04/10/2021 12:02 PM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 04/10/2021 18:59
If it was the last one, it was ugly.
If it was the last one it was uncomfortable, it was annoying.
He ended up drenched, changing his clothes and shivering under the deluge in Valdebebas, without a single fan in the stands.
If it was the last one, he played it badly.
He was against the team's hand: he showed leadership when his teammates wandered in the first half but failed to get a brush of his hierarchy in the final minutes when the push was increasing in search of a draw that would have been unfair.
If it was Messi's last classic, it didn't even serve to break the drought.
He was inches away with a beautiful corner that got Olympic but hit the post.
And there are already seven goalless games against Real Madrid since that last confrontation with Cristiano Ronaldo.
And if it was not the last, if a steering wheel appears on the buzzer of his contract, if the assumption of Joan Laporta offers him motivations, if they nourish the squad with the missing quality, if the context improves and the weight of the family move to A new life balances the balance, if Messi continues in Barcelona, he will have to find a mental and sporting hook that unlocks this hybrid and transitional scenario that the Argentine and the entire club have been starring in for almost a year when the burofax lit the time bomb.
What kind.
This has been Benzema's high heel goal for Real Madrid pic.twitter.com/fEAEq7syYz#ElClasico
- ElHuffPost Sports (@HuffPostDeporte) April 10, 2021
Real Madrid, which jumps to the top of the League, won justly and with class.
He could have thrashed and should not have suffered in the final shot that blew the crossbar.
At 13 minutes, the plan that Zinedine Zidane had had in the previous one was already working.
The entry of Federico Valverde by Asensio to add dynamics in the midfield, control the projections of Jordi Alba and at the same time free the right wing for the increases of Lucas Vázquez worked in the 1-0 play as if it were an action of training.
The Uruguayan broke diagonal lines, opened to the right, reached the center fast and Benzema, who is so crack that he even had time to mark him two seconds before he would go to the near post, defined with a phenomenal cue.
Benzema, who has been at Real Madrid for 12 years, who has already screamed more than 270 goals with the white shirt and won 18 titles, was not closed by Ronald Araujo, who is 22 years old, debuted at the end of 2019 in Barcelona and is there to try to replace Gerard Piqué.
Benzema's goal was the stomp that crushed the anthill.
And as the tactical structures were broken, the differences of individual hierarchy and collective game between Real Madrid and Barcelona were bigger and bigger.
THE GOAL OF TONI KROOS ⚪️ pic.twitter.com/HzASGzp1T2
- Zonal Brand (@Marca_Zonal) April 10, 2021
The 2-0 delivered another comparison that defines them.
Toni Kroos, the midfielder who is in his seventh season at the White House, took over the free kick on the edge of the penalty area.
Next to him was Luka Modric, who is already in the ninth.
But the German crack hit him and, before reaching the net, the ball was diverted into Sergiño Dest, the American who arrived in Barcelona six months ago with the air of Dani Alves, and then failed to get it out on the line Oscar Mingueza, the young squad player who is a winger but had to jump to the first team as a defender due to a string of injuries.
Ronald Koeman moved the bookshelf for the second half.
The entry of Griezmann by Dest molded a better balanced team, with four in the background, more freedom for De Jong and with Dembélé against the line, where he performs better.
He woke up #Barcelona and discounted through Óscar Mingueza.
#RealMadrid 2-1 #Barcelona.
# ElClásico pic.twitter.com/NPPqrLI6Xe
- Diego Julio Pizarro (@diegojulio_p) April 10, 2021
The flood added emotion to a classic that was losing its forms.
And in that scenario Mingueza was encouraged to step on the rival area and pushed a center by Jordi Alba with the tap.
Barcelona pushed and Real Madrid had a couple of good counter chances and with numerical supremacy.
Until 20 minutes from the end, Zidane, with that winning and unimpeachable imprint, gave a message to the party and to the world: nothing is more important than the Champions League.
Kroos, Vinicius and Benzema went to sit on the bench thinking about the quarter-final rematch against Liverpool.
The last blows of the Catalan team remained.
A third chance for Messi with a free kick and on the edge of the area that goes quietly at the hands of Courtois.
And a dramatic final scene, with Ter Stegen looking for the homeland and Ilaix Moriba, 18, improvising a scissors that breaks the crossbar.
But the movie had been another in the 90 minutes.
And if Barcelona continues rewinding, it will find its reality: a hybrid present in which, like Messi, it does not finish defining itself.
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