UEFA Champions League Match Report: Barcelona vs Real Madrid – Part 1
Barcelona played host to Real Madrid in the second-leg of their semifinal tie in the UEFA Champions League at Camp Nou on Tuesday, 3rd May.
Going into the game, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Barcelona-c38605 was being hailed as the favourites to win the game, primarily due to their two goal advantage over Madrid in the tie after beating Madrid, 2-0, in the first-leg at the Bernabeu.
The game had its first spark when Lionel Messi was taken out by http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ricardo-Carvalho-c30973 in the 13th minute, thus, the Madrid player received the first yellow card of the game.
In the 22nd minute of the game, Xavi Hernandez bent in a brilliant cross, met by a header from an unmarked http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Sergio-Busquets-c33048, who could only get his headed effort into Iker Casillas’ hands.
In the 34th minute of the game, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/David-Villa-c10629 with a brilliant pass. Villa then drove into the Madrid box from the left and curled in a brilliant goal bound shot. However,
Casillas managed to make a world class save and kept the ball out, leaping to his right.
In the 37th minute, Messi, Villa and Pedro combined in the Madrid area once again and Messi ultimately pulled off a snap shot at the goal. Unfortunately for the Argentine, Casillas managed to spring another brilliant save and as a result, kept
his side in the tie.
In the 40th minute, Madrid finally had their first clear-cut chance of the game. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Cristiano-Ronaldo-c9629 found acres of space down the right hand side of the pitch as he drove towards the Barcelona goal. The Portuguese international went on to hit a
low cross towards Angel Di Maria in the box but Victor Valdes managed to leap out and grab the ball to avoid any mishaps in his area.
In the 44th minute, just before the end of the half, Carvalho took out Messi with a risky challenge. Everyone assumed that Carvalho would be given marching orders but the referee somehow waved play on.
At the end of the first half, both teams were level at 0-0, Barcelona leading by 2-0 on aggregate.
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