Ronaldo shines in the much awaited El Clasico match, but fails to save Real Madrid
One of the greatest rivalries of soccer between two of the best teams was seen in the Camp Nou ground when Real Madrid came face-to-face with FC Barcelona, and gifted an entertaining El Clasico to their supporters last night. The match was excellent as it was expected to be, because of the encounter between Madrid and Barca, and Ronaldo and Messi, but the fate of the match wasn’t decided by Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo in the end. It was settled by Luis Suarez. In a key role of this match between Spain’s big two, magician of left foot Messi struck first, making Barcelona’s opener last night, whereas Ronaldo responded with an equalizer for Real Madrid. Despite the extreme performance by both the teams, especially Ronaldo and Messi, it was Suarez who finally shone in this big match and got the winning goal to take his team Barcelona four points ahead of their rivals with 10 more games to go.
As statistics show, Real Madrid came to Camp Nou facing Barcelona having lost two of their last three games, demotivated a little for their knock out of the Copa del Rey and after surrendering their lead at the top of La Liga to Barcelona. On the contrary, Catalonian Barcelona lost just a single game in 2015 and made an amazing track record in this season. They reached the cup final and convincingly defeated the Premier League champions Manchester City with ease. Real’s trio Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and Ronaldo scored 15 goals in total since the start of this 2015 season where Barcelona’s key-man Messi alone has scored 17 goals in 2005 besides Suarez and Neymar having six goals each.
Before the half-time whistle was blown by the referees, it looked like Ronaldo was at his best after he successfully equalised Jérémy Matheiu’s amazing header. It seemed, Ronaldo became motivated, more so after a week of hearing how the Argentinian god Messi is history’s greatest soccer player ever. Ronaldo gave his 100% throughout the match and came up with his excellent trickery to get the winning move for his team as he dived for a penalty in the first half. But despite all the efforts from CR7 and the entire team of Madrid, Suarez, with his amazing determination in his first ever Clasico, won the heart of fans and swept Dani Alves’s pass past Iker Casillas before Madrid’s defenders Pepe and Sergio Ramos could chase him down.
Real Madrid started the match with full-on energy and tried their best to get a full grip of the game over Barcelona in the much awaited El Clasico. Madrid’s first significant opportunity came to them with Ronaldo controlling the ball at the 12th minute but his excellent side-foot volley hit against the underside of Claudio Bravo’s crossbar. It was a little upset for Ronaldo as he desperately wanted to score the first goal in this Clasico, but the 12th minute carving cut through Barcelona’s so smoothly motivated the entire team of Madrid as they started to know the flaws in Barca’s defense set-up. Frenchman Karim Benzema also amazed the crowd as he showed how to excellently receive the ball 10 yards away from goal, look up finding CR7 and cross it to him on the 12th minute.
Messi, on the other hand, was quite neutral at the starting half of the match but was later found by Neymar in the 16th minute when he headed well wide of Casillas’ right-hand upright. Madrid’s defender Pepe tackled over Suarez heavily which gifted the free-kick from which Barcelona took the lead. Messi took the free kick with a brief discussion with co-star Neymar and Mathieu timed his run perfectly to show an excellent header from his side as a lead to Barcelona. Suarez and other midfielders were on the mark by Madrid’s defender when the French defender Mathieu arrived with conviction ahead of Ramos and fueled the winning ball past Madrid’s Casillas.
Barcelona could have taken the lead by 2-0 when Suarez’s cross-shot was fumbled by Neymar and gone straight at Casillas. On the other side, Barca was punished by Ronaldo’s great equalizer from Karim Benzema’s brilliant flick. At the second half on a contrast, Real started to show various symptoms of fatigue after repeatedly blocking Neymar’s excellent runs, and to continue the myth of El Clasico which states no one can ever put a firm lid on a full ninety minutes scenario of El Clasico with complete peace. The number of yellow cards accelerated in double figures with 20 minutes still to blow the final whistle by last night’s referees.
It may be a win-loss scenario for Barcelona and Real Madrid, but the fans who showed their full support for their respective teams all over the world shimmered with full of adrenalin-rush as the match built up and continued the superior tension of supremacy over La Liga from the very first minute. The gifts of the match are many, starting from the Ronaldo and Messi’s excellent clash, Pique’s glamour, Neymar’s solo run and finally the winning attribute by Suarez. The match was enjoyed in millions all over the match and El Clasico stand on the reputation of being one of the best and biggest matches of the entire planet.
