Real Madrid moved top of La Liga with a 2-1 victory over eternal rivals Barcelona in a thrilling Clasico at a rain-soaked Estadio Alfredo di Stefano.
Karim Benzema’s audacious near-post flick and Toni Kroos’ deflected free-kick left Real in control at the break, and Zinedine Zidane’s side should have had more to show for their superiority on the counter, with Federico Valverde rattling the post.
Lionel Messi was denied by the post at the end of the first half but, in monsoon-like conditions, Barca halved the deficit when Oscar Mingueza converted Jordi Alba’s cross after Antoine Griezmann’s clever dummy.
Madrid lost Casemiro to two yellow cards in the space of a minute as Barcelona piled on the pressure in search of a late equaliser, but their comeback fell agonisingly short, with substitute Ilaix Moriba’s thunderous effort cannoning off the bar in the final minute of stoppage time.
Notably, Barcelona have never won a La Liga title after losing both the Clasicos to Real Madrid but coach Zinedine Zidane played down talks of the win on Saturday being decisive in the title race. “We have to enjoy what we’ve been doing. We got two very good results and it wasn’t easy,” Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said.
“Being in the lead won’t change anything for us. We have to keep working hard.”
The result came just 4 days after the defending Spanish league champions defeated Liverpool in their Champions League quarter-final first-leg match.
On the other hand, Barcelona coach Ronaldo Koeman was not happy with the refereeing, expressing his disappointment over being denied two penalties in the final minutes. The Catalans had two late penalty claims as they chased the game, with Martin Braithwaite going to ground on both occasion after challenges from Ferland Mendy.
“If you’re a Barcelona fan and you saw this game you’d be very annoyed with two of the referee’s decisions. It was a clear, clear penalty and then he only gave four minutes of stoppage time,” he said.
After having been knocked out early from the Champions League competition, Barcelona are desparate to win the league title as quite a few things, including Messi’s future at the club, are at stake. Messi has his contract with Barcelona ending this season. The Argentina star expressed his desire to leave the Catalan club last year but had the request denied.
The defeat brings Barcelona’s 19-game unbeaten run to an end and hands the initiative in the La Liga title race to champions Real Madrid, who are level on points with Atletico Madrid but replace them at the summit by virtue of their superior head-to-head record.
