el clásico

FC Barcelona 1-1 Real Madrid: Cruel late blow

December 4, 2016 10:03 AM | Mike Roberts

The first Clásico of the season left a nasty taste in FC Barcelona supporter’s mouths. Although Luis Enrique’s men were well in command during the whole match, and unexpected turn blew up their aspirations of inflicting the first defeat of the season on the league leaders, Real Madrid. Just when it looked as if Barça was about to toast a win, Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos headed in the last minute the equalizer and stole a point. Barça was sluggish in the first half, but looked set to close the gap on unbeaten Real to three points after Luis Suarez opened the scoring. However, Ramo’s last-minute header made it 1-1 and Barça remains now six points behind the leaders.

FC Barcelona fall to Real Madrid, 2–1, as long unbeaten streak ends in disappointment

April 4, 2016 10:40 AM | HARRISON MICHAEL TOLL

Saturday night’s match at Camp Nou, was an epic game that had it all — a tear-inducing pre-game tribute to the recently passed Johan Cruyff and a minute of silence, frighteningly fearless tackling, heart-stopping end-to-end play and, somewhat surprisingly, a tight, evenly matched encounter standing in juxtaposition to an uncommonly large gap between the two arch-rivals in the league table. The loss, a dramatic reversal from the first meeting between the two rivals this season, when FC Barcelona routed Real in Madrid, 4–0, is FCB’s first defeat since 3 October and snaps their Spanish record 39-game unbeaten streak. What had been a ten-point gap between the league's first- and third-place teams now sits at seven.

Real Madrid v FC Barcelona: Barça run to El Clásico rout at the Bernabéu (0-4)

November 23, 2015 06:30 PM | MICHAEL TOLL

FC Barcelona turned in a virtuoso performance on Saturday night at the Santiago Bernabéu, meticulously carving up Real Madrid up and down the pitch to take the first El Clásico of the 2015/16 season by a score of 4-0. Suárez scored a double, while Neymar and Iniesta added one each, as the Catalans moved to six points up at the top of the table. With Real Madrid facing the ignominy of a whipping in front of their home fans, tempers began to flare, and in the 84th minute Isco was shown a straight red card for coming in high with the studs on Neymar and catching the league’s leading goalscorer. Following Barça's 0-4 demolishing of Real Madrid, head coach Luis Enrique appeared in the press room and expressed a high-degree of satisfaction with the way the game went. “I’m satisfied not just for the victory, but for the way we did it”, he stated.

El Clásico Preview: Real Madrid v FC Barcelona

November 21, 2015 01:46 PM | MIKE ROBERTS

From 6.15pm CET on Saturday, the Santiago Bernabéu will be the stage for the latest edition of the greatest football show in the world, 'El Clásico'. Real Madrid versus FC Barcelona is set to be played as scheduled although a set of extraordinary security measures have been established to increase the safety of those in attendance, after the terrorist attacks last Friday at Paris Saint-Denis stadium, amongst other locations. Luis Enrique confirmed that Leo Messi would be available for 'El Clásico' after the knee problem which has kept him out since the game against Las Palmas on 26 September. Ivan Rakitic, for his part, is also back after recovering from a calf strain picked up on 4 November against BATE Borisov in the Champions League. On the other hand, Rafinha and Douglas will be missing due to injury and Bartra and Masip are not travelling.