El Clasico | Real Madrid beats Barcelona 2-1 to go top of Spanish league

Karim Benzema and Toni Kroos scored first-half goals to give Madrid its sixth straight win in all competitions

April 11, 2021 03:29 am | Updated 10:51 pm IST - MADRID

Real Madrid's Karim Benzema celebrates after scoring the opening goal past Barcelona's goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen, background, during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona at the Alfredo di Stefano stadium in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, April 10, 2021.

Real Madrid's Karim Benzema celebrates after scoring the opening goal past Barcelona's goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen, background, during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona at the Alfredo di Stefano stadium in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, April 10, 2021.

Real Madrid beat rival Barcelona 2-1 at home in an entertaining, rain-soaked ‘Clasico’ on Saturday to stretch its winning run to six games in all competitions and go top of LaLiga for the first time in three months.

Karim Benzema put the champion in charge at a soggy Alfredo di Stefano stadium with a delightful backheel in the 14th minute while a deflected Toni Kroos free kick doubled its lead in the 28th.

Barca hit back on the hour mark through Oscar Mingueza and the defender almost found the equaliser later on, while the Catalans had a huge penalty appeal waved away when Martin Braithwaite fell following a challenge by Ferland Mendy.

Sent off

Real midfielder Casemiro was sent off in stoppage time for picking up two yellow cards in the space of a minute while Barca substitute Ilaix Moriba hit the crossbar in the fourth minute of added time.

 

Zinedine Zidane’s side joined Atletico Madrid on 66 points and moved top of the table. Barca, who lost for the first time in the league since early December, dropped to third on 65.

Inter Milan continued its march to its first Serie A title in more than a decade as it beat relegation-threatened Cagliari 1-0 on Sunday.

Defender Matteo Darmian scored the only goal of the match in the 77th minute.

Coach Antonio Conte ran onto the pitch to celebrate with his players as the goal restored Inter’s 11-point advantage over second-place AC Milan.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic set up two goals but was also sent off as Milan won 3-1 at relegation-threatened Parma on Saturday to keep its small Serie A title hopes alive.

 

The results: Premier League: Burnley 1 (Vydra 18) lost to Newcastle 2 (Murphy 59, Saint-Maximin 64); West Ham 3 (Lingard 29, 44, Bowen 48) bt Leicester 2 (Iheanacho 70, 90+1).

LaLiga: Villarreal 1 (D. Garcia 70-og) lost to Osasuna 2 (Moncayola 64, A. Budimir 74).

Serie A: Inter Milan 1 (Darmian 77) bt Cagliari 0; Juventus 3 (Kulusevski 4, Morata 22, McKennie 70) bt Genoa 1 (Scamacca 49); Verona 0 lost to Lazio 1 (Milinkovic-Savic 90+2); Sampdoria 0 lost to Napoli 2 (Pena 35, Osimhen 87).

Saturday: LaLiga: Getafe 0 lost to Cadiz 1 (Timor 64-og); Athletic Bilbao 0 drew with Alaves 0; Eibar 0 lost to Levante 1 (de Frutos 45+2); Real Madrid 2 (Benzema 13, Kroos 28) bt Barcelona 1 (Mingueza 60).

Premier League: Crystal Palace 1 (Benteke 63) lost to Chelsea 4 (Havertz 8, Pulisic 10, 78, Zouma 30).

Serie A: Spezia 3 (Verde 63, Maggiore 89, Erlic 90+2) bt Crotone 2 (Djidji 40, Simy 78); Parma 1 (Gagliolo 66) lost to AC Milan 3 (Rebic 8, Kessie 44, Rafael Leao 90+4); Udinese 0 lost to Torino 1 (Belotti 61-pen).

Bundesliga: Hertha Berlin 2 (Ascacibar 23, Cordoba 49) drew with Borussia M’Gladbach 2 (Plea 27, Stindl 38-pen); Eintracht Frankfurt 4 (Kamada 8, Jovic 27, Silva 54, Durm 61) bt VfL Wolfsburg 3 (Baku 6, Weghorst 46, Philipp 85); VfB Stuttgart 2 (Kalajdzic 17, Didavi 78) lost to Borussia Dortmund 3 (Bellingham 47, Reus 52, Knauff 80).

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.