Real Madrid beat Barcelona in 40-game winning streak

Real Madrid beat Barcelona in 40-game winning streak. January. 14, 2017 07:12. by Jong-Seok Lee wing@donga.com. Real Madrid, which is considered the strongest professional soccer team of our time, has set the record of garnering most consecutive wins among the Spanish clubs.

Real Madrid tied Sevilla 3-3 in the second-round match of the round of 16 teams in the 2016-2017 season of Copa del Rey (King’s cup), which took place in Sevilla, Spain on Friday. This enabled Real Madrid to advance before rivals to the quarterfinals with an overall score of 6-3 (Real had a 3-1 win in the first-round match) in the first and second matches. Real Madrid achieved a 40-game winning streak without a single loss by tying the match on the day, and set a new record in the category among the Spanish clubs by surpassing 39 straight wins set by FC Barcelona last season.

Real, which had a landslide win in the first-round match, displayed a leisurely play in Game 2 by not fielding several of its ace players including Cristiano Ronaldo, and almost ended its winning spree. As the team was trailing 1-3, Real Madrid saw its Sergio Ramos add a goal through penalty shootout at 38th minute in the second half, and Karim Benzema garner a dramatic dying goal during overtime after the second half to avoid incurring a loss and to continue its strides free of loss.

Setting the record of most consecutive wins has been a two-way race of archrivals: Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. FC Barcelona broke the record of 34 consecutive wins set by Real Madrid in the 1988 – 1989 season to increase the record to 39 in the 2015-2016 season. It was none other than Real Madrid that put the brakes on FC Barcelona’s strides of consecutive wins. Real Madrid beat 2-1 over FC Barcelona, which was striving for a 40-game winning streak in April last year, and halted the latter’s further advance, breaking FC Barcelona’s record in less than a year.

The record of consecutive wins in the four major European leagues is 43 matches that were won by Juventus in the Serie A league in Italy in the 2011-2012 season. If Real Madrid garners additional three successive wins, it will come to tie with Juventus. Real Madrid will take on a challenge to achieve its 41 consecutive wins in the Primera Liga on Monday. The team will face Sevilla again.