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At “Barcelona” there is a war between the club and the team, Ronald Koeman gets nervous even in the matches that end with a 5: 1 victory for his players, and Gerard Piquet renews his contract with Barça, accompanied by words of disrespect. The “Real” is losing two games in a row against lesser rivals, Zidane seems to have already found a replacement, and the infirmary is not yet empty. Worst backstory for El Clásico that you won’t find in the afternoon with fire. Only footballers on the field can change the depressed mood of some and other fans, with their brilliant actions.
And the beginning was promising. After having spent quite some time in reconnaissance, “Real” scored during the attack from the right flank. Nacho passed the ball to Benzema, who sank into the depths of the field, Karim noticed Valverde’s pull and sent the ball into his movement towards the free zone. Fede felt no opposition from the Barça centrals and scored a crucial goal for Zidane. But this goal did not give the guests any psychological advantage. Indeed, after three minutes, the rival organized a similar attack with a similar result: Messi in the back of the field gave a pass to Alba, and Jordi scored his return to the main team (after injury) with an assist to Fati.
By the way, about the compositions. Unsurprisingly, Zidane started Benzema, who did not play from the beginning against Shakhtar. But Luka Modric and Rodrigo weren’t among the top eleven. Koeman surprised that, as in the match against “Ferencvaros”, he left Griezmann in reserve. It turns out that the world champion was not cared for in that fight, but simply did not trust him. Young Pedri played today but, running ahead, he did not show himself in any way.
Fati is another matter. In addition to Ansu becoming the youngest scorer in El Clásico (beating Raúl González’s record), the agile Spaniard created many problems for Courtois during the first half. In the 24th minute, Fati made a comfortable pass to Messi, but did not realize the opportunity. And there was an instant response from “Real” – Kroos assisted Benzema, but Karim didn’t realize the opportunity, more convenient than a penalty.
The score did not reach 2: 2, but 1: 1 usually reflected the distribution of forces. The “Real” had more possession of the ball, but the “Barça” had a somewhat better control of projectiles in the middle of the field of others. There was also a moment from Messi, some forays from Fati, but Real was not immobilized at the door. It’s just that both teams played better on offense than defense.
The hosts started the second 45 minutes with better quality. The pressure from Barça culminated in several moving episodes: the blows of Fati and Coutinho forced Courtois to work. However, “Real” scored in the best tradition of Zidane’s team: he pushed, bit, won a penalty. After taking a free kick from the left wing, Lange threw Ramos by the shirt in the penalty area. Despite the picturesque fall of the “creamy” captain, the referee had no right to ignore the foul in the age of VAR technologies. Ramos himself converted the penalty.
Subsequently, Barça might have had a similar scoring opportunity, but after watching the video replay, the referee decided that the ball had hit Varane’s hand in Real’s penalty area from close range. The culés painfully received this blow (the second failed and the absence of his own goal), and Koeman was in no hurry to make adjustments in the game. It was not until the 82nd minute that the coach made a triple change, which, however, did not work. After all, the final round was organized by “Real”, although he didn’t need it. First a cold blow from Kroos deflected Courtois, and then Thibault “ate” Ramos’s shot as well. But the “Real” was already euphoric with a premonition of success and found a hole for the third goal. Modric led Vinicius one by one, he did not score, but Rodrigo caught the ball and passed it to Modric himself. Horvath duped the disoriented Courtois and shot past defenders trying to save the goal – 1: 3.
Real Madrid didn’t show much, but Barcelona didn’t impress with their wit either. Madrid defeated the rival thanks to its high efficiency, this is Zidane’s characteristic trick: run over, sell. When Madrid has no movement and dynamics, you get matches like against Cádiz and Shakhtar. Well, as for “Barça”, again a lot of questions. And the most important of them is related to the person of the coach? Is Ronald Koeman exactly what the Catalans need?
Barcelona. Camp Nou Stadium
“Barcelona” – “Real” 1: 3
Goals: Ansumane Fati 8 – Federico Valverde 5, Sergio Ramos 63 (pen.), Luka Modric 90
“Barcelona”: Neto, Serginho Dest, Gerard Piqué, Clement Langley, Sergio Busquets (Usman Dembele 82), Philippe Coutinho, Lionel Messi, Pedri (Trinkao 82), Jordi Alba (Martin Brightwhite 87), Frankie de Jong, Ansumane Grietmann Fatiu 82
“Real”: Thibaut Courtois, Sergio Ramos, Rafael Varane, Jose Ignacio Nacho (Lucas Vazquez 43), Tony Kroos, Karim Benzema, Carlos Casemiro, Federico Valverde (Luca Modric 69), Ferlan Mendy, Marco Asensio (Rodrigo Silva 81), Vini
Warnings: Clement Langle 29, Jordi Alba 62, Lionel Messi 90 + 1 – Carlos Casemiro 19, Jose Ignacio Nacho 37
