Football : Barcelona to a 2-0 win over bitter rivals Real Madrid With Messi magic.

Lionel Messi's sublime double lifted Barcelona to a 2-0 win over bitter rivals Real Madrid and lit up an acrimonious Champions League semi-final first leg in which the hosts finished with 10 men and had coach Jose Mourinho sent off.

The Argentine World Player of the Year's clinical finish from close range in the 76th minute and brilliant individual strike three minutes from time gave Barca the spoils at a rowdy Bernabeu on Wednesday in an attritional contest which was short on entertaining football but rich in controversy.

Bad blood had flowed between the sides in the lead-up to the match, their third meeting in just over a week, and it spilt on to the pitch as the players trooped off at the break.

Barca reserve goalkeeper Jose Manuel Pinto was shown a red card following a fracas next to the tunnel, while Real defender Pepe was dismissed for a lunging tackle on Daniel Alves with just over half an hour left.

Mourinho, who unleashed a sustained rant at his press conference in which he accused UEFA of favouring Barca, was sent to the stands for protesting the decision.

Messi's goals, his 10th and 11th in 11 games in this edition of Europe's elite club competition, gave Barca a huge advantage to take back to the Nou Camp next week.

The 23-year-old sped into the penalty area to meet Ibrahim Afellay's low cross from the right and steer the ball past Iker Casillas from close range to break the deadlock.

He followed that up with a wonderful second when he weaved his way through the Real defence and slotted past Casillas to give the Catalan side a two-goal cushion to take into Tuesday's return leg in the Catalan capital.

Guardiola, who refused to respond to Mourinho's remarks about UEFA, warned his players that they still had a good deal of work to do in the second leg and said you could never write off the nine-times winners.

"We played a very, very good match," he told a news conference.

"We controlled the speed of their counterattacks and their aerial game which is very powerful," he added. "We got a good result and I congratulate the team."

The Real fans turned the giant arena into a sea of white flags before kickoff, while several thousand Barca faithful waving Catalan banners high up in the stands tried to make themselves heard above the din.

Real tore into Barca and stopped them playing in the first half of last week's King's Cup final, which the Madrid club won 1-0, but it was a different story on Wednesday as Barca controlled without showing too much ambition in attack.

David Villa cut in from the right wing in the 11th minute and sent a low drive whistling past the post and Messi sent Xavi clear in the 25th but his effort was straight at Casillas.

The home side's best effort of the first half came moments before the break when Cristiano Ronaldo tested Victor Valdes with a swerving effort the Barca keeper just managed to block.

The second half was short on the kind of entertaining football Real and Barca typically produce as the visitors again dominated possession without ever really threatening the home goal until Messi took matters into his own hands.

Mourinho said his team had no chance of reaching the final and suggested that even if they managed to score a goal at the Nou Camp the referee would somehow prevent them going through.

"We will go there with all the pride and respect for our world of football," the Portuguese added.

"We might score a goal and that would open up the game but they (UEFA) will kill us again."

In Tuesday's first semi-final, English Premier League leaders Manchester United won 2-0 at Bundesliga side Schalke 04. The final is at London's Wembley stadium on May 28.

Football : Classy Manchester United tear Schalke apart

Manchester United overwhelmed Schalke 04 as they strolled to a 2-0 victory in their Champions League semi-final first leg on Tuesday in a one-sided match that left the home fans stunned.

Ryan Giggs and Wayne Rooney scored in the space of two second-half minutes and United could have had more but for the superb goalkeeping of Manuel Neuer with the final score hardly reflecting the huge difference in quality between the sides.

Alex Ferguson's team were superior in all aspects of the game and United - three-time winners of Europe's top prize - go into the return leg having gained a huge advantage after dominating the dazed Germans for about an hour.

"It was a top performance and credit to the players for their belief in themselves and the trust in each other," Ferguson told reporters. "It ranks as one of our best [performances in Europe]."

United shot out of the blocks and could have had three or four goals by the end of the first half were it not for the heroics of Neuer who single-handedly kept Schalke in the game.

Whether attacking from the right, left or centre, the home side's defence looked sluggish with United's players having time and space to create numerous chances.

Mexican Javier Hernandez, nicknamed Chicharito, and South Korean Park Ji-Sung saw their early efforts blocked by Neuer but it was just the start of a prolonged United assault that ended only after the visitors took their foot off the gas.

Neuer twice denied Giggs late in the first half but the Welshman, picked out in the box when Rooney flicked a pass through Joel Matip's legs, was on target in the 67th minute.

The England striker, who was sent off in the same stadium against Portugal in the 2006 World Cup finals, then turned scorer by firing home from inside the area after Hernandez set him up with a well-timed pass.

"I think there was frustration towards the end of the first half with that final save from Ryan's [header]. We had to correct that at halftime," said Ferguson.

"But what broke the camel's back was Chicharito's goal (that was disallowed early in the second half) because we saw that we could beat the guy (Neuer)."

Ferguson also heaped praise on Giggs, who at 37 may not play as often as he did but is still lethal when he does.

"This is strange because his peak seems to have lasted so long now," said Ferguson. "I see no evidence of this waning."

"He won't be playing on Sunday (against Arsenal), he'll be playing next Wednesday (in the Schalke return) and when he gets that freshness he shows no signs of weakness. He is an amazing man."

Ferguson even hinted that he might be able to rest some players for the second leg at Old Trafford, saying: "Depending on the result on Sunday I could make two or three changes".

The scoreline leaves Schalke, playing in their first Champions League semi-final, facing a mighty task going into the return next week, with the winners going through to play Barcelona or Real Madrid in the final at Wembley on May 28.

"We had imagined this game differently. We lacked the final pass today which we had against Inter Milan (in the quarter-finals)," said Schalke coach Ralf Rangnick.

"We had to thank Manuel Neuer that we were not two or three goals down in the first half.

"But why should we capitulate? We need to make things differently and in football many things have happened.

"We have shown we can score away from home and we will try to get our chances in Manchester," added Rangnick who took over just a month ago from Felix Magath.

Football : Arsenal title dream shattered at Bolton

Arsenal's Premier League title hopes suffered a crushing blow when they conceded a last-minute goal to lose 2-1 at Bolton Wanderers on Sunday.

Bolton substitute Tamir Cohen headed the winner, leaving Arsenal nine points behind leaders Manchester United with four games left and almost certainly ending their bid to claim a first trophy since 2005.

Arsenal went into the match on an unbeaten 16-game run but a succession of draws had allowed United, who beat Everton 1-0 on Saturday, to open a gap at the top of the table.

"It is difficult to swallow the way we lost," Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger told Sky Sports.

"We had chances to win it but didn't take it and in the end we were caught in the way we feared today, from a corner. The week we have just had summed up our season -- lots of quality in our game on Sunday, Wednesday and today but not enough rewards for our effort. We could have had nine points but we got two."

United lead the way with 73 points, champions Chelsea are second on 67 and Arsenal, who have won only one of their last seven league games, have 64.

Manchester City, who visit Blackburn Rovers on Monday, are fourth on 56 with Tottenham Hotspur on 55.

Bolton were unrecognisable from the team thrashed 5-0 by Stoke City in the FA Cup semi-finals a week ago.

Their players used the match programme to apologise to their fans for their performance at Wembley and they certainly set about the match as if they had a point to prove.

Lee Chung-yong missed two good chances before they took a deserved lead in the 38th minute.

Gary Cahill's header from a corner was blocked on the line by Samir Nasri but Daniel Sturridge nodded in the rebound for his seventh goal in nine games since arriving on loan from Chelsea in January.

Bolton were awarded a soft penalty 30 seconds into the second half when Sturridge went down under little pressure from Johan Djourou but Kevin Davies shot weakly at Wojciech Szczesny.

Three minutes later Arsenal were level when Robin van Persie played a great one-two with Cesc Fabregas, who hit the post late in the first half, before scoring from the edge of the box. 

A great save by Jussi Jaaskelainen denied Nasri in the 70th minute but though Arsenal, who were seeking a ninth successive victory over Bolton, dominated possession they struggled to test the keeper further.

Instead it was the home side who struck when Cohen, on the pitch for four minutes, powerfully headed home a corner.

He celebrated by tearing off his shirt to reveal a t-shirt bearing a picture of his father Avi, the former Liverpool player who died after a motorbike accident in Israel in December -- and collected a mandatory booking for his actions.

"After last week, we wanted to show the fans we had the passion to prove to them that was just one bad day," Sturridge told Sky Sports.

"I have done my team Chelsea a favour today but I came out here to work for Bolton and their fans."

Bolton manager Owen Coyle said: "I think everyone knows how bad we felt after the FA Cup semi-final and it was important we showed our character today -- and we did that.

"We dealt Arsenal's title hopes a big blow but more important for us was our performance. I think we showed the real Bolton Wanderers today and went a long way to putting the smile back on our fans' faces."