Translated material
Strict "classic"
Barcelona and Real Madrid scored one goal and two penalties
Barcelona appropriately celebrated the 110th anniversary of the club's founding. The celebrations were not magnificent: in the classic confrontation with Real Madrid, the Catalans scored only once. But this goal from Zlatan Ibrahimovic will warm the hearts of the Blaugrana at least until April 11, when the return Classico is scheduled in Madrid.Real can only hope that if it lags behind Barcelona before the spring, it won’t be so much that the April match won’t decide anything. Because in the fall Pellegrini’s team could count on more. Although there were few chances in the current 159th Classico, the first and most dangerous were created by the guests. Cristiano Ronaldo, whom the doctors purposefully put on his feet for the match with Barcelona, went one-on-one, but failed to beat Valdez.
Doctors allowed Ronaldo to play for no more than an hour. The Portuguese stayed on the field for another six minutes over the limit and managed to catch almost all the main events of the meeting. First, the untreated Ibrahimovic entered the field. And then the Swedish scorer of Barca, cut off from his markers by an amazing top pass from the depths of the field by Dani Alves, sent the ball into the near corner with one touch. A few minutes later, the Catalans were left in the minority - Busquets very quickly earned two yellow cards and was ejected from the field.
The substitute Ronaldo had plenty to watch from the bench: the way his Real Madrid failed to capitalize on their territorial advantage, the way his team-mates wasted even their few chances, and Messi's wasted chance to score. in favor of Barça more significant, and at the same time the retaliatory removal of Diarra. “Unfortunately, the match came down to one single goal,” the coach of the “royal” club, Manuel Pellegrini, later lamented. - We had the ball and knew what we needed to do in attack. We had a lot of chances, but we weren't patient enough when it came time to finish off the scoring chances."
His colleague from Barcelona, Pep Guardiola, tried not to make a triumph out of a victory in a single Classico. “We just won one match and that’s it. On Wednesday we need to win again,” the Barca head coach tried to bring his players to their senses. However, he deliberately exaggerated the danger of the next opponent: tomorrow the Spanish champions will meet with the league outsider Jerez. But then Barça will have a very difficult time. In addition to matches in Primera Liga and the Champions League in December, she will also participate in the Club World Championship. Guardiola has already announced that he will take all the strongest players to the UAE for this tournament. And even though Barça will have to play only two matches in Abu Dhabi (the semi-final on December 16, and depending on it on December 19, either the final or the match for third place), the additional workload for Guardiola’s team will still be inappropriate.
The leader's gap from his pursuers is not yet as great as the Catalans would like. They were lucky that Sevilla made a completely unnecessary misfire in the last round. At home, the third Spanish team almost lost to Malaga, which was trailing behind. It helped the hosts that Fabiano woke up after the break, and his double allowed Sevilla to escape defeat. But if the favorites had not slept from the very beginning, they would now be sharing second place with Real, from where they would be threatening Barcelona together.
Results of the 12th round matches. Barcelona - Real Madrid - 1:0, Atlético - Espanyol - 4:0, Racing - Deportivo - 0:1, Getafe - Jerez -- 5:1, "Zaragoza" -- "Osasuna" -- 0:1, "Valladolid" -- "Tenerife" -- 3:3, "Almeria" -- "Athletic" -- 1:4, "Sporting" "- "Villarreal" - 1:0, "Valencia" - "Mallorca" - 1:1, "Sevilla" - "Malaga" - 2:2. The leaders are: Barcelona - 30 points, Real Madrid -28, Sevilla -26, Valencia, Deportivo - 25 each.