Supercopa First Leg Review: Barcelona 1-3 Real Madrid
REUTERS/Sergio Perez
Real Madrid ran out deserved winners in a controversial first leg of the Spanish Super Cup.
The first leg of the Supercopa has been won by Real Madrid with a commendable scoreline of 3-1. Now, Los Blancos will host Barcelona at Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday night for second leg of the fixture. However, Real Madrid will have to defend their lead without the talismanic attacker Cristiano Ronaldo, who was red card controversially.
The first half at the Camp Nou was a tight affair with both the teams matching each other blow by blow. It was Real Madrid who opened the scoring five minutes into the second half; when Isco picked a marauding Marcelo with his pass before the Brazilian whipped in a cross which was guided into his own net by a distraught Pique.
Real Madrid had the look of the stronger team in the second half, and the introduction of Cristiano Ronaldo at the hour mark was an attempt to kill the game off by Zidane.
However, Barcelona came into game strongly to rescue the game in their home territory. The home side was awarded a controversial penalty, converted by Messi to equalize, when Suarez seemed to have dived upon minimal contact by the Real Madrid goalkeeper.
With Messi scoring a goal, his rival for life, Ronaldo, was brought to life, as the Portuguese finished a sensational counter-attack with an impeccable finish in the top right corner to give Real Madrid the lead again.
Then came the most controversial moment of the night, when 2 minutes later, Ronaldo was pushed by Umtiti on the edge of the box. The referee considered an off-balance Ronaldo diving to earn a potential penalty, and awarded him the second yellow card to give the striker his marching orders.
An angry Ronaldo pushed the referee while going off the pitch, which could earn the Portuguese superstar an even lengthier ban. Post Ronaldo’s red card, Barcelona tried their best to equalize against a 10-man Real side, but the home team was stunned by a rocket of a goal by Asensio in the final minute of the game.
Written by Shorya Panwar 
Has 20+ years of experience managing Schalke in Football Manager 2017. Believes wing-backs are the most complete footballers in the modern/evolved football. Writes weird stuff on his personal blog.