Franck Kessie scored a stoppage-time winner to provide Barcelona a 2-1 victory over Real Madrid in Sunday’s Clasico at Camp Nou and take a large 12-point lead over second-placed Real Madrid with 12 video games of the LaLiga season remaining.
A freak personal purpose from Ronald Araujo put Real Madrid forward in simply the ninth minute however Barcelona responded to assert a deserved equalizer via Sergi Roberto’s composed end proper on the stroke of half-time.
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Real Madrid thought they’d a doubtlessly important winner with 9 minutes remaining when substitute Marco Asensio turned in Dani Carvajal’s cross. However, after a protracted VAR evaluate, it was dominated that Asensio had initially been in an offside place.
Instead, as Madrid surged ahead in quest of a profitable purpose they certainly wanted to take care of lifelike hopes of overhauling their opponents’ LaLiga lead, Kessie turned in a cut-back from Alex Balde within the second minute of stoppage time to ship the Camp Nou crowd wild with delight.
A draw might nicely have been sufficient for Barcelona, as an alternative they now have a large 12-point cushion and a primary title in 4 years is inside touching distance for Xavi Hernandez’s aspect.
With Pep Guardiola in attendance, Barcelona have been aiming to win three straight Clasicos for the primary time because the now-Manchester City boss was in cost at Camp Nou throughout the 2011-12 season.
And they began as if intent on getting that victory. Pressing excessive and with ferocious depth, Barcelona had Madrid rattled within the opening minutes. Thibaut Courtois needed to be at this finest to maintain out efforts from Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha whereas Sergi Roberto shot simply over the bar.
Within the primary 10 minutes, the sport had already witnessed extra photographs on purpose than the final assembly between the perimeters, which Barcelona received 1-0 within the Copa del Rey semifinal first leg earlier this month.
Just like in that recreation, although, it was an personal purpose that opened the scoring. Out of little or no, Vinicius Junior chipped a cross again from close to the byline down the left and Araujo discovered his head within the flawed place on the flawed time to divert the ball previous Marc-Andre ter Stegen at his close to publish.
The purpose was the primary Barcelona had conceded from open play at dwelling in LaLiga this season and dented their early momentum as Madrid gained confidence and composure.
But because the opening half reached its conclusion, Barcelona cranked up the strain as soon as extra to enter half-time with the scores stage.
Madrid did their finest to maintain the hosts at bay however after a Raphinha effort was nicely blocked the ball fell to Sergi Roberto, who struck a wonderfully positioned side-footed effort to beat Courtois from 12 yards.
The two sides exchanged probabilities at the beginning of the second half, as Federico Valverde slashed an effort broad for Madrid and Lewandowski had a shot deflected simply broad.
But it was Madrid that wanted the win extra and because the clock ticked previous the hour mark, coach Carlo Ancelotti duly went to his substitutes bench for 2 attack-minded substitutions — bringing on Rodrygo and Ferland Mendy for Toni Kroos and Nacho.
Almost instantly, Rodrygo had a golden probability to place Madrid again in entrance. But after Sergio Busquets gave the ball away to permit a transparent shot at purpose from the sting of the field, the younger Brazilian lashed his effort excessive over the crossbar.
As the sport reached the ultimate 10 minutes, Madrid poured ahead in quest of a title-race altering purpose. But, with the assistance of VAR, Barcelona survived earlier than Kessie caught a late dagger into Madrid’s hopes of retaining their title.
