It was a so..so.. night for Cristiano Ronaldo and a bad night for Barcelona fans in the Nou Camp as Real Madrid through goals
from Asensio, Cristiano Ronaldo and an own goal from Gerard Pique on Sunday night,
gave Real Madrid enough advantage heading into the second leg of the Spanish
Super Cup- even though Cristiano Ronaldo was red-carded few minutes after scoring a
goal for his side.
Ronaldo was booked for his celebration, ripping his shirt off and then holding it up
like Lionel Messi did at the Santiago Bernabeu last season, and seconds later was
booked for diving, making him unavailable for the next leg unless the decision is appealed.
Neymar’s absence was clearly felt in the Barcelona ranks as chances were hard to create especially on the left flank of Barcelona’s attacking line with Luis Suarez
left isolated at times.
This was the first time the clubs played each other since Neymar’s £198million move to
Paris Saint-Germain.
Cristiano Ronaldo, meanwhile, didn’t start the match due to his lack of fitness as he had just recently come back from hliday and was lacking match fitness.
The first half was filled with exchanges between both sides- tackles, shots, tactical
battles, but produced no goal despite the presence of Messi, Suarez and other star
men for Barcelona.
Few minutes after the start of the second half, Marcelo charged down the left side before cutting the ball back but Pique just
couldn’t get out of the way of the ball making it to come off his boot and swerve way past Ter Stegen.
In he 72nd minute, Ronaldo put the ball in the Barcelona net but it was disallowed after
he was adjudged offside. Both sides were now playing free flowing football and it
looked like he match could swing towards any direction. In the 75th minute, Barceona got what they were looking for, as Suarez
fell to the ground after getting minimal contact with Keylor Navas, and Messi didn’t
waste time to slot the ball into the net.
