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MOTD: Real Madrid 3-1 Barcelona – El Clasico delivers again

By on October 25, 2014

Its expectations keep getting higher and higher, but somehow, El Clasico keeps meeting them. The match’s television ratings smash even those of the Champions League final, with an estimated half billion tuning in around the world, and it doesn’t matter if you think Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi is better – the best two players in the world are playing each other. Neymar, Luis Suarez, James Rodriguez, and a World Cup winner in Tony Kroos were all on the pitch. In no other match can the absence of Gareth Bale, the world’s most expensive player, via injury, be forgotten in the midst of the action, nor Angel Di Maria or Marc Barta, the two other scorers in the last Clasico. The stakes are high, with the match often deciding the La Liga title, but no matter how high its expectations soar, El Clasico just keeps on delivering. As soon as both Neymar and Lionel Messi were booked in the opening fifteen minutes (neither for diving, as well), it was obvious the match would live up to expectations.

For starters, Luis Suarez stared his first match for Barcelona, and first back from his four month ban for biting Giorgio Chiellini during the World Cup. He played his part in the drama, assisting Barca’s go-ahead goal just three minutes in. Suarez fit right into Barcelona’s style of play and also assisted a cross which Messi sent onto the post in the first half, but the reason that this meeting is so popular is that it keeps going back and forth. Real Madrid simply outclassed and outplayed Barca today, but still have only won two of their last four meetings. This match should only hint about what will happen next time.

Perhaps the biggest reason Madrid did well, though, was because Bale was unavailable. Isco was given a chance, and did brilliantly in midfield – starting the counter-attack that lead to Madrid’s third. As he tucked into the middle it allowed Marcelo to get forward as well, allowing the Brazilian to earn the man of the match award after assisting the chance which lead to Madrid’s first half penalty and Benzema’s header that struck the crossbar moments later.

Of course, it started a brilliant contest. There was no holding back from either side, and just three minutes in the deadlock was broken by Neymar, who brought down a brilliant thirty-yard diagonal ball from Suarez on the edge of the box and brought it back across Pepe and Dani Carvajal. The Brazilian then whipped a low shot into the bottom right corner, and Barca seemed to have a perfect start. Moreover, Suarez did. But it quickly want array – it was clear that Madrid would not back down – and Barca’s extra day of rest was quickly lost in all the chasing back. Eleven minutes in Real so nearly equalized as Karim Benzema headed Marcelo’s cross from the left onto the crossbar as well as the rebound. Suarez was quickly moved into the middle to get the most of him in the end-to-end opening stages, however, he did his best work out right, and sent in a brilliant low cross which Messi reached. Iker Casillas somehow kept Madrid in the game by turning the ball onto the post, and at that moment the game seemed to slip from Barca’s grasp. Just moments later Gerard Pique would stop Marcelo’s cross with his hand, and Ronaldo bury the resulting penalty into the bottom right corner of the net. It was Barca’s fist conceded goal of the season and Claudio Bravo’s first in goal for the Blaugrana, and it looked a certainty that more would follow paced on Madrid’s counter-attacking strength.

In fact, it took just two minutes into the second half for Madrid to take the lead. Pepe headed Toni Kroos’ corner into the bottom left corner at the far post, and by the hour mark it was all but over. On the break following a Barca corner Isco got by two Barca players before playing it into the middle to Ronaldo, who turned and spread play out wide right to James Rodridguez. The Colombian then tucked a neat pass into the diagonal run of Benzema in behind the Barca defense, a neat finish from the Frenchman went in off the post and Madrid had a 3-1 win.

However, Los Blancos were uncharacteristically good at holding onto that lead. Barca hardly had a chance of name throughout the entire second period yet Madrid looked a constant threat on the break. Los Galacticos won, but that isn’t to say they will again in the latter half of the season. That is the nature of El Clasico. You never know what may happen. Most of all, it was a promising start for Suarez.
Man of the Match: Karim Benzema

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.