Madrid back on top as Vinicius goal downs Barca

Realmadridbeatbarcelona 2-0 in last night’s “clasico” at the Bernabeu to end a seven-match winless streak against their rivals and return to the top of La Liga.

Vinicius Junior scored in the 71st minute and substitute Mariano Diaz sealed the victory in stoppage time to give Madrid a one-point lead over Barca and halt the team’s recent struggles.

Zinedine Zidane’s Madrid were winless in three straight games in all competitions, and also hadn’t won at home in three consecutive games.

Furthermore, they had lost their last four league fixtures at the Bernabeu against Barcelona, and their last win over their rivals in any competition had come back in 2017 in the Spanish Super Cup.

Barcelona looked the most dangerous in the first half but Madrid took control after half-time, opening the scoring after Vinicius found the far corner with a shot from inside the box after a run into the area following a throughball by Toni Kroos. The ball deflected off Gerard Pique’s leg before sneaking past Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-andre ter Stegen.

Diaz added the second from inside the area near the end.

Lionel Messi had a quiet night, squandering a couple of good chances on one-on-one situations and being shown a late yellow card for a challenge from behind on Madrid midfielder Casemiro.

Former Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo was among the nearly 80,000 in attendance at the Bernabeu, as were players from the Wuhan Zall football team based in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak. The team arrived in Spain in January for preseason training but still don’t know when they will be able to return home.