LIONEL MESSI WEAVED his magic to keep 10-man Barcelona’s unbeaten season alive as a 2-2 draw at the Camp Nou on Sunday left Real Madrid sweating over an injury to Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ronaldo was forced off at half-time after appearing to hurt his ankle and Real will be hoping their star striker can now recover in time for the Champions League final against Liverpool on 26 May.
The challenge from Gerard Pique had come as Ronaldo cancelled out Luis Suarez’s opener before Sergi Roberto was sent off on the stroke of half-time for an altercation with Real defender Marcelo.
Barca, however, took the lead in the second half as Messi scored a brilliant individual goal only for Gareth Bale, who could earlier have been sent off, to have the last word in a thrilling Clasico, his emphatic strike earning Real a deserved draw.
After initially taking treatment, Ronaldo played on for 31 minutes here before Zinedine Zidane decided to substitute him at half-time, which may at least offer Real encouragement.
His injury, however, coupled with Barcelona avoiding defeat, despite playing a man down for the whole of the second half, will mean the Catalans depart the happier side.
Ernesto Valverde’s men, already crowned champions, are now three matches away from becoming the first team ever to finish a 38-game La Liga season unbeaten.
Andres Iniesta overcame, or perhaps ignored, a niggling calf problem to play his 38th and final Clasico while Philippe Coutinho was picked to start his first. Iniesta went off to a standing ovation in the second half.
Barca exploded out of the blocks and they were ahead within 10 minutes. Suarez swept the ball out to the right where Sergi drove forward, ignored Messi’s run to the near post, and returned the cross deep to Suarez. He finished into the bottom corner.
The lead, however, lasted four minutes. Just as Suarez initiated his goal, so did Ronaldo, a neat backheel freeing Toni Kroos, who found Karim Benzema at the back post. The Frenchman was cool enough to head back into the six-yard box, where Ronaldo bundled home.
Pique’s last-ditch attempt had been robust enough to hurt the Portugese, who stayed down as Barca attempted to kick off. Ronaldo took treatment but was able temporarily to continue.
Real dictated the rest of the half and Ronaldo could twice have given them the lead. His first shot was saved by Marc-Andre Ter Stegen, the second fired wide of the far post.
In between, Messi had played in Jordi Alba with a sumptuous ball over the top but even he lost his cool during five mad minutes at the end of the first period.
Suarez felt he had been elbowed by Sergio Ramos, prompting the first round of scuffles, before Messi was booked for flying into the defender on the touchline.
Bale was then lucky not to be sent off for stabbing his studs into Samuel Umtiti’s calf and moments later Sergi did see red, as he threw an arm into the face of Marcelo.
The home fans were raging as the half-time whistle blew but, with Marco Asensio on for Ronaldo, they were celebrating eight minutes after the restart.
Suarez’s blatant kick on Raphael Varane went unpunished and from there it was all about Messi. He skipped away first from Ramos, and then Casemiro, before firing into the bottom corner.
Even Zidane was smiling on the touchline.
Iniesta went off just before the hour and Messi could have put Barca out of sight soon after. He sped away from Varane but his shot was parried away by Keylor Navas.
Real tried to make the most of their one-man advantage but in truth, they had been far more assertive 11 against 11.
Instead, their goal in the 72nd minute came out of the blue as Bale raced onto Asensio’s pass and whipped the ball first-time into the top corner. It was the Welshman’s 15th goal in 24 matches this year.
Real should have had a late penalty when Alba cleared out Marcelo but referee Alejandro Jose Hernandez Hernandez somehow decided the challenge was clean. It was the final controversy of a surprisingly heated derby.
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Delighted for the lad! Would be great if in the future more young Irish players could come back for half a season play some LOI and go back with that bit of experience, seems to have done Eoghan no harm
Ambrose and boyata are both a liability,simunovic still an unknown quantity so I’d say it’s a toss up between o Connell and kolo to partner sviatchenko.would be great to see eoghan nail down a regular spot and continue his progress
That is brilliant news for Celtic and Ireland.
I watched the match – O’Connell showed great character throughout the game.
Can’t but read Rogers interview in his voice
Lads…. were ye watching a different game,,, he was 100% to blame for the goal…. lost his man completely
Blueman, you’re right, the goal was his fault but his head didn’t go down after it as most young players would and he went from strength to strength as the game went on.
It’s a zonal marking system, therefore no man to lose. Although he could have been better for it so could every other defender in the box and if Gordon stayed on his line maybe it wouldn’t have been a goal so 100% is very harsh on the the young fella. For a 20 y/o making his first European start in a notoriously tough place to go he done very little wrong and was one of Celtics better players. If you were watching the match and not just the goal you would have seen that!
O Connell did well all things taken into account,good result to take back to glasgow
Fact is the goal was his fault, you can dress it up anyway you want,… football at the highest level is a harsh game, and goals decide games, if he wasn’t a young irish player playing for celtic , people wouldn’t be raving about his performance and making excuses for his defending for the goal… think we need to take off the green white and gold glasses here…. and I did watch the full game
Blueman there’s nobody bigging him up.if simunovic can be kept fit and playing regularly,o connell won’t get much game time.at the moment he’s the pick of a bad bunch and just a potentially good defender
Blueman get a grip ffs. He’s 20 years of age, made one or two small mistakes in the biggest game of his career to date. Start blaming the young man now and giving him abuse about the goal could shatter his confidence, that’s why he’s being praised. Attitudes like yours is the reason a lot of talented youngsters don’t make it in the game!
Hahaha…. one or two small mistakes???… wouldn’t call losing his man for a goal in a champions lge game a small mistake. … its quite a significant one. If young pros can’t take a bit of criticism they may as well forget about a career in the game…. and I thought he he will let a bit of criticism on the 42 get to him… if he he was that type of character he would never have made it this far
You said people wouldn’t be raving about his performance if he wasn’t Irish or playing for Celtic. Well this is an Irish site and an article about Celtic, so obviously people who have a better understanding of the game than yourself (and people who really watched the game) think he merits praise for his performance! And if you’re a Celtic supporter you should be ashamed of yourself :-/
I am not a celtic fan … I am looking at the game… which I watched in full from an unbiased point of view… it’d obvious your biased towards him, , and if u can’t see he was at fault for that goal than it is you who doesn’t really know that much about football….