Pique lifts Barca as El Clasico lives up to hype
GERARD Pique delivered Barcelona’s match winner over Real Madrid on Saturday as El Clasico Miami lived up to the hype.
The Spanish international steered in a Neymar free-kick in the 50th minute to seal a 3-2 win for the Catalan giants in front of 66,014 at the Hard Rock Stadium.
Lionel Messi, who put in a superb 64-minute performance, opened the scoring after just three minutes and when Ivan Rakitic doubled the lead s o o n a f t e r, t h e wr i t i n g appeared to be on the wall for a sluggish Real Madrid side.
Yet Zinedine Zidane’s side quickly woke from their slumber and by the end of the first half, goals from Mateo Kovacic and Marco Asensio had pulled them level.
What followed was entert a i ni ng, of t e n bre a t hl e s s friendly fare before Pique struck that decisive goal.
This was nothing more than a preseason match and obviously wasn’t going to affect the overall record between these two old rivals, which stands at 93 wins for Real and 91 for Barcelona – who had won their most recent meeting with Messi’s last-gasp winner – his 500th for the club.
Real had the last laugh in May, winning La Liga and the Champions L e a g u e, b u t arrived in Miami off the back of two exhibition defeats – a penalty shootout defeat to Manchester United before Manchester City also did a number on them in Los Angeles, running out 4-1 winners.
Barca, meanwhile, had beaten United and Juventus in International Champions Cup friendly competition, but the ongoing uncertainty s ur- rounding Neymar – and Paris Sa i nt - Ger main’s re por t e d readiness to make a € 218 million move for him – has cast a serious cloud over their twoweek stay in North America.
The Bra z i l ia n st a r ted for Er nesto Va lverde’s side a nd whi le t he rest of his tea mmates head home he will f ly to China to perform commercia l obligations on behalf of t he club.
On Saturday it was Neymar starting alongside Messi and Luis Suarez, while Gareth Bale, Luka Modric and Karim Benzema were all unleashed by Re a l mana g e r Zi n e d i n e Zidane.
Messi opened t he scor ing wit h just t hree minutes on t he clock, t he Argentine ace waltzing into the box and lifting a shot past Keylor Navas v ia a def lect ion of f Raphael Varane.
And it wasn’t long before Navas was picking the ball out of the back of the net once again.
On six minutes, Neymar squared the ball and it found Rakitic, whose finish was clinically struck.
Real had barely escaped their own half and were lucky not to fall further behind on 13 minutes when Suarez fired over from close range.
Yet with Real’s first effort on goal, Zidane’s side pulled one back.
Croatian Kovacic evaded a challenge just outside the box before arrowing the ball past the outstretched hand of Jasper Cillessen.
Suddenly, the game was on, and in the 36th Asensio levelled for Real.
Los Blancos were counterattacking dangerously and it was left to Modric who squared for the Spaniard who took full advantage of Jordi Alba missing the ball to rifle past a horribly exposed Cillessen.
‘I see Neymar with us’
Although they came back from the early goals, Zidane was downbeat about his team’s performance. But he said there was plenty of time to get things right before Real take on Manchester United in the UEFA Super Cup on August 8.
Both teams retained their star men after the restart and it was Neymar whose pinpoint free-kick was steered home by Pique in the 50th.
While the clash of the Spanish rivals was supposedly a friendly, Rakitic was lucky to escape a red card just after the hour mark when he appeared to push referee Jair Marrufo.
Neymar departed on 72 minutes in what could have been his final performance in Barcelona colours.
“I don’t want to speculate about Neymar,” Valverde said. “I see him in the same place I have seen him recently – on the pitch with us.”