Barcelona’s perfect start to the La Liga season has come to an end thanks to a painful 2-1 defeat to Real Madrid in Sunday’s El Clásico at Camp Nou. The Blaugrana fell behind in the first half but equalized and had big chances in the second, but conceded a bad late goal as their rivals won at the Catalan capital to finish a disappointing week for Hansi Flick’s side.
The opening period was a very intense, competitive and physical clash of two teams who mostly denied
each other. Each side had their good moments in attack, and while Barça had most of the ball and at least three really good chances, Madrid also created plenty of danger.
Los Blancos were most threatening on their left wing with Yan Diomandé involved constantly, and Xavi Espart did a very good job of controlling the Ivorian until the teenager was forced off with an injury at the half-hour mark.
João Cancelo switched over to right-back after Alejandro Balde’s introduction, and really struggled defending Diomandé and the left side of Madrid’s attack.
That’s how the opening goal came about as Diomandé and Cucurella were able to double up on Cancelo and unbalance the Barça defense, and Gerard Martín had a chance to clear a low cross but fired the ball straight at Kylian Mbappé, who accidentally found the net to give Madrid the lead.
Lamine Yamal had a golden chance to equalize when a scramble in the box left him all alone with the keeper, but the teenager missed the target completely and wasted Barça’s best opportunity of the half.
Raphinha and Anthony Gordon also missed good chances, and Barça were behind at the break and needed to be much more clinical up front to produce a second half comeback.
Barça played with much better poise and control on the ball to start the second half, and began to dominate the territory and force Madrid to retreat. The visitors still created a massive chance, but Gerard Martín made a sensational defensive play to single-handedly stop a counter-attack against Jude Bellingham and Mbappé.
The home team started to look very dangerous and earned their equalizer at the hour mark thanks to a quick corner taken by Yamal, a sensational assist by Pedri, and a very good finish from captain Raphinha to bring the Catalans back in the contest.
Barça almost took the lead on a corner taken by Cancelo that found the head of Martín in the box, but Andriy Lunin made a remarkable save to stop the home team from completing the comeback. The game was still wide open and Madrid still offered plenty of threat on the counter, and we were set up for a dramatic finish with 10 minutes to go.
There was drama indeed, and it was bad news for Barça: Gabriel Jesus lost an easy ball in midfield to ignite a Madrid counter, and Eduardo Camavinga was able to win the race for the ball against Pau Cubarsí and set up Mbappé for a tap-in with two minutes to go.
Barça tried to pull off a late comeback but Madrid did a good job of wasting time, and the final whistle came to end the Blaugrana’s perfect record and truly ignite the title race as Barça, Atlético and Real Madrid are now separated by just three points at the top of the table.
The defeats to PSG and Madrid feel very similarly frustrating given the fact Barça played well enough to get points from both games, but they’ll simply have to accept the two losses and figure out how to bounce back.
