Barcelona vs Real Madrid is all about fierce battles, stunning goals, controversy and entertainment.
The whole world witnessed it all at the weekend as Spain’s two arch-rivals clashed. Real defeated Barcelona 3-2 in a tight match on Sunday. Jude Bellingham emrged as the hero of Los Blancos’ victory. Carlo Ancelotti’s men moved a step closer to winning the El Clasico. Real has 81 points, 11 points more than Barcelona in the La Liga points table with six matches remaining.
Points table race:
In midweek, both teams in the race for Europe’s best took to the field. There, Real reached the last four of the Champions League, but Barca’s tour ended with a narrow loss against Paris Saint-Germain. Therefore, the Catalan club entered the field determined to reduce the gap with Real to five points by winning the Clasico. To that end, Andres Christianson put Barca ahead.
First half:
The match was only past six minutes when Real’s tall goalkeeper Andre Lunin emerged as the hero in midweek in the penalty shootout. It was his mistake that Real scored the first goal of the day. Lunin failed to get his hands on the ball despite coming forward from the corner. Christianson connected the ball to the header in the empty net.
However, Real did not have to wait long to return to parity. Barca’s 17-year-old defender Pau Kuberci fouled Lucas Vazquez in the box and Real got a penalty. Vinicius Junior made no mistake from the penalty spot despite missing a golden opportunity to score early in the match. Young Barca forward Lamin Yamal was attacking from the right and was repeatedly troubling left-back Kamavinga. In the first 28 minute, Lamine Yamal’s flick somehow found its way into the goal before being pushed wide by Lunin. Although Barca claimed that the ball had crossed the goal line. But as La Liga does not have goal-line technology, that could not be confirmed. There is a lot of controversy about this.
Yamal appealed for a penalty moments later, but it was turned down by the referee, further exasperating the Barca camp. Before the end of the first half, Barca midfielder Frankie de Jong suffered an ankle injury and had to be carried off the field on a stretcher. The first half ended 1-1.
Second half:
Both teams started the second half slowly. However, Fermin Lopez, who came in as a replacement for Christianson, scored a goal in the 69th minute to give Barca the lead once again in the match. But just four minutes later, Vazquez leveled Real for the second time in the match from Vinicius’ cross. Bellingham decided the fate of the match in stoppage time. England’s top scorer of the season netted his 17th league goal for Real from Vazquez’s cross. Despite not having much of an impact on the game for most of the match, it was Bellingham who led the team to a thrilling victory.
