Match Review : Real Madrid vs FC Barcelona (4-1)

El Clasico.

We usually have a lot of them during the season, but that doesn’t take away the fact that these matches possess something special.

Added bonus when they’re for trophies.

So how did Barca fare in the very first significant Clasico of the season? Let’s find out.

First half

If you want one word to describe the first half, it’d be disaster. Because in the first half, Barca’s entire experience was nothing short of one. To start, most of the same problems that have plagued Barca all season long, showed up in a big time way through the opening 45 minutes.

Poor defensive play, lack of awareness, not enough urgency in the attack, and no fluidity in the possession set up, — leading to isolated carries without any safe passing outlets.

As a result of these, Barca were completely washed away by Real Madrid in the first half. First was a failed attempt at stopping a release pass by Jules Kounde, leading to an opening Vinicius Jr. goal, next was a Vinicius goal created solely due to Barca’s lack of awareness on the break, and the last was a penalty scored by — you guessed it — Vinicius Jr. after a blatant foul by Ronald Araujo.

Barca did score a goal in the first half — a wonderful goal at that — courtesy of Robert Lewandowski.

https://twitter.com/vartatico/status/1746616494132240641?s=20

But that didn’t matter as Barca went into halftime down 3-1. Barca would need a monstrous comeback and switch in mentality to come back from this deficit. But as we saw, that didn’t happen.

In fact, only more misery awaited Barca in the second half.

Second half

The second half wasn’t much different for Barca.

They didn’t find another goal, nor did they look all that convincing either. They just looked flat, uninspired, and downright disinterested. Madrid wasn’t though, in fact they found another goal courtesy of Rodrygo, giving Madrid a bit of a Brazilian flair to their performance tonight.

I wish I could say more, but there isn’t much to say at this point.

Barca were beaten, flat out beaten. That’s all there is to it.

The final tally ended up being 4-1, as Madrid hoisted the Spanish Super Cup.

Final word

That was a snooze.

Usually watching your club get ran over by their biggest rival demands an angering response. But this time, there wasn’t much in the way of anger or irritation, just indifference and calmness.

Barca haven’t been playing good football for a while now, since September actually. Now it’s simply catching up to them during the biggest matches, especially ones of significant consequence.

This was probably Barca’s last real shot at a trophy this year, unless Barca runs into some luck in La Liga, and cleans up their play so they can make a run in the Copa Del Rey or even the Champions League, which is a pipe dream for the latter.

Either way, pretty embarrassing effort and result, you can only hope Barca rebounds.

Barca’s next match

Barca’s next match will be