[ad_1]
Ronald Koeman received another reminder that a historic playing career is not always a guarantee of a soft landing as a coach. as their work in progress, Barcelona were on the wrong side of a 3-1 loss to Real Madrid at the Camp Nou. In the days leading up to the first Clásico of the season it had been Zinedine Zidane who walked the line after successive defeats against Cádiz and Shakhtar But over the course of 90 breathless minutes, the Frenchman emerged with his reputation enhanced at the expense of his counterpart.
The visitors weren’t brilliant, they just took their chances when they arrived and played to their strengths in a compact 4-4-2.. Madrid also benefited from a penalty decision that few did well in the replay. Neither Clément Lenglet, who served himself a piece of Sergio Ramos’s shirt, nor the Madrid captain, who threw himself onto the pitch after contact was stopped. The VAR intervened and ruled a penalty. Ramos duly dispatched it to make it 2-1.
Fede Valverde had opened the scoring only for Ansu Fati to cancel the first match two minutes later and for a brief moment it seemed as if there was a marker breaking the pools. Net was essential to guarantee Barça stayed in the game until the 90th minute when Luka Modric found the net with cold precision after Madrid enjoyed the brush of the green after the goalkeeper left the line.
Barcelona also had its opportunities but a combination of Thibaut Courtois, who has ignored the question marks from last season, some astute defenders and the odd wrong decision by the hosts, such as when Ansu could have faced Leo Messi, conspired against Koeman’s team. A half appeal of a penalty against Varane was denied and in the last 15 minutes Madrid were on the rise as the game moved away from Barça
It was up to Modric, a substitute for the day, to have the last word. Doing what Vinicius could not, the Croatian stood firm, waited for the right moment and put the game out of all doubt. As Sergio Ramos said, in Madrid two games is a crisis. It may well be for Koeman: Barça have not suffered consecutive defeats in the league since 2016.
