Victor Valdes might want to pretend the 85th minute didn't happen because he just handed Real Madrid a goal and while he will almost certainly complain about the referee on the play, it was 100% his fault. He allowed Angel di Maria to take the ball off his foot and then knock it into the open net, cutting Barcelona's lead to 3-2 in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup.
Simply put, Valdes took too many touches in front of his own goal. di Maria pressured him as soon as he got the back pass and Valdes should have just booted it quickly. While there was some contact, it was nothing that merited a foul even if Valdes is a goalkeeper. He was playing the ball on the ground like any other player and Valdes just embellished when he realized he was going to lose the ball, hoping for the referee to bail him out. The referee didn't and di Maria had a wide open net to shoot into. He didn't miss.
Barcelona will still probably hold on to win this match, but besides there just being a one-goal difference for the return, Real Madrid now has two away goals. With how even these two teams are, that could end up being the difference in the Super Cup.
Follow live coverage in our Madrid vs. Barcelona, 2012 Spanish Super Cup StoryStream. For more on the Blaugrana, head over to FC Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes. For more on Los Blancos, check out Real Madrid blog Managing Madrid.
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