Sid Lowe's match report from the Bernabéu
I’ll leave you with the report from our man in Madrid. Thanks for reading. Bye.
If Real Madrid want a positive to take away from tonight’s game it was the performances of Reguilon and Vinicius on the left. Semedo was turned inside out by the 18-year-old, who linked up really well with the Real left-back, who offers more cover than Marcelo would. Had they been given the penalty in the first half the game could have been very different. Solari really has to accentuate the positives from this game because there’s hardly time to breathe before the next clásico arrives.
6 - Vinícius Júnior attempted six shots in #ElClasico (0 goals), more than all Barcelona players combined (four shots, three goals). Critical. pic.twitter.com/JXwsp0nqhC
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) February 27, 2019
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Barcelona will face Real Betis or Valencia in the final. Those two play tomorrow night in the other semi-final.
Full-time: Real Madrid 0-3 Barcelona (agg 1-4)
And that is the end of that. Real Madrid were the better team for most of the first half and the beginning of the second, but Barcelona broke with uber efficiency and buried this tie in the second half. Suárez was experienced and clinical with his finishing. Vinicius Jr was not, despite creating chances for himself with some dazzling skills. Real have to recover quickly for the clásico in four days’ time.
90+2 min: Messi scoops a ball into the box for Vidal, who pushes Ramos and concedes a free-kick.
90 min: There will be two additional minutes of Madrid pain. Pique sprints out from the back like a giddy deer. He wants to rub this in with a goal of his own.
87 min: Melo replaces Rakitic, who I can’t recall giving the ball away all night. He’s been the best Croatian on the pitch. Modric hasn’t been able to affect the game.
86 min: Of course, Real Madrid have to recover from this chastening defeat quickly and be ready for clásico No4 of the season on Saturday. Had they played terribly it might be easier to prepare. But they have given this a go and still got walloped. Barça have been ruthless going forwards in this second half.
84 min: Bale gets a shot horribly wrong and bends it the wrong way off his left boot from 18 yards out, watching the ball arc into the forlorn home crowd, who whistle his lame effort.
82 min: Semedo finds his way into the referee’s notebook. And then Vinicius, who has tormented the Barça full-back tonight, is replaced by Asensio. He’s given warm applause as he leaves. He really did play well, despite the scoreline.
80 min: Reguilon slides in and takes the ball off Sergi Roberto’s toes with a wonderfully timed tackle. The Barcelona player could have been in to make it 4-0.
78 min: Vidal has replaced Suárez, who has enjoyed another fine night out in Madrid.
10 - Luis Suarez has scored 10 goals in 13 games against Real Madrid in all competitions, more than any other player since his debut for Barcelona in 2014/15. Predatory. pic.twitter.com/e2VVNI2gsc
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) February 27, 2019
77 min: Some housekeeping. Bale has replaced Vasquez, Valverde has replaced Casemiro and Coutinho has replaced Dembele, who was excellent and showed why he is being picked ahead of the former Liverpool playmaker.
75 min: You could, conceivably, give Vinicius the man of the match award in a game his team may lose by three goals or more. It’s been such a strange game.
Goal! Real Madrid 0-3 Barcelona (Suárez 72) Agg 1-4
Suárez Panenkas it home with insouciant ease. Or you could call it a Ramos I suppose. This has been a harsh lesson for Madrid, who have played well.
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Penalty to Barcelona!
Casemiro steps on Suárez in the box. Barcelona can tuck this game to bed nice and easy.
Goal! Real Madrid 0-2 Barcelona (Varane 69 OG) Agg 1-3
Well, this is an affront to the run of play. Messi pops a pass out to Dembele on the right. He races up the line and fizzes a cross in to Suárez, who stretches for the ball only to see Varane’s foot beat him to it and deflect the ball in from four yards. That’s burst the Bernabéu bubble.
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68 min: Vinicius dribbles past three Barcelona defenders with the fastest feet you’ll see all year. He finally cuts inside and aims for the far post, only to see his delicate shot dribble an inch wide. If only he could finish!
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67 min: Carvajal fizzes a shot at goal that Ter Stegen grasps and keeps hold of with Benzema waiting by his fingertips. Good, solid save.
66 min: Reguilon and Vinicius have a great understanding. They look like they’ve played together for a decade.
65 min: Busquets boots Modric up in the air and takes his yellow card like he’s collecting a bus ticket.
63 min: Vinicius Jr twists Semedo inside out, the poor chap, and then lifts a lovely cross in to Reguilon, who powers a header at goal only to see Ter Stegen leap through the air and palm it wide. It’s non-stop action!
61 min: Reguilon knocks the ball around Semedo and hares away before clipping a ball into the six-yard box that Vasquez looks odds-on to divert in only for Lenglet to stab out a leg and squirt the ball clear. Great defending by Lenglet and lovely wing play from the Madrid full-back.
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60 min: Ramos appears to trip Rakitic just inside the Madrid box. Ramos tells the Croatian to get up and replays show there was just enough contact for the Barcelona player to go down but probably not as dramatically as he did, which may have coloured the referee’s opinion.
57 min: Vasquez is booked after sliding in to toe the ball away and then go through Lenglet. It’s the first booking of the game, which is surprising given the pace it has been played at and the potential for arriving late against many twinkle toed opponents.
55 min: Semedo has a couple of nibbles at Vinicius in the Barcelona box. The first is shrugged off by the Brazilian. The second results in Semedo emerging with the ball and Vinicius on the turf. Neither appeared to be worthy of a penalty though. On both occasions the full-back used his body well.
53 min: Real Madrid have to lift their game again now. Casemiro has a free header as Kroos floats in a free-kick, but he doesn’t turn his neck enough and heads well wide. Then Vinicius wins a corner and implores the Madridistas behind the goal to give it some welly. They oblige and the volume rises. The corner is cleared, mind.
Goal! Real Madrid 0-1 Barcelona (Suárez 50) Agg 1-2
The deadlock is broken! Alba slips a simple pass down the left wing for Dembele, who cuts the ball back for the Uruguayan. He is under pressure from Ramos but he get to the ball first and sidefoots powerfully with his right foot past Navas. What a big-game player Suárez is!
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50 min: Barça win a free-kick in a similar position but on the left for Barcelona. Messi takes it but Pique heads just wide.
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48 min: It’s whipped in to the near-post, where Benzema leaps above Busquets and heads narrowly over. Ah, but he’s penalised for leaning on the Barça midfielder.
47 min: Vasquez is clumsily hauled down by Lenglet. Free-kick to Real 25 yards out to the right of the D. Kroos to take it …
Peep! It's the second half!
45 min: Real Madrid get it under way. They’ve looked incredibly sharp tonight and immediately get on the front foot in the second period, Benzema rolling a ball across the Barça penalty area that is left to make its way through to the back post, where Semedo clears.
Here’s Vinicious Jr’s five shots, in the medium of hot dots on a map.
5 - Vinícius Júnior es el jugador que más remates ha intentado en un primer tiempo ante el Barcelona esta temporada en todas las competiciones (cinco). Revolución. pic.twitter.com/p5K2VAGQ3h
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) February 27, 2019
“I’ve never seen two defenders who want to score goals as badly as Pique and Ramos do,” writes Paul Fitzgerald. “The influences of Puyol and Cannavaro have long since faded.” You’re right Paul. Both of them don’t half get up the pitch. I can’t see this ending 0-0 tonight. Mind you, if it does, it’s Real Madrid who go through.
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That was a wonderfully entertaining 45 minutes of goalless football. Dembele and Vinicius Jr have been the two most dangerous – and exciting – players on the pitch. Oh to be young and full of vim and vigour again, eh?
Half-time: Real Madrid 0-0 Barcelona
45 min: A hectic half, played at a fierce pace, comes to an end. That was like watching a computer game played by two gamers fuelled on dozens of bottles of Lucozade.
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42 min: Barça break and Messi appears to be fouled a dozen times before play is finally pulled up for a late, cynical one by Kroos on him. A few moments later Rakitic catches Vasquez with a late tackle which leaves the Madrid man thumping the floor in pain. It looks like their knees collided but Rakitic’s must be made of iron.
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40 min: Benzema holds the ball up well and zips a pass into Vasquez, who squares to Ramos (who is one of the furthest players forwards for some reason), who dummies for Vinicius to gather the ball behind him, take a touch and fire at goal only for the tenacious Semedo to block at the near post. A corner. A corner that comes to nothing.
38 min: … Casemiro demands the ball and sets Reguilon free on the left, where the young full-back pulls the ball back to Vinicius, who swivels and shoots a foot over the bar with Ter Stegen beaten. The ball was just a little behind him. But this is good stuff from Real, who have bent the game their way with some rapid attacks.
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36 min: Pique lollops forwards with the ball and attempts to dribble all the way into Madrid’s half, but pesky Casemiro nips into the tackle and pops a brilliant pass behind the Barça defence where Vinicius should take a touch and score but his first touch is a little heavy and his shot is blocked by Lenglet, I think. The Brazilian does well to regain possession and square the ball to Benzema, who hits a scruffy shot at goal from 12 yards that Ter Stegen saves well with his legs. And then …
33 min: Rakitic almost finds Sergi Roberto with a beautifully weighted ball over the Real Madrid defence that is this far away from Sergi Roberto’s outstretched toe. Moments earlier he swatted away Reguilon in midfield like a tourist swiping away a wasp. Brilliant strength.
31 min: Some pretty triangular passing in midfield from Barça leads to Rakitic curling a ball to the back post, where Sergi Roberto tries to get his head on it, but he’d have needed to take a ride on Reguilon’s shoulders to beat him to the header.
28 min: Messi squares to Rakitic on the edge of the box, but the Croatian takes a calendar year to get his shot away and it’s blocked comfortably. The ball arrives at Dembele’s feet. The winger takes a touch and fizzes a low ball into the corridor of uncertainty intended for Suárez, but the Uruguayan doesn’t gamble on it.
26 min: Semedo bodychecks Reguilon into the hoardings on the far left touchline. It’s a clear free-kick but the referee really should have waved play on as the jet-heeled Vinicius had just picked up possession with clear green grass ahead of him. As it happens, the free-kick is lofted in and Ter Stegen punches clear. I’ve seen very little of Messi and Modric so far but plenty of the young wingers Dembele and Vinicius.
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24 min: While I catch my breath I’ll just mention that Real Madrid’s ultras behind the goal look like the Polyphonic Spree.
23 min: Vinicius causes alarm in the Barça defence with ridiculously quick feet that send Benzema away on the left. The burly forward squares to Vinicius and Alba makes a hash of the clearance, which allows Vinicius to swivel and hit a scrappy shot at Ter Stegen, who stays big and deflects the ball away. Rakitic eventually clears at about the seventh attempt. Vinicius is everywhere here.
20 min: Reguilon doesn’t put enough juice on a backpass and Dembele pounces on it and races towards goal on the inside left channel. Navas rushes out to close him down but as Dembele tries to square his pass to Suarez, who would have a clear strike on goal from 12 yards out, Ramos cuts it out. What a pace this is being played at!
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18 min: Vinicius blazes a right-footed shot over the bar after some razor-sharp buildup play from Reguilon and Benzema. He was only 15 yards out and probably should have scored, or at the least get a shot on target. And then …
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16 min: Well, this clásico has gone off at a cracking pace, not that either team have been particularly slick. It feels like an old-school derby. Lots of sweat but few moments of quality thus far.
15 min: Real Madrid have a penalty appeal waved away as Vinicius Jr goes down in the Barça box as Semedo clumsily steps on him. The VAR must have looked at that and decided it wasn’t a penalty because it was accidental. But, for me, it’s spot-kick. It would be a free-kick anywhere else on the pitch. Barça have got lucky.
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13 min: Ramos appears to have an injury. It looks like Casemiro has jumped into his captain and given him a dead leg. Not in the clásico Cas! He should be able to run it off though.
11 min: Whistles pierce the air as Rakitic slides in on Casemiro and catches the top of his foot with his studs. It followed a few niggly tackles, one from Benzema on Busquets, who probably won’t forget that.
9 min: Busquets slips a lovely pass through a narrow gap in midfield to find Messi, who races away and weights a perfect pass into Dembele’s feet on the left. He zips up the line and lifts a cross up to Suárez on the back post, who volleys back across goal towards Sergi Roberto only to see Reguilon cut it out. That was a warning sign for Madrid though. The Barça machine is moving through the gears.
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6 min: Vinicius Junior does an electric stepover and shows Semedo a clean pair of heels on the left wing but his low cross, intended for Benzema, is cut out at the near post. That little burst raised the Bernabéu volume though. What an exciting prospect.
4 min: Barcelona are slowly winning the possession game, drawing Madrid in before popping passes around them. Messi gets a couple of spare yards in midfield and scurries through the middle before finding Dembele, but the youngster’s touch is heavy and he loses possession. Kroos tries to play the ball out from the back but Sergi Roberto steps on the German’s left boot and peep goes the referee’s whistle.
3 min: Messi gets a touch on the ball and works it to Rakitic deep in the Barça half. He finds Demebele, who has his legs swiped by Casemiro. The free-kick comes to nothing, though.
Peep! We're off!
1 min: Barcelona get the match off to a start, both sides in their famous home strips. Real quickly win back possession and pop it around with pace before Barcelona get a few touches on the ball without going anywhere with it.
Out they come. There’s electricity in the air and a huge banner behind one of the goals that reads simply: “Win!”
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It’s almost time for kick-off and the Bernabéu is crackling with anticipation as the teams get ready to emerge from the tunnel.
There have been two clásicos already this season. Barcelona won the first, in October, 5-1, which saw off Julen Lopetegui. Luis Suárez scored a hat-trick that day. The second was the first leg of this semi-final, a much more evenly balanced affair a couple of weeks ago that ended 1-1.
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Stat time!
6 - @FCBarcelona could be the first team in Copa del Rey history to reach six consecutive finals. Dream. pic.twitter.com/F2DklD0noK
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) February 27, 2019
If you’re not a regular follower of Spanish football you might be wondering who Reguilon is. He’s a 22-year-old left-back who is keeping Marcelo out of the Real Madrid team. Solari has tended to favour him since he took over. He’s played 16 times for Madrid but never in a clásico … and never against Messi. Yikes. That’s one to watch.
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Meanwhile, Santiago Solari has said the furore in the Spanish press about Bale’s non-celebration and general demeanour against Levante is nothing to worry about and hasn’t affected the vibes in his squad.
We are 100% focused … Bale and the rest of the players are fully focused. We are all united and we have the same goal, which is to make it to the final. Those who compete are always out there to battle.”
It’s Ernesto Valverde’s 100th match in charge of Barcelona tonight, not that he’s been counting. Here’s what he had to say about the occasion:
I would love to win, I won’t deny that. I didn’t know [it was my 100th game], but it’s an important game because it’s a semi-final, it’s a clasico and we would like to go through. It will be complicated. We have a scoreline which is not the one we would want, but it’s an open game and the match is to be decided. We know the quality of our rival. It will be an attractive game for the fans.
Team news
Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Semedo, Pique, Lenglet, Alba; Sergi Roberto, Busquets, Rakitic; Messi, Suárez, Dembele. Subs: Cillessen, Alena, Umtiti, Arthur, Vidal, Malcom, Coutinho
Real Madrid: Navas; Carvajal, Ramos, Varane, Reguilón; Modric, Casemiro, Kroos; Vázquez, Benzema, Vinicius. Subs: Courtois, Nacho, Bale, Marcelo, Valverde, Asensio, Ceballos.
So, Coutinho is on the bench for Barça, with Démbéle again favoured over the former Liverpool playmaker whose career at Camp Nou has not taken off yet. And Madrid leave Bale on the sidelines again, where his teammates would be best advised not to get tactile or try to engage him any chat.
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I’ll have the team news shortly but as we wait here’s the Real Madrid bus arriving at the Bernabéu a short time ago. I think the Madridistas are up for this.
🤩 ¡GRAN BIENVENIDA!#RMFans | #RMClasico pic.twitter.com/F1SUVvK3AQ
— Real Madrid C.F.⚽ (@realmadrid) February 27, 2019
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Preamble
Monsieur, with these clásicos you are really spoiling us. This is the first of two in four days! It’s all back to the Bernabéu again to meet in La Liga on Saturday. But it is probably fair to say, with Real Madrid trailing Barcelona by nine points in the league, it is in this competition (or perhaps Europe further down the line) that they have the best chance of getting one over their fierce rivals this season.
If Barcelona were perhaps a little disjointed in the first leg, it is because they were without Lionel Messi for about an hour of it. He will be back to pull the strings again this evening and, after scoring a sublime hat-trick against Sevilla at the weekend, he can be expected to be at his bafflingly brilliant best from the off.
As for Madrid, their preparation has been overshadowed somewhat by criticism of Gareth Bale in the Madrid press after he batted away any teammate who tried to celebrate with him when he scored on Sunday. The Bernabéu could give Bale, who appeared to be miffed at being benched against Levante, a more hostile reception than the Barça team.
The visitors won the Copa del Rey last season for a record 30th time. They’ll not want Madrid getting their hands on their prized pot. Clásicos rarely disappoint – and this is the second leg of a semi-final. Oof. Expect fireworks.
My prediction: Real Madrid 2-2 Barcelona (3-3 agg) Barcelona win on away goals.
