Ansu Fati’s eighth minute goal against Real Madrid in the El Clasico at Camp Nou on Saturday helped him a record in this massive fixture. Fati, upon finding the back of the net, became the youngest goalscorer in this fixture in the 21st century at a mere age of 17 years and 359 days. Fati will be turning 18 on the 31st of this month.
Prior to Fati getting the record, Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior held the record when he scored in the fixture in March early this year at the age of 19 years 233 days. Before him, the record was held by none other than the Barcelona icon Lionel Messi, who had scored a hat-trick in 2007 against Real Madrid when he three months away from his 20th birthday.
The Clasico started emphatically with both Real Madrid and Barcelona scoring inside the first 10 minutes. It was Real Madrid who got the lead when Karim Benzema slipped a delicate pass to Valverde on the right, who took a touch and smashed the ball past Neto into the top left corner.
However, Madrid’s lead remained only for three minutes. Barcelona responded with Messi releasing the ball to Jordi Alba on the left flank, who beat the offside trap. He raced down the flank with the ball and crossed it low to Fati, who made a smart run in the centre and the 17-year-old calmly slotted the ball home.
Thereafter, both Messi and Benzema each had big chances to put their teams in the lead but good saves from both Neto and Thibaut Courtois denied them. At half time, the teams went locked at 1-1.
After the break, Barcelona looked on top with big chances falling into the laps of Fati and Philippe Coutinho but both of them barely missed the mark. Just when it looked like Barcelona were dominating, Sergio Ramos’ shirt was pulled by Lenglet in the box with Toni Kroos’ free kick being taken. After consulting VAR and the monitor on the side of the field, the referee awarded the penalty and the Madrid captain stepped up and rolled the ball into the left corner from the spot.
At the time of publishing this article, Madrid led Barcelona 2-1.
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