And at last, the game ends with Real Madrid winning with 10 men. It's obvious fact that Sergio Ramos will continue his legacy of getting a red card in El Clasico’s and this match was not different.
Coming to the pre-match situations, Barcelona was lying on the top of La Liga with 12 points lead over the Los Blancos and heavily confident of continuing the 39 games undefeated streak.
The famous trio of Messi, Suarez and Neymar devastated almost every defense and it was expected that they will light up their game at the Camp Nou. Famous critics and football analysts predicted that it’s Barcelona who was favorite to win this El Classico.
And as Iniesta mentioned “Clasico win is a great tribute to Johan Cruyff”, honoring the recently departed soul of the Godfather of Barcelona.
But wait, was the job that easy? Maybe yes, maybe NO.
Honestly, Barcelona disappointed the whole Camp Nou. From the very first minute, they were like a team with no interests nor intentions to win. Keeping the possession is a normal trait of Catalans but what shines is the art, the beauty to play with the ball and dazzle past the opposition defense.
On a clear note, not one player had the hunger or desire to win it and it showed in their game. Even Messi was seen as a detached army, showing his magisterial skills only for patches of seconds.
And if there was any team that would end this long unbeaten streak of the Cules, it was to be Real Madrid. Although in the first half, the story was very brief with Barcelona keeping a fair share of possession and Los Blancos keeping their formation compact and intentions clear.
Pique’s header acted as a fuel for Real Madrid. The BBC became more forceful, being reminded by the 4-0 humiliation in the Santiago Bernabeu. And it was no late when they finally produced the crack in Barcelona’ defense, Ronaldo and Benzema giving the lead and, at last, winning for them.
Light is important, so as dark. Victory is important, so as defeat. This El Classico proved the sentences very true. Barcelona was suffering from fatigue and each second of this 90 mins proved the fact.
A team with such immensely talented players and remaining undefeated for a long time was bound to be suffered from fatigue, the Catalan giants were not an exception from this aspect of nature.
Maybe it’s not the tribute that the Camp Nou was expecting for Johan Cruyff. Maybe it’s not the tribute that the whole world was expecting for the Godfather of ‘Total Football’. Maybe it was not the perfect day for his tribute.
But it might be, that the defeat was actually a blessing for Catalonia. It might be, that the defeat was a new lesson to be learned about life. Might be, that the holy soul of Johan Cruyff wanted to teach us a new philosophy, a philosophy of humbleness and being down to earth and accepting defeat.
A defeat is not the end of the season, neither the end of the world. But the end might come if we don’t have the guts to accept it.
“It's hard to manage failure. It is even more challenging to manage success because you hardly learn from it or you can’t improve. Winning & losing is a matter of being competitive. You can't expect to win every match, but you can control your ability to compete.”- What if Johan himself was trying to teach us this philosophy about life, from the heaven?
And lastly, congratulations to all Real Madrid players and supporters, it was their day.
An enemy by appearance, but a friend in disguise.
Thank You, Real Madrid, from a Barcelona fan.
