FC Barcelona can plan the celebration for its 27th title win in the Spanish football championship after a Clasico triumph against arch-rivals Real Madrid. With national goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen, the Catalans won the decisive summit meeting with the defending champions 2:1 (1:1). With its third success in a row, Barca extended its lead over the team of national player Antonio Rüdiger and former world champion Toni Kroos to twelve points twelve rounds before the end of the season.
For the hosts, who had last won the championship four years ago, the prestigious duel began very unfavorably. After just nine minutes, Barca fell behind due to an own goal by Ronald Araujo, who deflected a Real header from Vinicius Junior into his own goal for ter Stegen. Shortly before the break, however, Sergi Roberto provided Barcelona's equalizer (45th).
After the change of sides, both Barca and Real searched in vain for opportunities for the decisive goal for a long time. The top scorers Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona) and Karim Benzema (Madrid) could not put themselves in the limelight. Only Frank Kessie redeemed the hosts in the second minute of injury time with his winning goal. Kroos had been substituted 28 minutes before the end of the game.
The success meant for Barcelona the third victory in the fourth Clasico of the current season. The Blancos from the capital had won the first leg 3-1. After that, however, ter Stegen and Co. won first in Saudi Arabia in the final of the Spanish Super Cup also with 3:1 and at the beginning of the month in Madrid in the semi-final first leg of the Spanish Cup competition with 1:0. The second leg will take place on 5 April in Barcelona.
The duel of the giants, which was groundbreaking for the championship, was also explosive due to the refereeing affair around Barcelona, which has been making waves for weeks. In the scandal of years of millions of payments by the Catalans to a referee official of the national association, Real wants to act as a party in the event of a trial. Barcelona president Joan Laporta has denied any wrongdoing by his club since the revelation of the disreputable events.