While waiting for the return match in La Liga (March 19) and the Copa del Rey semi-final return (April 5), Barcelona are leading two wins to one against their best enemy Real Madrid this season. After the success of Merengue in La Liga (3-1), Barça, already winner of the Super Cup on January 15 (3-1) won (0-1) this Thursday evening in front of 66,000 people at the Santiago stadium. Bernabeu in the Copa del Rey first leg.
After his elimination in the Europa League against Manchester United and his defeat in the league in Almeria (1-0), Xavi’s team therefore found a little smile with this prestigious victory at his favorite rival.
Benzema little in sight
Deprived of Dembélé, Pedri and Lewandowski, injured, Barça had chosen to play quite low. But after a big opportunity conceded from entry on a strike from Modric (1st), he managed to open the scoring, against the run of play, in the middle of the first period. On a too soft back pass from Camavinga, Ferran Torres shifts Kessie well. If Courtois makes a save, the ball bounces off Militão who scores against his side (0-1, 26th). A goal granted after viewing the VAR.
If Real Madrid almost completely dominated the second half, they broke their teeth on Barça’s good defense. The end of the match, with 8 minutes of additional time, was quite electric. Boiling on his bench, Xavi ended up taking a yellow card by dint of protesting. A statistic sums up Real’s clumsiness well: 13 shots but zero on target. If Vinicius tried a lot, we didn’t see much Karim Benzema, who had been denied a goal for offside at the start of the match. Barcelona was very poor in the game, but surgically efficient (2 shots) to win this hardly exciting clasico.
