The feeling at the final whistle for the Blaugrana faithful was that of absolute dejection and disappointment after Barcelona were outclassed in every aspect of their 2-1 defeat at the Santiago Bernabéu, writes Omar Hawwash, journalist and CEO of the Barça-focused news outlet Blaugranagram.
In the last four head-to-head matches between the two La Liga giants, Barcelona have had Real Madrid’s number, convincingly too, prior to Sunday’s matchup in the Spanish capital.
In hindsight, that may have been their undoing: the sense they could just turn up, do the same thing and expect the same result.
Football doesn’t work like that. Teams evolve, tactics change and a failure to adapt means you are left looking in from the outside. Madrid have evolved under Xabi Alonso and on Sunday’s evidence, Barca will be peering over the fence at a Bernabeu title party come May.
Fortune favoured Barca
We can’t even say Barca were unfortunate.
And while much of the post-match hysterics from the Catalan media has predictably focused on the performance of referee Cesar Soto Grado and VAR Iglesias Villanueva, their influence in no way affected the outcome.
Indeed, it might have been a lot worse.
Lamine Yamal did foul Vinicius Jr inside two minutes, although the officials did not believe sufficient contact was made to warrant a penalty. Madrid had three goals chalked off – all rightly – while the penalty Madrid were awarded was correct with only the brilliance of Wojciech Szczesny denying the irrepressible Kylian Mbappe from the spot.
The fact is Madrid played with more intensity and purpose. Madrid broke the Barcelona midfield into pieces time and again before penetrating the defence with alarming ease.
A new low for Flick’s Barcelona
Barcelona’s 4-1 defeat at Sevilla on October 5 was something we, at Blaugranagram, described as probably the worst performance during the reign of Hansi Flick. El Clásico this Sunday beats that, and by some distance.
Against Sevilla, the argument could be that Barcelona had come into the match complacent, given Sevilla’s recent woes. Against Real Madrid, there is no excuse to put up a performance as toothless and uninventive as this. The entire team was extremely static, happy to pass the ball in front of Madrid without anyone willing to make that killer run. Contrary to Real Madrid’s attacks in transition, Barcelona very rarely had any runners in behind and, when they did, it was Jules Koundé whose first touch let him down, as he found himself through for the equaliser late on.
A midfield that on paper should have had the beating of its Madrid counterpart looked fatigued, lacked creativity or any desire to get forward.
Time to focus on youth
Flick has a lot of work to do with this squad, and even in games like this where your main 11 includes Ferran Torres, who historically is shaky when he plays from the off, the youth players should be utilised more, giving them enough of a platform to be ready for fixtures like this, when your main guard fails to perform.
On this evidence, Barca look some way from challenging for La Liga, never mind the Champions League. At the elite level it comes down to fine margins, particularly in both boxes. With Mbappe, Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Jr – we’ll save his antics for another day – Madrid have more pace and athleticism than Barca while the likes of Eder Militao and Dean Huijsen have more know-how on the big stage than Pau Cubarsi and Eric Garcia.
That’s not to say things can’t change and swing back in Barca’s favour. But it’s one heck of a challenge for Flick.
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