Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Barcelona Draws 1-1 with Real Madrid in First Leg of Copa Del Rey


Thu 07 Feb 2019 | 12:30 AM
shawar ibrahim

CAIRO, Feb. 6 (SEE)- Malcom prevented Barcelona from suffering a defeat in the first leg of their Copa del Rey semi final against Real Madrid, scoring an equaliser to leave the drawat 1-1.

Lionel Messi was left out of the Barcelona starting lineup as he continues his recovery from injury, with Gareth Bale also benched by Real Madrid in favour of Lucas Vasquez.

It took Madrid just six minutes to take the lead, with Vazquez turning home from close range after a wonderful cross by Vinicius and tremendous take down and assist from Karim Benzema.

Real Madrid had a number of chances to double their advantage in the first half, although Barcelona came close to levelling when Ivan Rakitic flicked a header on to the bar from a Malcom free kick delivery.

An equaliser did come, however, when Malcom squeezed in a finish at the near post after Luis Suarez had struck the post from a tight angle. Messi came off the bench with 25 minutes left to play, but he couldn’t find a goal to give Barca the lead to take into the return leg.