Most people at Camp Nou had probably already resigned themselves to a goalless first half. Plenty of fire, a frantic end-to-end battle, but no goals. Then, right at the end, the net finally rippled.
Gerard Martin made a mess of clearing a fierce cross from Yan Diomonde. Barça's makeshift centre-back hit the ball against the knee of Kylian Mbappé, who had already switched off, and it flew into the net.
Real's striker knew very little about his goal, as his sheepish reaction made clear. In the end, the ball found its way into the net, and no one will care how it got there.
That leaves Barça needing to respond after the break. Not a bad setup for an entertaining second half. We can't wait.
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.
