Despite being a man down, Barcelona eked out a 2-2 draw against bitter rivals, Real Madrid on Sunday night at the Camp Nou to maintain their unbeaten run in La Liga.
Ernesto Valverde’s men, who won the league title last weekend, had gone ahead through a 10th-minute Luis Suarez strike before Cristiano Ronaldo levelled for the visitors four minutes later.
While the first half wound down, a slew of hard tackles coupled with uncontrolled temper saw five yellow cards issued to Nacho Fernandez, Raphael Varane and Sergio Ramos for Madrid while Suarez and Lionel Messi got on the referee’s books for Barcelona.
However, Barcelona’s right back, Sergi Roberto was shown a straight red card for a foul on Marcelo on the stroke of half time.
Despite this one-man disadvantage, Barcelona again grabbed the lead through a curler from Messi, who shook off two Madrid defenders to bury the goal in Keylor Navas’s net.
Ronaldo, who had been substituted at half time for a minor ankle sprain, cut a frustrated figure as Barcelona seemed to be enjoying the ball.
Real Madrid responded 20 minutes later through a powerful curler from Gareth Bale.
The visitors then assumed the driving seat and threatened to grab the winner as pressure mounted on the Blaugrana.
Ultimately, the 238th El Clasico ended in a stalemate.
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