July 21, (THEWILL) – An El Clasico of pure adrenaline rush for fans of Spanish football rivalry saw legends from Real Madrid outscore legends from Barcelona 3-2 to win the Clasico Legends exhibition match that held on Tuesday in Tel Aviv, Israel.
The tie at 2-all was broken by Ruben de la Red’s second-half strike. The goal proved to be the difference for Real. They held on to that lead to the end and the referee’s final whistle confirmed Real once again to have triumphed over Barca.
It was a thrill for fans, many of whom will not care all that much about the scoreline but for the eminent football personalities that honoured the match. From the roster, it was a star-studded occasion in Tel Aviv, on both sides of the encounter to give fans nostalgic feelings of the good old days.
The greats of El Clasicos of time past such as Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Luis Figo and Roberto Carlos were on show to give the 25,000 fans that came to relive a bit of their past packed into the Tel Aviv Bloomfield Stadium, a match to sate their thirst for a thrilling spectacle.
The famed Brazilian Ronaldinho, known for his quirky football control and eccentric dribbling skills, opened the scoring for Barcelona from the spot after 28 minutes of a balanced end-to-end game. Javier Saviola was fouled in the box by Antonio Nunez and Ronaldinho converted the spot kick.
Real went into the break behind by a lone goal but all that was to change in the more robust game of the second half. Pedro Munitis found the equaliser and two minutes after that, Alfonso Perez put Real in front for the first time in the match.
At the stroke of the hour mark, the Clasico took on its true edge-of-the-seat as Jofre Mateu restored the balance of goals to 2-2 to make for an interesting finish to the match. It was when there were only 10 minutes of regulation time left that Los Blancos regained the lead.
It was de la Red’s finishing that won the day for Real greats. The player displayed delightful skill to evade two Barcelona players before curling home an unstoppable effort way out of reach. And, with no further goals to speak of, the Barca legends and their iconic Ronaldinho lost out to Real.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
