Real Madrid go high of La Liga after beating Barcelona in rain-soaked ‘El Clasico’

Real Madrid beat rivals Barcelona 2-1 at dwelling in an entertaining, rain-soaked ‘Clasico’ on Saturday to stretch their profitable run to 6 video games in all competitions and go high of La Liga for the primary time in three months.
Karim Benzema put the champions in cost at a soggy Alfredo di Stefano stadium with a pleasant backheel within the 14th minute whereas a deflected Toni Kroos free-kick doubled their lead within the twenty eighth.
Barca hit again on the hour mark by means of Oscar Mingueza and the defender virtually discovered the equaliser in a while, whereas the Catalans had an enormous penalty attraction waved away when Martin Braithwaite fell following a problem by Ferland Mendy.
Real midfielder Casemiro was despatched off in stoppage time for choosing up two yellow playing cards within the house of a minute whereas Barca substitute Ilaix Moriba hit the crossbar within the fourth minute of added time.

☔️☔️☔️#HalaMadrid pic.twitter.com/9YGq6w6hZ3
— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) April 10, 2021
The hosts survived the nail-biting end to finish the double over Barca in a league season for the primary time since 2008 and spherical off a sensational week after beating Liverpool 3-1 in a Champions League quarter-final first leg on Tuesday.
“This is a huge win for us, you could say that it was as important as a final but we’ll have to keep on fighting for a while yet,” stated Real defender Nacho.
“We were excellent on the counterattack, we knew they would want the ball and could do us damage with it but we got a two-goal advantage which put us in a very strong position.”
Zinedine Zidane’s facet joined Atletico Madrid on 66 factors and moved high of the desk, though Atletico can reclaim first place after they go to Real Betis on Sunday.
Barca, who misplaced for the primary time within the league since early December, dropped to 3rd on 65.

Leo #Messi is making is forty fifth profession #ElClásico look, equaling the all-time file. 🐐 pic.twitter.com/NXFQbbLDV4
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) April 10, 2021
SUBLIME BACKHEEL
Barca regarded to dominate possession however had been powerless to manage Real’s counterattacks and went behind when Federico Valverde hurdled a Jordi Alba sort out to shuttle down the pitch, feeding Lucas Vazquez whose low cross was turned in by Benzema’s chic backheel.
Real caught Barca out on the break once more when Vinicius Jr. raced on to a Luka Modric move and was felled by Ronald Araujo. The free kick was in good vary for Kroos, whose shot bounced off the again of Sergino Dest to wrong-foot Barca keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
Real had been inches away from scoring a 3rd when Valverde once more tore down Barca’s left-hand facet and smacked the far publish, Vazquez pouncing on the rebound however capturing straight at Ter Stegen.

👔 Zidane: “We are very happy for the effort and work put in. I think we had a very good first half against a great rival. In the end we deserved the victory because we had many chances to score the third goal, which would have been perfect for us.”#ElClásico | #HalaMadrid pic.twitter.com/PFiAcU7s2n
— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) April 10, 2021
Barca barely prompted Real any bother till the tip of the primary half, when Lionel Messi hit the far publish straight from a nook. The Argentine had a greater likelihood moments later from inside the realm however couldn’t beat Madrid’s Thibaut Courtois.
Koeman took decisive motion at halftime, throwing on Antoine Griezmann for Dest and the French substitute helped pull Barca again into rivalry, taking part in a dummy which led to Mingueza scoring.
The torrential rain prompted Messi to vary his soaked shirt late within the recreation and the slippery situations helped arrange the frantic end, however Real weathered the storm.