As ever El Clasico did not disappointed the spectators. Seven goals, a red card and the feeling that the match could change suddenly in the space of minutes as it did. And so did La Liga that now has a new leader: Atletico Madrid.
Diego Simeone’s squad defeated Real Betis in the afternoon and waited impatiently for the result of the clash between Real Madrid and Barcelona. Only an away win would have given the lead to Atletico that have the same amount of points of Real (70) but they better the cross-town rivals in the head-to-head record.
On the other hand, Barça’s win at Bernabeu means that Blaugrana are still in the competition and with an in-form Lionel Messi, they have found again their talisman who can break through any defence. Before El Clasico Real Madrid had conceded just seven goals in 17 games in 2014 but tonight Barcelona achieved to put four into Diego Lopez’s net. And Real Madrid also ended their run of 31 games without losing.
It took only five minutes to realize that the game would not delude the expectation. Iniesta scored the first goal after a fine pass from Messi, and then Messi and Neymar combined together for a breattaking counterattack which they failed to score in the matter on minutes.
Promptly Real Madrid reorganized themselves with Cristiano Ronaldo shifted alongside Karim Benzema and Angel Di Maria put wider. This change gave result almost immediately as Di Maria set the ball for the French striker who beat Victor Valdes with a powerful header that the keeper couldn’t hold.
Four minutes later, Di Maria surged down the left again, crossing for Benzema to make it 2-1. Dani Alves seemed to have difficulties with the pace of Di Maria while Pique and Mascherano – the latter guilty of bad positioning in the second goal – weren’t able to deal properly with CR7 and Benzema.
The Frenchman, just three minutes later, could have scored again but this time Pique cleared the ball off the line. Barcelona seemed bamboozled and Real were pretty comfortable in control. However, just few minutes before the break, the visitors equalized with Messi flashing the ball into the net from a crowded box.
If the first half was such entertaining, the second part gifted even more excitement. Real Madrid took control of the match again, when Ronaldo was clumsily fouled by Dani Alves, The referee pointed to the penalty spot in the 54th minute and Madrid regained their lead.
As soon as the Portuguese tucked in the penalty it was obvious that Real Madrid would have tried to kill the game using Benzema or Ronaldo to finish the work. Instead, Barça didn’t take more than 10 minutes to comeback. A wonderful pass from Messi – again – found Neymar on the run, the off-side trap didn’t work and Sergio Ramos was forced to bring down the Brazilian, though the contact wasn’t so evident. Ramos was sent off too. Messi equalized but from now, the game was an uphill race for Real Madrid.
Carlo Ancelotti took off Benzema and brought in a central defender, Raphael Varane. Real sat deeper allowing Barça to play their passes meanwhile remaining solid in front of Diego Lopez. The plot was sufficient to not concede great opportunities, however it looked as Barcelona could suddenly break the deadlock. Eventually, they did, when Xabi Alonso and Dani Carvajal made a “sandwich” with Iniesta and Alberto Undiano Mallenco assigned the second penalty to the Catalans.
Messi (and Barcelona) din’t miss the opportunity to win the game and are now a point behind Real and Atletico. The Argentinean was calm and struck the penalty into the net for the final 4-3. The Liga is still open and the race for the title looks more appealing with each passing week. However, there is no time to celebrate or despair as Atletico, Real and Barcelona will be all in action on Wednesday against Granada, Sevilla and Celta Vigo, respectively.
GIF’s Via Media Crush