Barca Earn 2-2 Draw at the Bernabéu, Ink Fabregas

FC Barcelona will take a 2-2 scoreline back home to the Nou Camp after they fortunately earned a draw versus Real Madrid at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu in the first leg of the Spanish Supercup. The champions of Europe were far from their top form, but that is no surprise, after looking back on the way they started as opposed to the way they finished their last campaign.

The match began with great tempo between the two sides, but Barcelona as usual began to boss the possession with ten minutes. However, the first scoring chance of the game went to Madrid after brilliant play from Ronaldo. On nine minutes, the Portuguese international put in an exquisite cross into the penalty area, which was headed on target by Benzema, who was denied after a superb save by Barcelona’s goalkeeper Victor Valdes.  Four minutes later Los Blancos found themselves ahead after a fine run by Benzema, who picked out German international Mesut Ozil with a precise through ball, and Ozil finished clinically past a hopeless Valdes.

Barcelona leveled through a fantastic strike by David Villa in the 36th minute, following a pass from Lionel Messi that put Villa one-on-one with Sergio Ramos. Villa, with ease, cut inside of Ramos and fired his dipping effort inside the far post. Despite Madrid bossing the first half, they found themselves one goal behind at the half following a 45th goal by Lionel Messi. The little Argentine caught two breaks to put him through on goal. The first was when Khedira’s interception fell very kindly right at his feet; the second was when Pepe seemingly lost his footing, leaving Messi one-on-one versus Casillas.

Real grabbed the final goal of the game through Pepe and Xabi Alonso in the 54th minute. A loss would have been really harsh on the home-side who would have fancied themselves to get the win after a fine performance. Surely Barcelona are pleased with a 2-2 draw and are now definite favourites to win their first trophy of the season next week at the Nou Camp.

But the first leg of the Spanish Supercup took a backseat to the official end of the Cesc Fabregas transfer saga. Arsenal have reportedly finally agreed to sell their captain fantastic back to his boyhood club for a fee in the region of 35-37 million pounds, despite the Spanish international having a market value of around 50 million pounds. The Daily Mirror has reported that the  Catalan Conquerors have wasted no time in adding a £130 million buy-out clause in Fabregas’ £100,000-a-week contract. Now that this saga has finally come to end, Barcelona, Arsenal, and Fabregas can finally move on. No matter how much the Gunners faithful did not want to see their captain go, they ultimately made the right move in cashing in on Fabregas.