Barcelona and Real Madrid tie 1-1 in a tight Clasico

Going into the first Clasico of the year, it seemed like it was all breaking Real Madrid’s way this season. Barcelona had been unusually wasteful with its points, losing two and tying three of the first 13 league games of the season. Real, meanwhile, was still undefeated and had already opened up a six-point gap at the top of La Liga.

If Zinedine Zidane’s European champions could go to Catalonia and earn a tie, that would go a long way towards maintaining their lead through the coming months. With Barca out of sorts lately, that felt well within reach. The French manager would set up his team to try to preserve a point, and maybe get more.

[ El Clasico: The great Zidane debate | Clasico Live | Match stats ]

His plan seemed to be undone by a 53rd-minute Luis Suarez goal. But a 90th-minute equalizer from Sergio Ramos tied it up to allow Real Madrid to leave with a 1-1 draw.

As far as Clasicos go, the game was fairly forgettable until the last few minutes. The prettiest thing seen at the Camp Nou until well into the second half was the mosaic formed by the fans before kickoff.

Real made an expectedly aggressive start, even though Toni Kroos and Gareth Bale were out with a fractured metatarsal and ankle surgery, respectively. But all the same, Zidane’s team alternated between sitting deep and pressing forward, disturbing a halting Barcelona attack’s attempts at establishing a rhythm.

Mostly though, the first half was a tale of penalties not awarded. In the opening minutes, Javier Mascherano appeared to bring down Lucas Vazquez in the box. No call.

Then, on a splendid Barcelona attack, Neymar slipped, scrambled up and found Sergi Roberto with the cross. His shot struck Ramos in the arm, but it was flush to his chest. No call.

And on the brink of halftime, Dani Carvajal extended his arm to block Neymar’s cross in Real’s box. No call.

Other than that, Cristiano Ronaldo had a pair of shots around the 37th minute, neither of which troubled Marc-Andre Ter Stegen.

Mostly, the even opening act was a lot of this.

And this.

After the break, Barca finally ended the stalemate by uncharacteristically going ahead on a set piece. Neymar swung in a free kick from by the sideline and Suarez got just enough forehead on it to beat his marker Raphel Varane and goalkeeper Keylor Navas.

Once the home side was ahead and the game opened up, Andres Iniesta was brought on by Luis Enrique after a fairly long injury layoff. He changed the game as “The Illusionist” finally got Barcelona’s attack flowing.

Soon enough, Iniesta set up Neymar, who cut inside from the flank, crossed up Carvajal but smashed a fairly routine shot high from eight yards out.

Iniesta himself then had a hard shot from the same spot on the next attack, but it was deflected behind.

It was more or less one-way traffic. Iniesta fed the otherwise invisible Lionel Messi, who pulled his shot wide.

Barca refused to put the game away when it had the chances. And Real would make a late charge that wound up making the difference. By the time Ramos equalized, he and Ronaldo had already had headers that threatened Ter Stegen’s goal.

And then, in the last minute of regulation, Ramos got himself onto the end of the industrious and excellent Luka Modric’s free kick.

Barcelona had one more chance late on, but a long header from outside the box was cleared off the line by Casemiro and the ensuing scramble produced nothing.

And so the points and the opportunity were frittered away by the home team, and Real got a result out of this game it would have gladly signed up for before kickoff.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.