Barcelona continued their good start to the US pre-season tour as they secured a narrow 1-0 victory over arch-rivals Real Madrid in Las Vegas.

A first-half strike from Raphinha was enough for Xavi Hernandez’s men to earn the bragging right against a Real Madrid side which failed to muster up a single shot on target in the game.

Raphinha, signed from Premier League side Leeds United earlier this month for around $60 million, followed up his debut in a 6-0 thrashing of Inter Miami with the lone goal of the high-profile clash at Allegiant Stadium, the 65,000-seat home of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders.

Following the thrashing of Inter Miami, another positive result bodes well for Barcelona. At the same time, fans also got a look at marquee signing Robert Lewandowski, who played for the first 45 minutes.

Manager Xavi spoke to the media after the game and gave his verdict on the performance Barcelona: “The first half was brilliant, but the second half was complicated.”

While he admitted that the team had some problems in the later stages, the manager was still satisfied with the final result. “We came here to win and we did it. We suffered towards the end of the game but I am still satisfied with the match,” he said.

“We were the better team. At Barcelona, there are no friendly matches… We always want to win, especially against Real Madrid,” he added.

The Brazilian was perfectly placed to intercept a mispass from Real’s Eder Militao along the top of the area. After one touch to settle he lashed a left-footed shot over Thibaut Courtois into the top right corner of the net to put Barcelona up 1-0 in the 27th minute.

The fourth edition of the Clasico to be played outside of Spain — the second ever held in the US — featured all the intensity of the long rivalry. Real Madrid, playing their first pre-season friendly, nearly opened the scoring in the 18th minute but Federico Valverde was denied by the post in the 18th minute, seizing the ball after a poor clearance by Jordi Alba and blasting a volley from 25 yards out that beat Marc-Andre Ter Stegen only for the upright to intervene.

The first half ended on a dramatic note after Jordi Alba’s sliding tackle on Militao earned a yellow card. After some shoving players had to step in and separate Real Madrid newcomer Antonio Rudiger and Barcelona’s Ronald Araujo.

Courtois unperturbed

Real Madrid goalkeeper and last season’s hero Thibaut Courtois made it clear that the pre-season result will not affect Real Madrid players.

“Obviously you can’t draw too many conclusions,” Courtois said. “Some have been training for two weeks and others have only been training for one week.

“The most important thing is to get into a rhythm, to start with a good intensity, which in other years we didn’t have. For a first game, it was good. The only thing is that we didn’t have a goal and they scored a great goal.

“We hit the crossbar and they had one that went into the top corner. In the pre-season, the result doesn’t count.

“I remember losing 7-3 against Atletico Madrid and then we beat them twice and won the league that season. The results now don’t say much. Obviously, we’d prefer to win, especially in front of the fans in the US but it’s the first game and we had to get into a rhythm. We don’t like the defeat but we shouldn’t take it too dramatically.”

Eden Hazard has yet to live up to expectations at Real Madrid, but Courtois is confident that his compatriot can bring a lot to the La Liga champions this year.

“It depends on where the coach puts him,” Courtois added. “For Belgium he plays in 3-4-3 and as an inside player. So, it depends. He’s only been training for a week, but I’m sure he can bring a lot to the team. We’ll have to see when Karim (Benzema) comes back how we can put the team together with Eden.”

Written with inputs from Reuters