Best way to spend Christmas for Barcelona fans

CAIRO – 24 December 2017: Barcelona defeated Real Madrid 3-0 on Saturday at their stadium, Santiago Bernabeu, to end their year with a stunning victory and spend the Christmas vacation with great feelings.

Barcelona arrived in Madrid for the game on Friday night, and after that, the good news came from Barcelona that Barcelona’s local rivals, Espanyol, defeated the second-placed Atletico Madrid 2-0.

Barcelona entered the game against Real Madrid with a desire to take their revenge from losing the Super Cup title to Real Madrid in August after a poor performance from Lionel Messi’s teammates.

Barcelona surprised Real Madrid, who expected an easy game against Barcelona, but they were more solid and more organized in the defense despite losing their main defender, Samuel Umtiti, due to injury. Barcelona managed to stop all Real Madrid attacks to end the first half 0-0.

In the second half, Barcelona dominated the game, and their Brazilian midfielder, Jose Paulo, known as Paulinho, started to take up an offensive position against the heart of Real Madrid’s defense, which allowed Messi to be free and start to lead Barcelona’s attacks over Madrid.

Barcelona scored the first goal after a beautiful play between Ivan Rakitiv, Sergio Roberto and Luis Suarez, who scored Barcelona’s first goal.
Nine minutes later, Barcelona got a penalty after Real Madrid defender Dani Carvajal touched the ball with his hands in Real Madrid’s area and booked a red card. Messi turned the penalty into Barcelona’s second goal.

Barcelona humiliated their opponent in front of their fans in the remaining minutes and they had many chances to score the third goal but failed. However, Barcelona’s substitute, Alex Vidal, received the ball from Lionel Messi to score Barcelona’s third goal in the game, which ended 3-0.

Barcelona’s benefits did not stop with the game’s final whistle, as they were happy to know that their rivals, Valencia, lost at home to Villareal, increasing the gap between Barcelona and their opponents in the Spanish League table.

Barcelona fans who doubted their manager, Ernesto Valverde, and their team after the departure of Neymar Jr Da Silva to Paris Saint Germain in the summer and the lack of signings, did not imagine to find their team leading the Spanish League nine points ahead of the second-placed Atletico Madrid, 10 points ahead of the third-placed Valencia and 14 points clear of their rivals, Real Madrid, at this stage of the season.

Barcelona also will get injured players Ousmane Dembele, Paco Alcacer, Samuel Umtiti, Gerard Deulofeu and Rafinha Alcantara in January, and they will be ready to fight for all the competitions this season.