Pique lifts Barcelona as El Clasico lives up to hype

Gerard Pique of Barcelona scores a goal in the second half against Real Madrid during their International Champions Cup 2017 match at Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday. (AFP)
Updated 30 July 2017
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Pique lifts Barcelona as El Clasico lives up to hype

MIAMI: Gerard Pique delivered Barcelona's match winner over Real Madrid on Saturday as El Clasico Miami lived up to the hype.

The Spanish international steered in a Neymar free-kick in the 50th minute to seal a 3-2 win for the Catalan giants in front of 66,014 at the Hard Rock Stadium.
Lionel Messi, who put in a superb 64-minute performance, opened the scoring after just three minutes and when Ivan Rakitic doubled the lead soon after, the writing appeared to be on the wall for a sluggish Real Madrid side.
Yet Zinedine Zidane’s side quickly woke from their slumber and by the end of the first half, goals from Mateo Kovacic and Marco Asensio had pulled them level.
What followed was entertaining, often breathless friendly fare before Pique struck that decisive goal.
This was nothing more than a pre-season match and obviously was not going to affect the overall record between these two old rivals, which stands at 93 wins for Real, 91 for Barcelona.
Their last meeting was quite incredible. Messi’s last gasp winner, his 500th for the club — it was quite a night.
Madrid had the last laugh in May, winning La Liga and the Champions League, but actually arrived in Miami off the back of two exhibition defeats — a penalty shootout defeat to Manchester United before City also did a number on them in Los Angeles, running out 4-2 winners.
Barca, meanwhile, had beaten United and Juventus in International Champions Cup friendly competition, but the ongoing uncertainty surrounding Neymar and the interest from Paris Saint-Germain has cast a serious cloud over their two-week stay in North America.
The Brazilian started for Ernesto Valverde’s side and while the rest of his teammates head home he will fly to China to perform commercial obligations on behalf of the club.
To their credit, and much to the obvious delight of the organizers, both teams did not hold back with their starting lineups.
Messi and Luis Suarez started in attack while Bale, Modric and Karim Benzema were all unleashed by Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane.
Neymar’s first involvement was to fall to the ground and clutch his ankle.
For a moment it looked like his evening would be over before it began, though he was back on the pitch in time to see Messi open the scoring with just three minutes on the clock.
The Argentine ace waltzed into the box and lifted a shot past Keylor Navas via a deflection off Raphael Varane.
And it was not long before the Costa Rican international was picking the ball out of the back of the net once again.
On six minutes, Neymar, gradually moving more freely, squared the ball and it found Rakitic, whose finish was clinically struck in the seventh minute.
What a start for Barcelona. Real had barely escaped their own half and were lucky not to fall further behind on 13 minutes when Suarez fired over from close range.
Yet with Madrid’s first effort on goal, Zidane's side pulled one back.
Croatian Kovacic evaded a challenge just outside the box before arrowing the ball past the outstretched hand of Jasper Cillessen.
Suddenly, the game was on. Benzema, who barely had a sniff, dragged just wide on 19 minutes with Cillessen beaten.
Navas remained the busier keeper, however, and was on hand to repel Messi once again on 31 minutes.
It was a key save because on 36 minutes, Asensio levelled for Madrid.
Los Blancos were counter-attacking dangerously and it was left to Modric who squared for the Spaniard who took full advantage of Jordi Alba missing the ball to rifle past a horribly exposed Cillessen.

Man City beats Tottenham
3-0 in ICC friendly
Manchester City posted a convincing 3-0 win over English Premiership rivals Tottenham on Saturday in an International Champions Cup friendly in Nashville, Tennessee.
John Stones, Raheem Sterling and Brahim Diaz scored for Manchester City, who were coming off a 4-1 win over Spain and European champions Real Madrid in the exhibition tournament in North America.
Jones opened the scoring at Nissan Stadium, home of the NFL’s Tennessee Titans, with a glancing header in the 10th minute.
City had plenty of chances to increase their lead before Sterling made it 2-0 in the 72nd minute, and Diaz came off the bench to complete the scoring in injury time.
Tottenham had the first real chance in the third minute, but Dele Alli's attempt was smothered by goalkeeper Ederson.
From there Manchester City inexorably took control.
They were rewarded in the 10th, when Kevin De Bruyne's free kick from the right found Stones, who stooped to head the ball past Spurs keeper Hugo Lloris.
Spurs had a chance to equalize late in the first half when Harry Kane appeared to have a clean look at goal against a hard-charging Ederson, but he fired over the crossbar.


Sixth Dakar Rally win for Al-Attiyah as Benavides triumphs on two wheels

Updated 17 January 2026
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Sixth Dakar Rally win for Al-Attiyah as Benavides triumphs on two wheels

Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah won ​the Dakar Rally for the sixth time in the car category on Saturday as Argentina’s Luciano Benavides won by two seconds on two wheels, the narrowest margin ever.

Al-Attiyah, with Belgian co-driver Fabian Lurquin, had led overnight after taking his 50th career stage win and made no mistakes as he handed Dacia a first victory at their second attempt in the two-week event ‌held entirely ‌in Saudi Arabia.

The 55-year-old Qatari also won ‌in ⁠2011, ​2015, ‌2019, 2022 and 2023.

Ford’s Nani Roma finished second, nine minutes and 42 seconds behind, and teammate Mattias Ekstrom was third after winning the final stage.

Last year’s winner Yazeed Al-Rajhi of Saudi Arabia withdrew in the opening week after mechanical problems.

Benavides had earlier taken the motorcycle title after American Ricky Brabec lost his way and saw ⁠victory slip through his fingers.

The KTM rider, whose older brother Kevin won the Dakar ‌in 2021 and 2023, came home second ‍in the 105-km stage in ‍Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port of Yanbu, with Honda’s overnight ‍leader Brabec 10th.

In a grueling endurance event spanning two weeks and 8,000km over rocky roads, through canyons and vast expanses of desert dunes, twice winner Brabec blew his chances with only a few kilometers ​remaining.

Spaniard Tosha Schareina finished third overall for Honda.

“From the start to the finish I never stopped dreaming, I ⁠never stopped believing,” said Benavides, who had trailed Brabec by three minutes and 20 seconds after Friday’s penultimate stage.

“I said to all my people around ‘I don’t know why but I still feel it’s possible, I still believe I can win and it’s going to go my way’.

“In the last three kilometers, Ricky took a wrong piste and I took a good one... I just saw the opportunity and I took it.”

American Skyler Howes was fourth overall for Honda, ahead of Australia’s 2025 champion Daniel Sanders on a ‌KTM.

Sanders crashed on stage 10 but refused to retire and raced on despite a suspected broken collarbone.