
And that positive approach was nearly rewarded inside the first 10 seconds as Gerard Pique misjudged a pass from Alves and allowed Gonzalo Higuain in on goal, but the Argentine pulled his shot wide.
The visitors were pressing extremely high up the field, denying Barca the time and space to build their usual flowing passing moves.
However, the European champions were still dangerous on the counter and Cesc Fabregas should have done better when he broke clear but his pass to Messi was behind the Argentinian.
Higuain then came tantalisingly close to making up for his earlier miss as his dipping shot from fully 30 yards hit the underside of the bar and came back out.
Despite Madrid's pressing, Barca insisted on trying to play the ball out from the back and they were nearly caught out when Higuain intercepted a Jose Pinto clearance but the striker again could not find a way through as the keeper saved with his legs.
Change
Barcelona were then forced into a change on 29 minutes as Andres Iniesta limped off with a suspected hamstring strain to be replaced by Pedro.
And the substitute was to prove crucial as the hosts scored twice in three minutes before the break. Firstly, Messi collected the ball in midfield and drove forward at the Real defence before laying a beautiful pass into the path of Pedro and the winger finished with aplomb.
Lassana Diarra was lucky to stay on the field two minutes later as having already been booked he chopped down Messi just outside the area, but the free-kick was to prove costly for the visitors anyway as Alves latched onto Messi's deflected effort and bulleted a shot into the top corner.
Real thought they had a way back into the match eight minutes after half-time but Ramos' header was ruled out for a pull on Alves. They did half the deficit on the night 14 minutes later though as Ronaldo raced through on goal and showed great composure to round Pinto and slot into the empty net.
Four minutes later it was 2-2 as Pique's clearance was intercepted by Ozil and Benzema took the ball past Carles Puyol before dispatching it into the net.
Messi twice came within inches of sealing the tie as his free-kick drifted just over and then another effort from just outside the area went wide, but the hosts had to endure a nervy finish before Ramos was sent off for a second yellow card with two minutes remaining.
