A Barcelona triumph in El Clásico

The first Clásico of the Liga BBVA season ended with a Barcelona victory. The tightly contested encounter went the Catalans’ way as Real Madrid could only find a way past Víctor Valdés when it was already too late in the game.

It was Barcelona that showed the first real initiative, with Gerardo Martino’s men putting the visitors under a lot of pressure and not allowing them any time on the ball. It wasn’t long before the first goal came. A nice bit of play between Andrés Iniesta and Neymar opened the scoring for Barcelona and saw the Brazilian grab his first goal in a Clásico.

Despite going behind, Carlo Ancelotti’s side defended well but was unable to really threaten Valdés’ goal. Having barely creating any chances in the first half, the Whites changed things around at half time and looked a lot sharper after the restart. That was Real Madrid’s best spell of the game and also Valdés’, as the Spanish keeper continually frustrated the away side.

A Karim Benzema strike riffling off the crossbar and a Cristiano Ronaldo shot being turned around the post by Valdés preceded what would ultimately be Barcelona’s winning goal. A wonderful lob by Alexis Sánchez caught a helpless Diego López off guard and doubled the home team’s lead. Jesé Rodríguez shortened the deficit in stoppage time, but there wasn’t enough time to grasp an El Clásico win from Barcelona’s grip.