Madrid, Spain: Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said “his side deserved the victory” after beating Barcelona 2-1 in El Clasico to climb to the top of La Liga on Saturday.
Karim Benzema’s superb piece of skill and a deflected Toni Kroos free-kick put Madrid in charge and while Oscar Mingueza pulled one back for Barca, they fell to defeat in what could be Lionel Messi’s final appearance in this fixture.
“It was a difficult game, the first half was ours, but we suffered in the second,” said Zidane. “We deserved the victory, because we had a lot of chances to score the third.”
Victory means Real Madrid go level on points with Atletico, with the top three now separated by a single point.
Atletico, without the injured Luis Suarez, face Real Betis on Sunday.
But Real Madrid now own the better head-to-head against both of their rivals while Barcelona and Atletico still have to play each other at Camp Nou in the run-in.
With Atletico stumbling and both Barca and Real Madrid hitting their stride, this game looked set to define, if not the title, then who would become favourites to be crowned champions in May.
With the last play of the game, Barcelona substitute Ilaix Moriba rattled Real Madrid’s crossbar.
“We’re still in it,” said Barca coach Ronald Koeman. “We’ve lost a game against a team who is also fighting for the league but we have eight game left and we will fight to the end.”
