New Delhi: Iker Casillas and Rafael Nadal’s ‘Fight Against Malaria’ charity event was a huge success overnight, but the highlight of the evening was the personal duel between the Madrid shot-stopper and Barcelona striker Samuel Eto’o.
Casillas and Eto’o renewed their rivalry just three days after their El Clasico showdown, although Tuesday’s face-off was a more jovial, light-hearted affair.
The game was an indoor charity football match organised by Casillas and Rafael Nadal to help the Red Cross in their cause to fight against Malaria.
The first event of the evening was a kart race which was won by Casillas’ team, which comprised of F1 racer, Fernando Alonso and rally driver, Dani Sordo.
The second competition was a tennis match in which Nadal & Friends – Novak Djokovic and Carlos Moya – defeated Casillas’ side that had Juan Carlos Ferrero, Feliciano Lopez and David Ferrer.
The tie-breaker appropriately came down to the indoor football match. And the highlight of the evening was a Samuel Eto’o penalty, awarded after he was brought down by Alonso.
The Cameroonian scored his initial attempt, only for the referee to order the spotkick to be re-taken. His second effort, however, was saved by Casillas, eventhough he had jokingly said prior to the game that he would let Eto’o beat him this time.
The Madrid shot-stopper capped off the hugely successful evening by getting onto the scoresheet himself. After denying Nadal’s cheeky backheel attempt, ‘San Iker’ raced off his line solo to the opposing goal to score, much to the delight of the crowd, mostly children, but to the chagrin of the tennis world number one. The match ended 12-9 in Casillas’ favour.
The total amount of money raised has yet to be tallied as the donations hot-line will remain open until January 5, 2009.
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