Madrid could be boosted by the return of Gareth Bale from injury, but the fact the Welshman may not be risked is a further sign that Real have far more room for error.
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“Just imagine, his 500th goal coming here, a victor in the 92nd minute at the Santiago Bernabeu”.
“We can not be happy”, Zidane said. We are disappointed as overall we did not deserve to lose, but football is like that.
While it appears the clash was unintentional, it left Messi crumpled on the floor, with him spitting out blood from the mouth. “He makes the difference”.
The goal came 12 years back in 2005 against Albacete.
“In the Clasico I saw Messi do things that I have never seen before”. His mentor at the time, Ronaldinho, the great Brazilian midfielder, played Messi into the area and watched as the then 17-year-old looped the ball over the goalkeeper and into the net.
With five games to go, they are leaders on their head-to-head record, and although Real Madrid have a game in hand, and Zinedine Zidane rightly says “we still depend on ourselves”, nothing feels impossible now.
There was still time for one huge twist in the title race, though, as Sergi Roberto’s lung-bursting run led a Barca counter-attack to feed Jordi Alba and his cross was smashed into the corner by Messi.
Madrid’s late equaliser, glanced home at the near post by James Rodriguez, would have been enough for 2-2 and the maintenance of a points buffer that was unlikely to ever disappear.
“Drawing the game with 10 men, to press high up the field is risky and we paid for that”, said Zidane.
Firstly, he got a foot to Paco Alcacer’s prodded effort before pulling off acrobatic saves to deny Gerard Pique and Suarez.
Barcelona’s Marc-Andre ter Stegen also came up with big stops, including a header by Benzema and a shot by Marco Asensio.
“These matches are brilliant for the fans, chances for both teams”.
Madrid, though, still have the advantage as they have a game in hand.
Wearing the green jacket from his first career major victory at Augusta earlier this month, Masters champion Sergio Garcia performed the honorary kickoff before the game. We witnessed a greatspectacle, where we were superior and we have gone top (of LaLiga). A win for Real would have effectively locked up another league title by putting them six points ahead of Barcelona. But this was followed by a 3-0 aggregate loss to Juventus in the quarterfinals.
But it was not the fouls but his second goal of the evening that will be remembered.
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Celta stayed in 10th place.
