BARCELONA, Spain — There was a moment, just after the clocks at Camp Nou stadium showed that 16 full minutes had been played on Saturday, when Gareth Bale sneaked a quick glance at the crowd. It was not surprising; the home fans here erupt at 17 minutes 14 seconds of each half as a way to call for Catalonian independence, their chants evoking the year 1714, when the region lost its last traces of autonomy to Spain.
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| Josep Lago/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images Real Madrid's Gareth Bale, left. This was the first Clásico for Bale, the Welsh wing who joined Real Madrid from Tottenham. |
Not too far from Bale, though, another Clásico rookie had his eyes down. Neymar, the Brazilian wunderkind, was beginning a run through the left side of the penalty area. Andrés Iniesta, the Barcelona playmaker, coolly slipped a pass through a seam in the Madrid defense, and Neymar scored — with help from a slight deflection — on a crisp shot to the far post.
Bedlam ensued. Neymar sprinted toward the goal line and was surrounded by his teammates. The crowd, announced at 98,761, erupted. And Bale, along with his Madrid teammates, simply stared as Neymar’s goal opened a glorious evening for Barcelona in a 2-1 victory over its biggest rival.
“Neymar has played better games,” Barcelona Manager Gerardo Martino said, “but this was the most transcendent.”
Neymar called the game “emotional” and said it was “very exciting to score in a game that everyone wants to play in.” He received a long and loud standing ovation when he left with 12 minutes remaining, and he was giddy afterward, having continued a tradition of Brazilians making an impact for Barcelona in their Clásico debuts.
Like Romario and Rivaldo, Neymar scored in his first appearance and was active throughout, combining well with Iniesta, Xavi and Lionel Messi as Barcelona controlled much of the play.
Bale will very likely remember the night for the two shots he blasted well over the crossbar and for a yellow card he earned after a dangerous challenge. He was pulled for a substitute after only an hour.
“These are his first couple games, and he needs time to build chemistry with his teammates,” said Madrid Manager Carlo Ancelotti, who used a formation that had Bale playing more in the middle of the field. “He played a good match. He needs to find the combination of the team’s movements. He worked well with the team.”
Unfortunately for Ancelotti, Bale was not the only player in white who was ineffective. Cristiano Ronaldo had scored in each of his last six games at Camp Nou, but he was stifled this time, grimacing after Victor Valdés blocked his best chance with a low dive in the 57th minute.
Ronaldo also pleaded for a penalty after falling on a challenge from Javier Mascherano about 13 minutes later.
He appeared to have a strong case, but the referee, Alberto Undiano Mallenco, was unmoved.
Ronaldo did contribute a strong run and a slick pass to set up Jesé Rodríguez for a goal in second-half stoppage time, but by then it was far too late: Alexis Sánchez’s 78th-minute chip, a sublime bit of awareness, had pushed the game out of reach.
That cunning awed the teammates of Sánchez, a Chilean forward, who has been criticized in the local news media.
“I’m speechless,” Neymar said. “It was a golazo.”
The victory was Barcelona’s first in its last six games against Madrid, and it lifted Barcelona 6 points ahead of Madrid (4 in front of second-place Atlético Madrid) in the Spanish league standings.
Although it had been 238 days since the teams last faced each other, most observers believed this was just the first of several Clásicos this season. The teams are likely to see each other in cup competition or, perhaps, the Champions League.
That was one reason some scalpers outside Camp Nou before the game found the market for tickets slightly depressed — some reported asking prices that were only about two times face value.
Still, there was an obvious anticipation for the match throughout Europe, even if some fans of the Spanish league also believe that the rivalry is emblematic of all that is wrong with soccer in Spain.
No one can deny the oversize divide between these clubs and the rest of the Spanish teams. The signings of Neymar (reportedly for about 60 million euros, or $83 million) and Bale (for a record 100 million euros) were just the latest instances in which Barcelona and Madrid stretched the gap even wider.
José María Gay de Liébana, an economist and a professor at the University of Barcelona, said Barcelona had revenue of 519 million euros during the 2011-12 season, while Madrid brought in 483 million euros; the team with the third-highest figure, Valencia, brought in 120 million euros.
Much of the disparity is attributed to the significant revenue Barcelona and Real Madrid earn from television rights, a bounty not shared by the other clubs, and executives from those clubs have pushed recently for the Spanish league to address that situation.
For the time being, however, the teams appear likely to continue operating as virtual cash machines while also staging their dramatic big-money matches.
“The 6 points counts more emotionally than mathematically,” Martino said afterward. “I’m happy, but I realize this is just the beginning.”
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