Mathieu and Suarez celebrate Barca's opener
From Suarez's winner to Neymar's miss, we round up the talking points from Sunday's El Clasico...
Mathieu capitalises on Real’s set-piece weakness
Ahead of kick-off, Real Madrid had conceded a league-high 33 per cent of their goals from set-pieces this season and Jeremy Mathieu, who scored twice against them last season for Valencia, exploited that weakness to head Barcelona in front on 19 minutes.
Only three teams have scored fewer goals from set-pieces than Barcelona in La Liga this term but the France centre-back finished in emphatic fashion after breaking clear of Sergio Ramos and meeting Lionel Messi’s inviting cross – the Argentina international’s 15th assist of the campaign.
Neymar was guilty of squandering a number of chances and his first-half blunder in the Real six-yard box, when he failed to turn in Suarez’s cross-shot, was punished just moments later when Cristiano Ronaldo instigated a counter-attack and slotted in himself to make it 1-1. “If Neymar had scored it would have been 2-0 and a different game,” Manchester City’s Gael Clichy told Sky Sports at half-time.
Instead it was Ronaldo celebrating. The Portuguese had gone two La Liga games without finding the net and hit the bar from close range after 12 minutes but he has now netted seven times in his last eight trips to the Nou Camp.
Sunday’s strike drew Ronaldo level with Real great Raul on 15 El Clasico goals. Messi (21) and Alfredo di Stefano (18) are the only players ahead of him on the list.
