Jude Bellingham Secures Victory With A Late Goal As Real Madrid Stage A Comeback To Defeat Barcelona.
Jude Bellingham Secures Victory With A Late Goal As Real Madrid Stage A Comeback To Defeat Barcelona.
Jude Bellingham’s stoppage-time goal secured a 3-2 victory for Real Madrid over Barcelona in El Clasico.
Barcelona took the lead early on with Andreas Christensen’s header, but Vinicius Junior leveled the score from the penalty spot before the 20th minute.
A key moment occurred in the 33rd minute when Lamine Yamal’s shot was controversially ruled not to have crossed the line.
After Fermin Lopez restored Barcelona’s lead, Lucas Vazquez quickly equalized with his second goal of the season.
As the game approached its end, Bellingham once again emerged as the hero, scoring a stoppage-time winner against Barcelona for the second time this season.
The victory puts Carlo Ancelotti’s team on the verge of securing the league title, as they now hold an 11-point lead over their Clasico rivals with just six matches remaining.
Vinicius equalizes after Christensen’s opener.
Despite their midweek Champions League exit, Barcelona received a morale boost by taking an early lead through Christensen. Real Madrid’s goalkeeper, Andriy Lunin, misjudged a deep corner, allowing Christensen to score with a close-range header. Barcelona then conceded a penalty in the 18th minute when Pau Cubarsi fouled Vazquez in the box.
Vinicius confidently converted the penalty, registering his 13th La Liga goal of the season. Barcelona thought they had regained the lead when Yamal redirected a corner towards goal. However, with no goalline technology in La Liga, the VAR room had to determine whether the ball had crossed the line. After several inconclusive replays, the officials decided not to award the goal, much to the relief of the hosts and the frustration of the visitors. Barcelona suffered another setback when Frenkie de Jong was stretchered off in visible distress just before halftime.
Real Madrid stages another comeback.
After heading into halftime with the score level, both teams started the second half cautiously before the match regained momentum when Barcelona regained the lead in the 69th minute. Yamal delivered a dangerous ball into the box that was parried into the path of Fermin, who calmly tucked it away for his fourth league goal of the season.
Following a pattern from the first half, Real Madrid responded quickly to restore parity just three minutes after Fermin’s goal. Vinicius’s driven cross found Vazquez at the far post, and he calmly finished past the helpless Ter Stegen. Vinicius had a chance to put Real Madrid ahead when he sprinted through on goal, but his effort was thwarted by Ter Stegen at the near post.
Bellingham’s heroics send the Santiago Bernabeu crowd into jubilation. Although a draw would have sufficed for Real Madrid, they secured all three points thanks to Bellingham’s 17th league goal of the season. Following his decisive goal in the previous encounter, the English international replicated his heroics in the first minute of stoppage time.
Bellingham arrived at the back post to meet Vazquez’s low cross and hammered the ball into the roof of the net to secure the victory and hand Xavi a defeat in his final Clasico before departing Barcelona at the end of the season. With this win, Real Madrid is on the brink of claiming the league title for the third time in five seasons.
Meanwhile, Barcelona will shift their focus to securing second place, with Girona trailing just two points behind in third position. Real Madrid will face a challenging away fixture against Real Sociedad in San Sebastian next weekend, while Barcelona will host Valencia on April 29th.
