FC Barcelona clinched a valuable 1-0 away win against Real Madrid in the first leg of their Copa del Rey semifinal clash on Thursday night.
In what proved to be a hard-fought clash between the El Clasico rivals, an own goal by Eder Militao in the first half during the first half of play was the only thing to separate the two sides on the night. After Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois saved a shot from Franck Kessie, the ball rebounded off Militao and into the net.
Courtois was quick to express his disappointment in Real Madrid’s narrow home loss, claiming that his team “dominated” their rivals and were unlucky to come away with the win.
“We dominated the game today,” Courtois told TVE after the game.”
[Barcelona] were quite defensive. We were really unlucky to concede the goal. They won the ball, I saved [the shot] and it rebounded off Militao and went in. They were leading when they didn’t deserve to. It was hard for us to create chances. It’s difficult, we played a good game, we were in control, but we didn’t get the chances. They defended well.”
