The latest El Clasico was much closer than many would have expected, and the fans got to see a treat of a match which went to extra time to settle the score between the arch rivals.
One sided match on paper?
And ofcourse, everyone expected Madrid to dominate the match, and it looked like they would do from the get go and from the team news.
Both the men in hottest form in Vinicius Jr and Karim Benzema started for Real Madrid while 38 year old Dani Alves started his 1002th professional game of his career and failed to keep up with Vinicius for majority of the game. Barcelona also started De Jong in attack.
Who else but Vinicius and Benzema!
Vinicius Jr opened the score for Madrid in the 25th minute as Benzema stole the ball from Barcelona’s defense before laying it up perfectly for Vinicius to put in the back of Barcelona’s net.
But instead of looking even more confident and going for more goals, Real Madrid kind of cooled down allowing Barcelona to score an equaliser in the 41st minute via De Jong.
Real Madrid got back into the game after Karim Benzema scored in the 72nd minute but the super sub wonderkid Ansu Fati managed to equalise for Barcelona yet again after ten minutes to Madrid’s goal in the 83rd minute.
Extra time dominance
The match would then go to extra time where Madrid looked comfortable with their attacks as they finally managed to score the winning goal in the 98th minute after Vinicius Jr made an amazing fake shot to let the ball roll to Valverde who slotted it home easily to make it 3-2.
Real Madrid came close to scoring once again when Benzema laid an perfectly weighted pass in the second half of extra time to have Rodrygo the open net, but he somehow managed to fail scoring that goal and giving Madrid a 2 goal lead.
A CENTURY OF WINS IN EL CLASICO!!
This victory meant big things for Madrid, not only were they on dominating form, this win gave them their FIFTH straight El Clasico win against their main rivals Barcelona, a record Barce were hoping Madrid wouldn’t achieve, especially after their central defender Pique was seen taunting the Madrid fans 5-0 scoreline in the previous El Clasico
This victory also means that Real Madrid now have won 100 El Clasicos against their main rivals Barcelona, adding further to the humiliation to the situation the club is facing currently.
By the stats!
Let’s take a look at the stats for the match now
Barcelona had more shots during the match with 20 shots throughout the match, while Real Madrid took only 14, 8 of which were shot on target compared to 6 for Barcelona.
Barcelona saw more of the possession as they had 54% time on the ball compared to Madrid’s 46%, with Barcelona attempting 704 passes compared to Madrid’s 640.
Corners were a different story, Madrid only managed one single corner the entire match while Barcelona foot 9, from which they scored once.
Real Madrid will play the winner between the other semi final between Atletico Madrid and Athletic club, which will be played tomorrow.
The final will be played this Sunday 16th of January between Real Madrid and Atletico/Athletic club.