Barcelona AGAIN serve Real Madrid humiliation at home in El Clasico

An Ivan Rakitic goal was enough to give Barcelona the Spanish bragging rights in La Liga with a 1-0 win in Estaido Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday night, in a match where Sergio Ramos and Lionel Messi also hit the headlines.

The second El Clasico in the space of only four days started slowly with neither side offering much to threaten the other at the start of the game at Santiago Bernabeu.

That all changed on 26 minutes Sergi Roberto set Ivan Rakitic through, leaving the Croatian to deftly chip the ball over Thibaut Courtois to send the visitors into the lead and on their way to a second win in Spain’s biggest derby in the space of just four days.

Barca captain Lionel Messi, the star of football’s greatest spectacle in the absence of great rival Cristiano Ronaldo, went close on 37 minutes with a free kick, firing just over the bar with the weight of expectation and anxiety almost palpable.

Tempers frayed when Sergio Ramos, often the villain of the play, was adjudged to elbow Messi while attempting to clear the ball. Social media inevitably erupted into apoplexy. Soon after, the referee’s whistle signaled the break in a fractious but nonetheless entertaining battle in the Spanish capital.

After the restart, the two teams carried on in much the same vein as the first, with both sides failing to adequately threaten the goal of the other.  

Reuters / Sergio Perez

Ramos was again involved in handbags with a rant at his Barca counterpart Gerard Pique. Moments later, defender karma seemed to right itself when Clement Lenglet was yellow carded for an elbow that sent Ramos sprawling from a corner.

The Real captain was again at the center of attention when in the 74th minute goalkeeper Courtois cleared a free kick in the area challenged by Ramos, the Belgian punched the ball clear and then followed through into Real’s number four. Any questions of malice will be left ot the powers that be.

As time ebbed away, Messi had the chance to double the lead, but his shot from a Barca counter attack went over the bar. Teper again threatened to boil over again on the halfway line but soon blew for full time with Real trailing top of the table Barca by 12 points.