Barcelona 1-2 Real Madrid
By Nick Powell
Real Madrid fought back from a goal down as they produced a superb late surge to cut the gap to the league leaders and end their 39 match unbeaten run in a game that came to life in the second half.
Barcelona were the better team in the first half and Lionel Messi was denied a penalty as they battered their rivals, who managed to hold out at a tense Camp Nou.
From a corner, they took a deserved lead. Gerard Pique managed to evade his marker, Pepe, before heading home from close range.
Barca didn't sit back and it would ultimately cost them, Toni Kroos' cross deflected into the path of Karim Benzema, whose acrobatic finish brought the visitors level.
Gareth Bale had a goal harshly ruled out for a deemed push on Jordi Alba, but despite Sergio Ramos' stupid second yellow card, and Cristiano Ronaldo, who had an incredibly quiet game, scored the winner 5 minutes from time.
By Nick Powell
Real Madrid fought back from a goal down as they produced a superb late surge to cut the gap to the league leaders and end their 39 match unbeaten run in a game that came to life in the second half.
Barcelona were the better team in the first half and Lionel Messi was denied a penalty as they battered their rivals, who managed to hold out at a tense Camp Nou.
From a corner, they took a deserved lead. Gerard Pique managed to evade his marker, Pepe, before heading home from close range.
Barca didn't sit back and it would ultimately cost them, Toni Kroos' cross deflected into the path of Karim Benzema, whose acrobatic finish brought the visitors level.
Gareth Bale had a goal harshly ruled out for a deemed push on Jordi Alba, but despite Sergio Ramos' stupid second yellow card, and Cristiano Ronaldo, who had an incredibly quiet game, scored the winner 5 minutes from time.
Barcelona started the game with a 10 point lead and would have been coasting towards the title had they won this one and while their run in is relatively simple, Real will believe they have hope of reeling them in.
After a minute's silence for ex-Barcelona great Johan Cruyff, El Clasico was under way.
The first big chance fell to Barcelona, Suarez coasted past Sergio Ramos before playing wide to Neymar, who returned favour Barca's number 9, who was positioned perfectly in the six yard box, but he misconnected and Real had a big let-off.
Following a special tribute on the 14 minute mark for Cruyff by the Barcelona fans, Messi and Rakitic went close to cap off a thoroughly dominant first 20 minutes.
The cards continued to come out, but Barcelona's dominance somewhat faded as Real Madrid created some genuine chances as Cristiano Ronaldo forced a save from distance before Gareth Bale fired over, but the former still should have been ahead.
The first half ended with both Dani Alves and Benzema missing great chances for Barca and Real respectively but the 99,264 strong crowd that had passed through the turnstiles at the Camp Nou had not been treated to a goal in the first period.
The second half started with Sergio Ramos, who was on a yellow card, committing to clear fouls but he survived on both occasions as he referee let play go on.
It was Barcelona's centre back who was at the centre of the next incident however, he did extremely well to evade Pepe and found himself in clear space and fired in to the front post. It was a soft goal for Real to concede, especially against a team of Barca's quality.
Almost instantly Real responded however, some beautiful one touch passing on the break helped them burst up field, and Marcelo found Kroos, who's cross deflected of the heel of Alba, and looped over the head of Pique before falling to the right of Benzema who's superb overhead brought Madrid level.
From an impossible angle, Suarez almost put Barca in the lead but that was the last joy they would have for the rest of the game as Real wrestled full control. Firstly, they hit Barca on the break, Bale looked to have scored but his leap over Alba was ruled as a foul. Barca had got of jail but the momentum was shifting.
It seemed to have been broken as Ramos finally went after a clueless lunge at Luis Suarez. But Real would score very soon after, again they broke up field and Bale, who had an excellent game, chipped to Ronaldo at the back post. After Dani Alves attempted to head it out, the ball fell to the feet of Ronaldo, who slid the ball under Bravo to win the game for the men in white.
Photos: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/football/35882665
Comments
Post a Comment