Barcelona overcame the shock of conceding a goal after just 23 seconds — the fastest in El Clasico history — to defeat bitter rivals Real Madrid 3-1 on Saturday and go top of La Liga.
French striker Karim Benzema scored the early goal to give Real a 1-0 lead after a terrible clearance from Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes.
Alexis Sanchez, who was chosen ahead of David Villa, leveled in the 30th minute after a sublime through ball from Lionel Messi.
Photo: Reuters
A drive from Xavi in the 53rd minute took a wicked deflection off Marcelo that took it beyond the desperate reach of Iker Casillas in the Real goal as Barcelona went into a 2-1 lead.
Cesc Fabregas then added the third in the 65th minute, scoring with a diving header from a fine cross by Dani Alves.
It was the former Arsenal man’s 10th league goal of the campaign.
Real, who now trail Barca on goal-difference, still have a game in hand, but the result brought to an end a 15-match winning streak for Jose Mourinho’s side.
Defending champions Barcelona are now unbeaten in six visits to Real’s Santiago Bernabeu home, but coach Pep Guardiola urged his team not to get carried away.
He is aware that by the time his side return from the World Club Cup in Japan, Real will probably be back on top.
“Real will be the leaders again if they beat Sevilla. There is no point being the ‘champions’ in November or December,” Guardiola said. “I thought it was going to be tougher for us. It was a match in which we were always going to need some luck. Madrid were always going to create chances, that has always happened when I have come here, but overall I am happy with the way the game went. I don’t think that this result will cause distress for Madrid, they will recover and continue to be the biggest rival. Nothing is decided now and it wouldn’t be either if we had lost.”
Mourinho admitted that the result was disappointing, but that it was not a make-or-break game.
“The players are sad, but calm. Before the match we said we had our emotions under control and that this would not change if we went six points ahead or ended up level in the table,” Mourinho said. “We have only lost a game and if we win our next match, then we are leaders.”
For the first time in recent years the pressure was on Barcelona, who knew that a defeat would have a serious bearing on the championship race.
Guardiola had been experimenting with a three-man defense, but he admitted it would be a risk at the Bernabeu with the strength of the Real attack and he chose instead to field a tried and trusted back four, which included Carlos Puyol and Gerard Pique.
Mourinho chose to play Benzema ahead of Gonzalo Higuain and the Frenchman put the home side ahead straight after the kickoff, thanks to some poor defending from Barca.
Valdes gave the ball away to Angel Di Maria and while his cross was cut out, the ball fell to Mesut Ozil, whose shot was saved, but the rebound fell to Benzema, who slotted home.
Messi gave Real reason not to get carried away with a trademark run, going round Sergio Ramos and seeing his strike parried by Casillas.
The home side should have doubled their lead midway through the half when Cristiano Ronaldo fired wide inside the box with time to pick his spot.
Sanchez’s runs were a constant problem and he drew Barca level with a clinical finish on the edge of the area after a fine pass by Messi.
Barca took the lead after the break through a slice of fortune when a Xavi shot flicked off Marcelo’s foot, wrong-footing the goalkeeper, and the ball crept into the corner.
Real had the chance to equalize through a Ronaldo header, which he failed to keep on target from just 10m out, but Barca were also a danger at the other end.
The visitors extended their lead when Alves burst down the wing and crossed to the back post where Fabregas headed home.
Elsewhere, an astonishing stoppage-time brace from Ruben Castro saw Real Betis Balompie come from behind to snatch a 2-1 win over Valencia and end a run of 10 matches without a victory.
Valencia are now seven points behind Barcelona and Real.
A scrambled goal by defender Nano Rivas gave Levante UD a 1-0 victory over Sevilla which consolidated their position in fourth place.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier