Key events
50 min Modric pinches possession on halfway and sets off towards goal, finding Bellingham, who works a shooting lane then leathers straight at Ter Stegen.
48 min If this stays a draw, Madrid will lead by eight with six to go; Barca must win.
46 min Immediately, Barca set Yamal at Camavinga and he gets away, but with no one alongside him, he ends up checking, cutting inside and shooting straight at Lunin.
46 min We go again…
Half-time change: Barca bring on Fermin for Christensen. They need to win, so have gone for a mouser able to recover early balls; I’m not sure who plays in front of the defence, Pedri or Gundogan, but of them will have to.
Half-time email: “Well, I agree, I’d like Bellingham to be a box-to-box player,” says Cliffi, “but he needs a number 9, Madrid don’t have a 9 and playing him high has enabled them to probably win the league. Next year they’ll get a 9 and his position will change.”
I hope so, but even if they change to 4-3-3 won’t he still be the attacker behind the front man?
Half-time: Real Madrid 1-1 Barcelona
That was an enjoyable run-around, but it’ll be the home side happier with the current state of play.
45+7 min We get going again, Pedri on to the pitch.
45+4 min De Jong and Valverde both swing hard to boot the ball, boot each other, and De Jong comes off worse, his foot twisting. He looks devo’d, and I think that’s his evening done, Pedri to replace him; eesh, he’s stretchered off, hands over face, presumably contemplating the viability of his summer plans. I think it’s a twisted ankle, so I’d guess he’ll be OK for then, but he just can’t get a break.
45+3 min “Why no goal line tech?” wonders Rodney Sharkey. “Do they want VAR to undermine the only manifestation of digital refereeing that fans universally accept?”
Javier Tebas, in his infinite wisdom, decided it was too expensive. Tebas’ salary recently went up to a potential 5.4m euros a year.
45+2 min Out of nowhere, Christensen gives it away just outside his own box as Bellingham bites at him from behind; Vinicius is away and chops a terrific square-pass to Rodrygo, who can’t quite get his shot away. on reflection, he should’ve gone alone nitI can see why he didn’t because in theory, he was putting his mate in on goal when he had defenders blocking the road.
45+1 min Barca win a free-kick just outside the box, left of centre with Gundogan behind it. He’s not been in the game much but he swishes a decent effort over the wall … and just over the bar. We’ll have four additional minutes.
43 min Madrid work their way forward then Rodrygo tees-up Modric, whose low shot is saved easily enough.
42 min Madrid aren’t controlling midfield in the way they’d have planned to, on which point, a question: over the last few days, a few people have told me they dealt with City, more or less keeping the chance-count down. I can’t have that: there’s not a chance the gameplan was to defend the box and hope for penalties, though they did that pretty well.
41 min Vinicius gets away, crosses low and hard … just too hard for the sliding Rodrygo.
40 min On the subject of corners, is it the case that players are trying to score from them these days? I feel like i’ve seen a fair few efforts look to hit the far top-corner and Raphinha is definitely looking to catch the keeper under the ball.
38 min Bellingham is a spectator. I think what should be done with him is what Roberto Mancini did with Yaya Touré: start him deep where he can control the game, then if you need something later in the game, get him closer to the opposition goal. Meantime, Barca have another right-wing corner and again, Raphinha spins in an animal, a succession of defenders and attackers contriving to miss it.
36 min Madrid look to reestablish control, moving the ball about at the back before moving through midfield, Rodrygo carrying the ball at inside-right, but his flicked pass seeking Vinicius is intercepted.
34 min Raphinha curls the free-kick over the top.
33 min It’s been a strange half-hour really, Barca scoring when second-best and staying second-best, Madrid scoring when on top before immediately losing control. And, as I type, Yamal gets in behind Camavinga, who trips him because he has to; Barca need to feed him whenever possible, because he’s got it over his marker.
31 min Yamal attacks Camavinga on the outside, Camavinga slides in … and does just enough, getting a bit of the ball before Yamal clips him in order to fall over. No penalty.
30 min No goal and on we go.
29 min There’s a pause while VAR investigates, but with no conclusive evidence either way and without goalline technology, we go with the on-pitch call. And, as I type, we see it again, this time from an angle that implies not all of the ball was over the line.
28 min He goes low to the near post – avant-garde of him – the ball clips Vazquez, and Lunin shovels out from on or beyond the goalline depending on your bent. It looked in to me I must say, but it’s very hard to be sure from the angles we’ve seen, the keeper’s body blocking the camera angle.
28 min Barca win another corner, Raphinha to curl in…
27 min “I was brought up short when I realised that Kroos is twice Yamal’s age,” says Kári Tulinius. “Then my brain just about shut down when I worked out that Modric is over two decades older than Yamal, and that I can remember seeing Modric play before Yamal was born. I meant to watch some football, but now I’m contemplating the inexorable nature of time.”
As Bob said, ‘“none of them can stop the time”; as Nas echoed, Time is illmatic.
26 min Since conceding, Barca have managed to stem the flow of Madrid attacks and are moving the ball about themselves now. It’s a bit slow, but they’ve a few able to inject pace out of nowhere.
24 min “I think we are all contractually obliged to say ‘Hay Liga’ at this point,” writes Jamie O’Sullivan. “I’m also in disbelief that Pedri is getting the rest he needs, when he needs it these days.”
I’m sure we’ll see him later, but in the meantime Barca have another corner … this time headed over the top by Lewandowski. They look dangerous fro set-pieces.
22 min Bellingham sends a long one down the left for Camavinga, who skates around Yamal only to overrun the ball and win a corner off De Jonh; it comes to nothing.
21 min I’ve got a question about Jude Bellingham: like Cesc Fabregas, he’s so good on the ball that moving him forward makes some sense. but it also means, especially against other good teams, he’s barely involved. The first time I saw him play I thought “Bryan Robson” and there’s no higher praise than that. But he’s now half the player he could be because we’ve lost his ability to run with the ball and hit long passes.
19 min Given how this is going, it’s hard to see how Barca win here. They were handed a goal, but as soon as that happened they’ve barely got out, and not many sides can offer Madrid the run of the Bernabeu and make off with anything.
GOAL! Real Madrid 1-1 Barcelona (Vinicius Jr pen 18)
Vinicius opens body, punches bottom right … ish … and Ter Stgen goes the right way but there’s just enough power to take it past him – he gets fingertips to it but no more.
Penalty to Madrid!
17 min Vazquez skirts around Cancelo, whose challenge is tame, skips along the by-line, Cubarsi dangles a leg, and he makes certain to fall over it.
