The push that almost unleashed a battle in Barcelona’s victory over Real Madrid: “The classics have nothing to do with friendlies”

In the city where the lights don’t go out, the parties last until dawn and the casinos never close their doors, the Brazilian Raphinha was given away his first big night with Barcelona and, with a spectacular left-footed shot after an error by his compatriot Eder Militao when the ball came out, he gave victory to the azulgrana in the classic “not so” friendly against Real Madrid in Las Vegas (EE.UU.).

The Brazilian’s great goal shone in the night of the debut with the Barça of the Pole Robert Lewandowskiwho was very active and persistent in a first half of solid control by Xavi Hernández’s players.

This atypical and pre-season classic was played at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas (USA) in the middle of a great atmosphere with more than 61,000 spectators in a stadium with capacity for about 65,000. They all witnessed a clash that was close to ending in a battle if it had not been for the intervention of some footballers.

the brazilian vinicius had been missing for most of the first part, but in the last few minutes several starts were invented by the left band that gave some spark to the poor white attack.

In one of them he designed a fantastic race from the middle of the field to the area that could only cut with a hard entry Jordi Alba (he ended up receiving a yellow card), which sparked a fight between the players of both teams. Pushes, protests, bites… This derby was a friendly on paper, but neither team took it that way.

In the images it was possible to see the moment in which the striker merengue Mariano he pushed Eric Garcia first without reasons and later to Sergio Busquets. It was at that moment when the culé captain tried to return the aggression and the weather got out of control for a few moments. Another of the heavyweight crosses that occurred in that action was that of the central Antonio Rudiger and Ronald Araujo.

“I have seen a lot of people from Barça (in Las Vegas). Whenever we come to the United States we notice the affection of all the people and today was a classic, it was a friendly but it’s always a classic (…). There’s nothing friendly about the classics and in the end it’s important to keep winning”, said Jordi Alba at the press conference after the match.

In the other side, Tibauth Courtois tried to calm the spirits after the defeat: “In preseason we lost 7-3 against Atlético in New York (2019) and then we beat them twice and won the League. Friendlies don’t say muchyou want to win in front of the fans in the United States, but it’s about getting into a rhythm”.

The truth is that, with more rhythm than Real Madrid (this was the Whites’ first game in pre-season, while the Blaugrana had just beaten Inter Miami 0-6 on Tuesday), Barcelona took over the Clásico from the start. From the hand of Raphinha and Ansu Fati, who opened the field a lot, the Barça He showed a promising intensity on divided balls and overwhelmed the Whites’ very inaccurate ball exit with their pressure.

Dembélé twice and Dest forced three fantastic saves by the Belgian goalkeeper, that after his exhibition in the final of the Champions League and throughout last season was at the dessert of the best of Real Madrid.

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