Barça corrects Real Madrid in a crazy Clasico

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Already humiliated in October on its Santiago Bernabeu pitch (4-0), Real Madrid, still thirsty for titles, wanted revenge. He finally experienced a new shipwreck and suffered a real lesson from his great rival, collectively superior and led by his irresistible attacking trio Raphinha – Lewandowski – Lamine Yamal.

Trailing 5-1 at the start of the second half, Carlo Ancelotti’s men, who were aiming for a third title at mid-season, were unable to ignite the match and catch up after the exclusion of Barcelona goalkeeper Szczesny followed by the reduction of the score on a free kick from the Brazilian Rodrygo (60^e5-2).

Despite a doubly decisive Kylian Mbappé, first scorer of the match (5^e) then at the origin of the exclusion of Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, who came out of retirement to replace Marc André ter Stegen (57^e) and preferred to Inaki Pena, the Madrid club ultimately only existed in fits and starts and through the talent of its stars.

And he often, too often, appeared totally overwhelmed defensively in the face of the Catalan collective strength and the flashes of genius of his attackers, like the French international Aurélien Tchouaméni, in great difficulty as central defender to compensate for the absence of Eder Militao.

“We defended badly and it cost us the match. They scored their goals quite easily”regretted Carlo Ancelotti on Movistar.

French defender Jules Koundé welcomed Barcelona’s collective performance: “We showed a lot of calm and patience, knowing that if we followed the plan we would win. I’m very proud of the team. Right after the red card, we came together and said we were going to having to suffer and stay behind, but we had a big advantage and we couldn’t let it slip away.”he declared.

Raphinha in MVP mode

This clash at the top between the giants of Spanish football, two of the most followed clubs on the planet, started at a crazy pace and offered a great show to the Saudi public for almost 70 minutes, with Belgian goalkeeper Courtois initially managing to to repel the early attempts of Lamine Yamal (2^e) and Raphinha (4^e) to allow Kylian Mbappé to open the scoring with a dazzling counterattack (5^e1-0) and score his first goal in a Clasico.

The Spanish prodigy Lamine Yamal, launched by Robert Lewandowski on his left foot, responded by adjusting Courtois after a classy rush (22^e1-1), before the meeting got completely carried away.

Collectively superior with almost 70% possession at the half-hour mark, Barça ended up materializing their domination by scoring three goals in ten minutes, first on a cool penalty from Lewandowski (36^e2-1) for a foul by Camavinga on Gavi, then a header from Raphinha to cut off a tense cross from thirty meters from Jules Koundé (39^e3-1) and a perfect counter concluded by Alejandro Balde (45^e+10, 4-1).

The game, which could have taken another turn after returning from the locker room when Rodrygo’s volley crashed into Szczesny’s post (47^e), then got carried away again under the leadership of Raphinha, author of a double in a solo number to punish an unanswered Madrid defense (48^e5-1).

Launched in depth by a Jude Bellingham well muzzled by the Barcelona midfielders, Kylian Mbappé sounded the revolt, causing the exclusion of the Polish goalkeeper (57^e)and tried everything to bring his team back to an improbable comeback after the reduction of Rodrygo’s score (60^e5-2).

But even a rediscovered Mbappé was not enough in the face of the new collective demonstration of Hansi Flick’s men, for whom it is the first trophy with the Catalan club. A turning point, perhaps, in Barça’s season, very close to becoming great again.

AFP/VNA/CVN