Goals set by Federico Valverde & Karim Benzema Real Madrid on their way to victory in the first Clasico of the season — to add to Barcelona’s woeful week.
Benzema, the favourite to win the Ballon D’Or tomorrow, gave Real the lead in the 12th minute with Uruguay winger Valverde adding a second before the break.
Ferran Torres substitute reduced the deficit to seven minutes, but Rodrygo converted a penalty for injury to win the victory.
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The Athletic’s Dermot Corrigan and Ahmed Walid dissect the main talking points…
Perfectly timed goal for Benzema
Corrigan: Benzema came into the game knowing he was all but certain to be crowned Ballon D’Or 2022 on Monday night, but with his form so far in 2022-23 not having matched his incredible performances as Madrid won the Champions League and La Liga double last season.
Coming into the game Benzema had been five games without scoring — his worst run for two and a half years, amid a couple of niggling injury issues. But 12 minutes into the Clasico that spell was over — as he confidently threaded a rebound past four Barca bodies between him and the net.
He might have also had another in the second period, with a fantastic curler from the box’s edge. However, VAR confirmed that he was only marginally offside. There was also his typical link-up work with Vinicius and Luka Modric, as Barca’s patched up defence was regularly torn apart.
