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The fourth El Clasico of the season ended in a draw after both Real Madrid and Barcelona scored two goals each. With this result, Barcelona are likely to end the season as invincibles as they are yet to lose a game in the league.
Luis Suarez started the scoring for Barcelona, thanks to a brilliant cross from Sergi Roberto and Real Madrid equalised soon after with a similar goal with Cristiano Ronaldo getting the final touch to a Karim Benzema header.
Towards the end of first half, Roberto got a direct red card and was sent off. While everyone expected Real Madrid to run riot against the 10 men of Barcelona, Lionel Messi put the hosts ahead with a brilliant goal. Yet again, Real Madrid equalised with a similar goal as Gareth Bale curled a Marco Asensio pass into the near post from the edge of the box.
Neither team found the back of the goal again and Andreas Iniesta's final El Clasico ended 2-2. Let us take a look at what went for Real Madrid in the season's final El Clasico.
#3 Madrid struggled to deal with Barcelona's pressing in the second half
The first 45 minutes of the El Clasico was completely entertaining as both the teams had scored a goal each and there was a lot of drama going on. The game was well poised for an entertaining second half and that's when referee Hernandez Hernandez got a call miserably wrong.
Barcelona right-back Sergi Roberto was sent off for slapping Marcelo, who held his face and went down in pain, in an off the ball incident that was very debatable. The replays suggested that Roberto's hands hit Marcelo on his shoulder and the Brazilian fell down immediately.
This gave Real Madrid a man's advantage and still, the visitors just managed to hold Barcelona for a 2-2 draw, thanks to the hosts' intense pressing in the second half. Real succumbed to Barcelona's tight pressing as they gave away the ball on a lot of occasions.
#2 The absence of Cristiano Ronaldo in the second half
When Sergi Roberto was sent off in the additional time of the first half, Real Madrid had a clear advantage going into the half-time. When they came out of the tunnel for the second half, Marco Asensio was waiting in the wings to come off for the 12-time European Champion's talisman Cristiano Ronaldo.
Cristiano scored the first goal for Real Madrid in the El Clasico and in the process, he injured himself and received treatment immediately. With the Champions League finals less than three weeks away, manager Zinedine Zidane decided to take the Portuguese, who was complaining of an ankle sprain, off as a precaution and substituted with the Spaniard.
Though Asensio provided the assist for Gareth Bale's goal, the presence of Cristiano against a ten-man team would have given Los Blancos more advantage. In the first half, Barcelona struggled to deal with Ronaldo's presence in the box. The likes of Asensio and Benzema struggled to replicate that in the second half.
#1 The Hernandez Hernandez effect
When every single player who stepped on the field during the El Clasico gave his 100% to take his side to victory, one man was below-par today. With a game of such high magnitude, the REEF gave their experienced man Hernandez Hernandez the nod to take care of the proceedings. But the referee had a game to forget as he got more incorrect decisions than the right ones.
Apart from all the controversial yellow cards and red card he issued to the players, Barcelona's second goal should have been cancelled as their forward Luis Suarez fouled Real Madrid defender Raphael Varane in the build-up to the goal before Lionel Messi beautifully curled it into the near post.
In the dying minutes of the game, Marcelo went down in the opposition box but Hernandez refused to award the visitors a penalty. The replays showed that there was a clear contact from Jordi Alba on Marcelo due to which the full-back went down.
