Barcelona embarrassed Real Madrid at Santiago Bernabeu, defeating the biggest rival with 0-3, and displaying a huge difference in quality right now.
In the rematch of the Copa del Rey semifinals, Ernesto Valverde’s boys routinely defeated the home team, who has to be very disappointed after missing numerous chances, especially in the first half.
On the other side, Barca was waiting for their turn, tho quickly show up and hurt the vulnerable back line of the hosts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSI2rSFwReQ
The players who need to be criticized for this result, are the Brazilian sensation, Vinicius Junior who missed a couple of great chances, and veteran striker Karim Benzema.
These two guys had 4 excellent opportunities to score. The pacey teenager had three, but he couldn’t use either of them. The first one was in the 19th minute when his poor ball control cost him a clear goal. Even better one happened 20 minutes after, when his shot from inside the box went above the bar despite being in a perfect position to deliver.
Benzema had a one-on-one situation with Barca’s keeper Marc-Andre Ter Stegen, but the German goalkeeper made a fantastic save, proving that he is one of the most underrated players in the world.
In general, the home team dominated in the opening 45 minutes, while Barca waited for their turn to hit from the counter-attack.
The second 45 minutes started in the same manner. Benzema sent a good header after one set piece, but the ball flew just a couple of inches above the bar.
When you don’t use this many chances, the punishment always arrives.
This time it came in shape of Luis Suarez. One of the best strikers in the past decade shocked 83,000 fans at Santiago Bernabeu with just one minute after Benzema’s’ miss. Dembele assisted, and the Uruguayan executed without any hesitation.
Silence in Madrid.
The home team tried to bounce back immediately, and they had two more chances, but simply the ball wouldn’t go into the net. Vinicius was dominating, however when needed to score, his finishing was awful.
It was 69th minute when Dembele once again run away from the defenders on the right side, making a strong low cross through the goalkeeper are, aiming Suarez on the far post. No. 9 in Barcelona was there, and he forced Rafael Varane to place the ball into his own net.
Another shock for the hosts. And again in the moments when they dominated.
Just three minutes after that, Suarez was once again in the center of attention. He forced Casemiro to make a penalty on him, after which he himself scored from the same.
And what a penalty it was. Keylor Navas was humiliated with Panenka. The whole Real Madrid was humiliated by the veteran striker.
Happiness 💙❤️ pic.twitter.com/HoU1KFtwRk
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) February 27, 2019
Blaugrana is in the finals of Copa del Rey, and they will be waiting for the better from Betis vs Valencia matchup. The first leg was finished 2-2.
“We knew that if we scored, then they would push forward and we would have more space,” Suarez told after the game.”Matches always have their pros and cons; we didn’t play the way that we wanted, but that’s what matches are like.”
Meanwhile, we will see another El Clasico already this Saturday, as the two big rivals meet again, only this time in the Spanish La Liga.
“We know how difficult league games are and we have little time to recover [in prder] to be ready for Saturday,” Suarez stated when asked about this week’s match.
Barcelona’s coach Ernesto Valverde also spoke about Saturday’s clash, saying that his team is flying high on morale now, but that they know which areas to improve before that event.
“It is going to be a different story on Saturday. We are mentally strong, but we will need to play much better. Real had many chances in front of our goal.”
Barca will play in the finals of Copa del Ray against better from the matchup between Betis and Valencia.
Nikola Velickovic is a sports journalist who loves to write and read on all sports. Nikola contributes both news updates and functions as a sports breaking news writer at WagerBop.
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Email: nikola@wagerbop.com
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