El Clasico between Real Madrid and Fc Barcelona came at a very exciting and unpredictable time for La Liga, which sees the two teams racing each other directly for the supreme title. As it was the case in the last few years, all eyes were on Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo and FC Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, whose legendary rivalry, without a doubt the most spectacular of all times, came to be synonymous with this match.
In the end, the winner was Lionel Messi, whose goal in the last seconds of the match provided the victory for the Blaugrana team, which was as necessary as air in order to remain in the race for the title.
Had Real Madrid been the winner tonight, little could have been done to deny them their 33rd La Liga title. This was definitely a night to remember for Barça, a victory that comes after their early demise from Champions League, seen out by Juventus Torino, while Real Madrid beat Bayern Munich to reach the semi-finals. It can be argued that as much as Messi won the game for Barcelona, Ramos lost the game for Madrid.
His reckless foul ruined the chances for victory for Madrid, as we have ultimately seen to be true, although at some point, it seemed that it did not affect the team.
It did affect the team and, more importantly, this failure came at the most inopportune of times, and now Barcelona and Real have 75 points each at the top of La Liga. It’s game on and the race for the La Liga title has been blown wide open, with only 5 matches remaining to be played.
First half: two goals, one for Madrid and one for Barcelona
The first corner of the match came in the 27th minute and with it came the first goal from the Madrid side. Ramos strikes on the short corner and misses but Casemiro stretches and touches the ball, pushing it into the net.
It was 1-0 for Real and for good reason, because they attacked the most in this first half hour. Ronaldo touched the ball a few times but to no avail. Messi, however, has not taken the spotlight yet. But, as we know, he can change the whole situation in a matter of seconds. And the inevitable happened: Ivan Rakitic gave a brilliant pass to the Argentinian, who made nothing short of magic with his legs, and scored an astoundingly beautiful goal, to even the score.
The commentator said about Messi that 'the laws of physics don't know him.' And, although we know he’s wrong, he might as well be right, because maybe from whatever planet Messi comes from, the laws of physics are not the same as on our planet.
It was 1-1 and the outcome of the match was very unpredictable. The half time sees both teams with one goal each, but the first half had it all: ter Stegen in a formidable form, with multiple brilliant saves, most at the legs of Ronaldo, who had a strong half but did not manage to score. Gareth Bale was replaced by Asensio after his serious injury proved to be the end of the road for him tonight.
Second half: the game ends with Barcelona's victory
The 59th minute saw Navas making an extraordinary save after a brilliant Gerard Pique header. Ronaldo wasted a beautiful pass from Asensio and, alone with ter Stegen, made a fool of himself with a miserable execution, one that we rarely see from him.
Barcelona followed up with an attack, Andres Iniesta passing the ball to Suarez, who strikes the ball hard, but Navas was on his post and made a save. But Rakitic interrupted Navas’s brilliant run by executing him with a power shot, scoring a beautiful goal for Barcelona, as the score goes 2-1 for the Catalans. As this was not bad enough for Real Madrid, Sergio Ramos made a stupid foul, scissoring the legs of Messi and the referee, without missing a beat, gave him the red card, as the captain was dismissed and left Real outnumbered.
Poor Messi could not catch a break and was fouled again by Kovacic who received a yellow card for his tackle. James Rodriquez made a desperate execution in the 84th minute, only for the ball to be caught by ter Stegen.
And in the 85th minute, out of nowhere, the same Rodriquez was left unmarked by Busquets, who has had a terrible season so far, and scored for 2-2, with Barcelona on its knees. Only die-hard Madrid fans had the courage to believe in the turning of the score, after Ramos was sent off, and the hoping paid off for them, as Madrid continued to press hard on Barcelona’s defense.
Oh, but the game was so not over for the Catalans and, in literally the last seconds of the 2 added injury time minutes, who other that the God of football, as he is described by so many, Lionel Messi, scored the absolutely crucial goal, his 500th for the Blaugrana team, which saw FC Barcelona as the winner tonight, prompting the commentator to acknowledge that no adjective can describe what we have seen tonight on the Bernabeu stadium.