Cristiano ruled at Camp Nou
Real Madrid gained a tremendous victory at Camp Nou last night. It was tremendous not just for the ample result they came home with, but also the way in which they achieved it. Barça only managed to put one past Keylor - a Messi penalty which came from somewhat dubious origins. Madrid scored three – including a majestic strike from Cristiano who celebrated by whipping off his shirt for which he was punished with a yellow card; moments later he was booked again – in another incident which caused a great deal of debate... Before all of that, Piqué, Barça’s serial busybody, had opened the scoring by turning the ball into his own net. And it was left to Marco Asensio to bring the night to a close, with a terrific, thunderbolt finish into the top corner. To put it in a nutshell: Madrid have got their hands on the Supercup and Barça, have a problem.
Cristiano, the game changer
The first half of the game was a bit bland to say the least. There’s no other way of describing it. Madrid lacked Cristiano, whose late return to the squad’s pre-season training was the reason why Zidane left him out of the starting XI at Camp Nou. Without Cristiano, Madrid were not Madrid – even visually, in their turquoise third strip rather than in white as the occasion merited for too many reasons to go into here. In their all-blue kit Madrid there was a colour clash with Barça’s red and claret and the green of the pitch. I have no idea how many of those shirts Madrid will sell, but it ruined the visual experience for spectators.
Eventful second half at Camp Nou
Everything happened in the second half, and especially after Cristiano came on. His presence in the game overshadowed his two fellow forwards. During the short time he was on the pitch, he blasted an overhead kick wide, had a goal ruled out for offside, scored a brilliant goal, took his shirt off and showed it to the stands, was brought down in the penalty area and saw his appeal waved away by a poor ref who he shoved in the back and got sent off. None of that had anything to do with the ‘BBC’. It was Cristiano, along with Isco and Asensio who brought substance to Madrid’s game. Anyway, now we will have to wait and see what punishment the Competitions Committee decides to hand Cristiano. But the Supercup looked as though it has already been decided and Zidane has a stronger case to put forward to his president in that as far as the ‘BBC’ is concerned, the two B’s are lower case while the C is a capital letter.