Barcelona smash Real Madrid to shreds

FC Barcelona’s win against Real Madrid was one of the sensations as the Catalans not only broke their losing streak in the Clasico, they dominated the Spanish league with a 4-0 win.

Real Madrid are confidently sitting at the top of the table in the Spanish national championship. The Madrid side’s result in their home games was more than impressive: 24 games without defeat. In the last 4 games in a row, Madrid have beaten all their opponents. Barcelona, however, have been more than capable of performing in this competition, with a 12-match unbeaten streak in La Liga. The Catalans have also won 10 away matches in a row.

This encounter was, to a large extent, a game of principle. After all, Real Madrid have been Barcelona’s worst offenders in the Clasico in the last three years. Therefore, the Catalans were desperate to break this losing streak.

Shortly before the game, it became known that Real Madrid’s superstar, Benzema, would not be able to participate. The most formidable player for the opponents was injured. Therefore, to “cover” his absence, Carlo Ancelotti has strengthened the attacking line by adding central midfielder Valverde to Vinicius and Rodrigo.

As for Real Madrid, Xavi had to change the starting line-up as well: instead of Traore and Alves, he inserted right-back Araujo.

As might have been expected, Madrid CF staked on aggressive and attacking football from the first seconds, and as early as the fifth minute they had a chance to open the scoring. However, Rodrigo shot wide of the post. In the seventh minute, Federico’s shot into the bottom corner was saved by Ter Stegen.

“Barcelona responded to Madrid’s attacks with counterattacks, some of which were successful. In the 12th minute, the Catalans had a chance to open the scoring, but Obameyang’s shot was deflected by Courtois and, shortly afterwards, Dembele was denied a chance to open the scoring.

In the 26th minute, Barcelona had another chance to open the scoring, but Real Madrid managed to eliminate an almost certain scoring chance. But the Madrid side’s attacks got worse and worse, which was not the case for Barcelona. The Catalans made a very productive attacking move against Madrid, with Pierre-Emerick opening the scoring on 29 minutes. In the 35th minute he had a chance to score the second goal but the Real Madrid goalkeeper parried his shot.

Soon Madrid had an opportunity to level the score, but Vinicius, who found himself one-on-one with the opposition goalkeeper, failed to seize on the chance. Dembele, through Araujo, netted the equaliser as the teams headed to halftime with the score level at 0-2.

At the end of the first half, the Catalans possessed the ball 60% of the playing time and shot 8 times at the opponents’ goal inside the penalty area.

In the second half, Madrid made two substitutions: Diaz replaced Carvajal and Camavanga replaced Kroos. But it did not help. Ferran scored his third goal of the game and Obamiaeng his fourth.

The Madrid side spent the rest of the game desperately trying not to lose by an even more devastating scoreline, while the Catalans had chances of scoring a fifth and sixth goal, but failed to convert both of them.

According to experts, Carlo Ancelotti’s tactics were fundamentally flawed as the reason for this devastating defeat for Real Madrid. Since 2015, the Italian specialist has not been able to get out of a losing streak: at all the clubs where he works, he does not stay for more than a season. As for Real Madrid, Ancelotti, being an excellent psychologist, has been able to create the conditions for each player to fulfil himself, but has failed to build a full-fledged team strategy. Real Madrid coach Xavi, on the other hand, is strong on strategy. Which led to an impressive result.