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First Division - Day 9

Real Madrid 3 - Barcelona 1

Madrid: Casillas; Dani Carvajal, Pepe, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo; Modric (Arbeloa 89’), Kroos; James, Cristiano Ronaldo, Isco (Illarramendi 83’); Benzema (Khedira 87‘). 4-2-3-1.
Barcelona: Bravo; Dani Alves, Piqué, Mascherano, Mathieu; Xavi (Rakitic 60’), Busquets, Iniesta (Sergi Roberto 72‘); Luis Suárez (Pedro 69’), Messi, Neymar. 4-3-3.

Goals:
0-1. 04. Neymar. Collected Luis Suárez cross and fired low shot past Casillas.
1-1. 35. Ronaldo (penalty). After Piqué blocked Marcelo cross with arm in area.
2-1. 51. Pepe. Got above defence to head Kroos corner wide of Claudio Bravo.
3-1. 61. Benzema. Picked up James pass and turned angled shot across keeper.

Yellow cards: Messi 09‘, Neymar 14‘, Piqué 34‘, Iniesta 38‘, Carvajal 74‘, Ronaldo 93'.

First blood to Real Madrid in this Saturday’s “clásico”, Ancelotti’s side coming from behind to beat leaders Barcelona 3-1! Luis Enrique took a big chance and included Luis Suárez in the starting line-up just a day after his four-month ban ended, and it appeared to pay off when he crossed in for Neymar to open the scoring with only four minutes gone. And a few minutes later it could have been two had Casillas not made a first class save from Messi following another Suárez cross. Before that however Benzema had headed against the bar and then fired a shot against the upright on the follow up, and with ten minutes to go to the break Ronaldo levelled the scores from the penalty spot after Piqué blocked Marcelo’s cross with his arm inside the area, the first goal that Bravo had let in all season.

With half time approaching James headed wide from another Marcelo centre, and five minutes after the restart Pepe headed the locals in to the lead from a Kroos corner. Casillas pulled off another first class save soon afterwards from a long shot by Mathieu, but otherwise Madrid were on top, and on the hour mark they launched a rapid counter-attack following a Barça corner which ended with James slipping the ball through for Benzema to score the third. That was the killer blow, and the Merengues could have won by a bigger margin in the end had they taken their chances later on. It was their ninth straight win in all competitions, and they move to within a point of their arch-rivals, who saw their 13 game unbeaten run in the league come to an end. The battle is back on!