The race for the La Liga title is gaining pace with Real Madrid coming back from a two goal deficit to beat Sevilla in a thrilling game. The victory saw Real ease past Barcelona by virtue of an improved goal difference. Ex-Liverpool ace Xabi Alonso was kind enough to give the visitors an early lead, putting the ball into his own net. Bernabeu was stunned into silence when a rare mistake from keeper Iker Casillas saw Ivica Dragutinovic's free-kick float into the top left corner as the Real defence looked on in dismay.
It was a rare site to see the white soccer uniforms go down the tunnel two goals behind at half time.
As was the case in many of the weekend fixtures in Europe, the second half told an entirely different story. Cristiano Ronaldo slammed the first nail into Sevilla's coffin when he coolly side-footed the ball home after a neat inter-passing move. The whites were level just four minutes later, with midfielder Sergio Ramos heading home powerfully from a corner. The pressure on Sevilla's goal was unrelenting with both Gutti and Higuain hitting the woodwork, and Raul getting in the way of a goal bound Ronaldo shot. The was fire in the eyes of the Madrid player's eyes as the pushed for victory and it came from a very late goal from substitute Rafael van der Vaart.
Real went into the game knowing that a victory, and even a narrow one, would take them to the peak of the table. In the early game champions Barca struggled slightly, away to Almeria. It was a very unbalanced game, marked by some strange refereeing decisions more than good football. Barca came back twice to equalize with both goals coming from Lionel Messi.
However Messi's star was eclipsed but not by any of the players, instead by referee Carlos Clos Gomez. First he sent Barca coach Pep Guardiola to the stands in the first half, and Swedish Zlatan Ibrahimovic to an early bath with half an hour to go.
Gomez also succeeded in upsetting everyone in the ground by delaying the match's kick off for around fifteen minutes. He apparently took exception to the Almeria player' soccer uniforms, which offered support to the people of Chile after the recent earthquake.
When the game eventually got under way Domingo Cisma had put the Almerians ahead after just 12 minutes, and leaving Barcelona on the lookout for an equalizer. It finally came three minutes before half-time, and again referee Gomez was involved in another controversial decision. This time he awarded a free kick for the visitors, which looked dubious in the extreme. A grateful Messi stepped up to beat keeper Alves with an exquisite free-kick.
That's how the score remained at the break, but Barca went behind soon after the match resumed. . Captain Carles Puyol feeling as generous as his counterpart Alonzo at Real, gifted the home side a really soft own-goal.
However Messi came up with the goods scrambling a late equalizer, to keep the champions in close sight of Real.
With the title race in La Liga finely poised, El Clasico on 11 April looks like being a bit of a league decider.
In Italy at the weekend Serie A leaders Inter Milan were surprisingly held to a stuffy goalless draw by Genoa away. Inter, and especially Jiao Mourinho were disappointed to lose the chance to pull further away from AC Milan who were also held to a no-score draw by Roma on Saturday.
0 comments:
Post a Comment