At the other end of the field, off service from Luka Modric, Benzema took the ball in stride and clipped a backheel into the path of Ronaldo. With a slide, he tucked the ball through a tangle of legs and into the back of Bravo’s net.
For the remainder of the half, Barcelona looked very uncomfortable as Modric drove Real’s midfield right through Barca. Gareth Bale nearly doubled their lead on 40 minutes when he steered the ball home after a Ronaldo flick-on, but the linesman had his flag up. It was a dubious call, as it appeared Ivan Rakitic had held both men on, but it would not count. Ronaldo would then force Bravo into a brilliant finger-tip save over his own bar with a lash from some 35 yards out that was heading into the net. But after the break, the game changed: Barcelona simply became vastly better against Madrid and should have come away with far more in this game.