Real Madrid 0-1 Barcelona: Rakitic leaves Bernabeu ringing with 'champions'
The Croatian's strike earned Barca victory and fans chanted "champions" at the end
Ivan Rakitic’s class dinked finish earned Barcelona a narrow victory over Real Madrid, their second Clasico triumph in four days.
MAD
0 ________________ 1
BAR
LINE UP
Real Madrid
Courtois, Carvajal, Varane, Ramos, Reguilón, Casemiro (Isco, 75'), Modric, Kroos (Valverde, 55'), Bale (Asensio, 61'), Benzema y Vinicius
FC Barcelona
Ter Stegen, Sergi Roberto, Piqué, Lenglet, Alba, Busquets (Semedo, 90'), Rakitic, Arthur (Arturo Vidal, 70'), Messi, Dembélé (Coutinho, 77') y Suárez
Goles
0-1, Rakitic (25')
Árbitro
Undiano Mallenco (navarro). TA: Ramos (60'), Asensio (81'), Carvajal (88') / Busquets (1'), Lenglet (62')
Incidencias
Santiago Bernabéu, 80.000 espectadores
Even though the scoreline was tight, Barcelona were comfortable, even under Madrid pressure in the second half.
Gerard Pique and Clement Lenglet were a brick wall, Sergi Roberto shackled Vinicius Junior and Lionel Messi enjoyed more freedom than he could find in the 3-0 Copa del Rey victory.
Barca were far better than in midweek with Arthur starting and able to help them control the game to a much greater degree.
Sergi Roberto set up Rakitic to break the deadlock, with the Croatian lofting the ball over Thibaut Courtois and into the net after 26 minutes.
Pique blocked from Luka Modric and Clement Lenglet diverted a Vinicius Junior effort wide too.
Madrid pushed but came up short and Barcelona are 12 points clear of them now, and 10 of Atletico who play on Sunday at Real Sociedad in a tricky clash.
Barca ended Madrid’s title hopes and also changed the course of history - they have now beaten Madrid more times than vice versa - 96 to 95 across 242 official Clasicos.
