The Spanish Superclásico went to Real Madrid, who also took over LaLiga with their 3-1 victory over Barcelona this Sunday at the Santiago Benabéu for the ninth date of the competition.
The reigning champion of Spain and Europe erased Barcelona from the field and directed their victory with goals from French Karim Benzema and Uruguayan Federico Valverde, at 12 and 35 minutes of the first half, respectively.
Barça discounted at 83 minutes through the entered Ferrán Torres and put the thing in suspense until, at 91 and from a penalty, the Brazilian Rodrygo sentenced the victory for the people of Madrid.
Italian Carlo Ancelotti’s team (25 points) was the absolute leader of LaLiga with three units ahead of Xavi Hernández’s Barcelona, which deepened its weak moment and won only one of its last four games: a defeat and a draw were against Inter Milan, results that complicated it in the Champions League.
Benzema’s goal, Valverde’s great goal
Benzema, favorite to receive the Ballon d’Or in Paris on Monday, was in charge of opening the scoring in the 12th minute after capturing a rebound in the area after a one-on-one by Brazilian Vinicius Juniors that was taken out by German Marc ter Stegen.
The Frenchman reached twelve goals in the Spanish classic and ended a five-game drought after starting the season with some injuries.
The 2-0 score was a great goal from the Uruguayan Valverde with a precise shot from outside the area after a good team play that Vinicius started again.
Despite the great offensive power led by the Polish Robert Lewandowski, for much of the match, Barcelona could not take advantage of the absence due to injury of the Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and did not even demand the young Ukrainian Andriy Lunin, who played his first Spanish classic.
The first time he kicked on goal was in the discount goal that came from Xavi’s changes since Ansu Fati left Ferrán Torres alone to score the discount, seven minutes from the end.
Real Madrid was largely dominant in the match but in the final minutes suffered attacks from Barcelona, which was close to equalizing with another play by Ansu Fati, the heir to Lionel Messi’s number 10 shirt.
In the last minute, the Brazilian Rodrygo was brought down by Eric García and after the intervention of the VAR, a penalty was charged in favor of Merengue. With Benzema replaced, the Brazilian took charge of the execution and converted the final 3-1.
For its part, in the first game of the day, Celta, with the return of Eduardo Coudet after being absent for two games due to a personal problem that forced him to travel to Argentina, lost to Real Sociedad 2-1 at home.
The Basque team is third in LaLiga together with Atlético de Madrid, both with 19 points.