Two goals at the end of the first half from Pedro and Dani Alves appeared to have settled the tie in the Catalans's favour but a spirited fight-back from Real Madrid in the second half, spearheaded by substitute Karim Benzema, saw the game end in a 2-2 draw, a result which saw the holders of the competition usurped from their crown.
Having secured an impressive 2-1 win at the Santiago Bernabeu a week earlier, Barcelona were expected to comfortably advance to the next stage, the Camp Nou serving as their fortress in which they have not been defeated for 17 months since the shock 2-0 league defeat to Hercules at the start of last season. They were also buoyed by the fact that Real Madrid had only won one of the previous 14 encounters between the sides; the 1-0 victory which secured the trophy for Los Blancos last April.
Guardiola named an unchanged side from the first leg whilst Mourinho opted to start Gonzalo Higuain up front whilst Fabio Coentrao was preferred to Marcelo at left-back. And the Real Madrid boss's changes nearly paid dividends as early as the twelfth second when Higuain capitalised upon hesitance in the Barcelona defence by Gerard Piqué but he skewed his shot wide with only Pinto to beat. It was an early let-off for Los Blaugranes who had nearly allowed an early mistake prove costly as it had done in the league match in the Bernabeu when Benzema had opened the scoring after only 21 seconds.
Real Madrid continued to dominate the early stages, keen to level the tie on aggregate and Pinto was forced to pull off an outstanding point-blank save to deny Higuain from Xabi Alonso's whipped free-kick. Barcelona were struggling to make their final passes count and Real Madrid were looking dangerous every time they ventured forward with Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo and Mesut Ozil in an unforgiving mood.
It was in fact the German playmaker, Ozil, who came the closest to opening the scoring when he dipped inside two Barcelona players and unleashed a venomous, swerving left-footed effort from 30 yards which struck the inside of the woodwork, leaving Pinto stranded. Cristiano Ronaldo also had two ambitious attempts at Pinto's goal as Madrid desperately tried to break the deadlock before Pinto inexplicably fumbled a clearance to Higuain six yards out, but the Argentine forward could only direct his effort at the legs of the Spanish keeper.
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