Barcelona
won the battle at Camp Nou against Real Madrid to stay at the top of the La
Liga table. This gives them a four point lead over Atletico Madrid who are with
24 points plus a game in hand and Barca have maintained their hundred percent record
in La Liga. Barcelona's Brazilian star Neymar ended his first El Clasico debut
in a style by scoring and assisting a goal while the most expensive player Gareth
Bale would probably be dreaming of such night at Camp Nou.
Madrid
started the game with the 4-3-3 formation that they have been working hard over
the last couple of weeks. Martino brought in Fabregas to play center forward while
Messi started from the right side of the field but was drifting towards the
center frequently.
Bale
played an hour before being substituted in the second half and there were
several bursting first half runs and shots over Valdes’ bar. But for the
Brazillian star it was totally a different story, Neymar got the first goal
running onto Iniesta's pass and set-up the second by playing the ball towards
the substitute Chilean Alexis Sanchez who beat Diego Lopez with a perfect chip.
Barcelona
controlled possession as part of a physical start to the game that saw both midfielders
pick up yellow cards. Sergio Ramos' yellow would come into play when Neymar
scored his first goal against Real Madrid.
Ronaldo,
who was frustrated all the time at his teammate’s because they were neither
providing him the passes he was wishing for nor to make the most of the
Portuguese’s brilliant passes, finally his hard work rewarded in the injury
time when he found Jese Rodriguez who replaced Di Maria in the second half, Jese
puts the ball into the back of the net by a composed finish from the top of the
box to set up a dramatic finish.
Real
Madrid is justifiably a little annoyed at two missed penalty appeals, one for a
handball by the defender Adriano and another for a foul on Ronaldo by Argentinean
midfielder Mascherano, but they have better reasons to be concerned instead of
the result of a single match against Barcelona – mainly at the addition of the
star player Gareth Bale.
Thanks for a great post Yousuf Siddique!
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