Bale denies Barcelona but invincible bid still on track
La Liga champions Barcelona were twice pegged back by Real Madrid last night as an entertaining El Clasico encounter finished 2-2 at the Nou Camp.
Luis Suarez put Barca ahead after ten minutes but Cristiano Ronaldo scrambled home an equaliser four minutes later.
The hosts had Sergi Roberto sent off in first-half stoppagetime following a clash with Real full-back Marcelo, but that did not prevent Lionel Messi restoring the lead seven minutes after the interval with a superb shot into the corner.
Barcelona’s ten men couldn’t hold out, though, and Gareth Bale rifled in a shot from the edge of the box for 2-2 18 minutes from time.
The draw against the Champions League finalists means Barca are now only three games from becoming the first side to complete an unbeaten Laliga campaign.
In Italy, Juventus have the champagne on ice after Napoli were held to a 2-2 draw by Torino yesterday. The result all but mathematically handed the Bianconeri their seventh straight Serie A title.
Napoli are six points behind Juventus with two matches remaining. The two sides have the same head-to-head record – which is the next deciding factor – but Juventus have a significantly better goal difference. It means Juve, who had beaten Bologna 3-1 on Saturday, can secure the title for sure at Roma this weekend.
“We fought at the top right until the end, the title race was decided by certain episodes,” said Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri. “We did everything possible to make life difficult for Juventus, but they have better resources than us and we really couldn’t do anything more than this.”