Barcelona star Lewandowski with horror miss in Real Madrid El Clasico

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With the goal at his mercy, Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski uncharacteristically skied a shot from close range to equalise in the El Clasico. Real Madrid took the lead after 12 minutes through Karim Benzema before Federico Valverde capitalised on Lewandowski’s miss to make it 2-0 in the first half.

Barca will certainly rue their missed opportunities in the first half, having eight shots in the first 45 minutes at the Santiago Bernabeu. Though Lewandowski’s miss was certainly the most significant of all of their openings.

After the ball was worked out to former Leeds winger Raphinha in the 24th minute, the Brazilian squared a teasing ball across the face of the goal. Sergi Roberto attempted to latch on to the cross but couldn’t connect, with the ball trickling through to Lewandowski at the back post.

The former Bayern Munich star slid in to connect with the cross from three yards out but was unable to steer his effort into the back of the net, smashing the ball over the bar. The striker has scored nine goals and assisted two in the La Liga so far this season, but he will certainly feel he should have hit the double-figure mark by now following that miss.

Benzema opened the scoring early in the first half after Vinicius Jr’s effort was palmed into the path of the Frenchman by Marc-Andre ter Stegen, giving the likely Ballon d’Or winner the simple task of slotting the ball into the back of the net, with two Barcelona players on the line unable to block the effort. Valverde then doubled Los Blancos’ lead in the 36th minute after a well-worked counterattack led to the ball being teed up for the Uruguay international to drill into the far corner from outside of the box.

Barca are currently second in the La Liga, though their form in the Champions League led to concerns that the Catalan club would not be able to keep up their good form domestically. Lewandowski attempted to silence those claims before the El Clasico.

He said: “After a bad game you have to face reality in the best possible way, show that you can play good football and win.

“It’s a bit of a difficult moment but we know we have the chance of the Clasico, of going out there to win the game, show that we are going for La Liga, that we play good football.”

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