By Akorede Kameel

El-clasico never fails to deliver. Does it? Near misses, a disallowed goal, a red card, a dramatic winner and end of a long unbeaten run. El-clasico always live up to its billing as the world’s greatest club game. And tonight game was right up there with the best of them in terms of drama and other stuff. Real Madrid snatched a late victory after being reduced to 10 men to eventually end Barcelona’s 39-match unbeaten run. Who would have thought about it? And the Gareth Bale’s goal, how on earth was that disallowed? It looks like there is a different set of rules for Spanish League. He did absolutely nothing wrong with that goal. Harsh! What a terrible call by the linesman.

There will be a renewed confidence for Real Madrid and that sets up the rest of the season nicely in Spain. La liga should still be Barca’s but Madrid should now have the push in their ability to give a decent run in both the remaining domestic games and the Champions League. Kudos must be given to Zidane, his tactics have been spot on, he actually stuck to the plan throughout the game and he later got his reward for it. I just think he should be able to manage Madrid next season because he has now achieved what the immediate past managers haven’t been able to do. He defeated Barcelona in their backyard with one player less. Karim Benzema got the beautiful equalising goal but he was largely missing in the attack, he didn’t connect well enough with Ronaldo. Pepe must have some answers to give as to why he allowed Pique with that header for Barca’s only goal. Crazy that a left-back can be a team’s attacking catalyst but Marcelo does that so often for his team, his run was key for the goal that brought Madrid back into it. When will Sergio Ramos learn? He’s always a victim of useless red card against Barcelona. The introduction of Jese brought potency to the right flanks but praise must be hauled on Gareth Bale for his performance, he linked well with Cristiano Ronaldo, both enjoyed their game tonight. Don’t know if Ronaldo’s goal will silence his critics who are of the opinion that he has struggled to score in La liga away games in the course of this season.

Barcelona must not allow their confidence to be rattled simply because they don’t have enough time to restore it. Atletico Madrid will come visiting in the champions league on Tuesday, and I want to believe they are quite aware of the threat they pose even though Barcelona have got the better part of them in the course of the season. If I were Enrique, I would be asking the players how on earth they allowed Madrid to get back into the game after dominating the large portion of the minutes on the pitch. It must be said that they are anyway still the firm favourite to secure the title despite this result but maybe a kind of a wakeup call to see how the rest of the season will pounce out to be. It will interest you to know that Barcelona’s previous defeat was on 3 October 2015. That is six months ago, and to even think Madrid were ten men down when they scored the winner made it more of an achievement than just a league victory. Where did they get it wrong? I think they didn’t create many chances, the few ones created weren’t converted. Suarez and Neymar didn’t show their normal selves, especially for the man from Uruguay, his finishing and eye for goal were poor tonight. I saw decent runs and plays from Messi, could have even got his 500-goal if not for the brilliance of Navas. After the equaliser for Madrid, the catalans became tired and porous in both midfield and defence. So MSN failed to fire in goals like they have been used to in games this season. Even after Bale’s goal was disallowed, there were signs that Real Madrid could get another before it eventually went in. The last seven domestic games will see them play 4 away and 3 home matches, if all things being equal, Barcelona fans should be celebrating the league title by then.

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[url][/url] dem win one single game, dey con dey celebrate like say dem win ucl