Sam Marsden, Barcelona correspondent
MADRID — Robert Lewandowski scored twice, whereas Lamine Yamal and Raphinha tallied objectives every, as Barcelona capped a exceptional week by routing Actual Madrid 4-0 in Saturday’s Clásico on the Santiago Bernabéu. With the lopsided loss, Actual Madrid noticed their 42-game unbeaten streak in LaLiga snapped.
Veteran striker Lewandowski scored twice in three second-half minutes to set Barça on their method, with Yamal firing the third into the roof of the web and Raphinha lofting the fourth over the top of goalkeeper Andriy Lunin, who was filling in for the injured Thibaut Courtois.
The win comes simply three days after Barça trounced Bayern Munich 4-1 within the Champions League, and it strikes them six factors away from rivals Madrid on the prime of the LaLiga desk after 11 video games.
Madrid had not tasted defeat within the league since dropping to Atlético Madrid at first of final season, and even a draw right here would have seen them draw degree with Barça’s LaLiga document 43-game unbeaten streak.
Nonetheless, after a goalless first half during which Kylian Mbappé and Actual Madrid wasted a slew of probabilities, Carlo Ancelotti’s facet had been torn aside by a ruthless Barça facet, whose unimaginable begin to the season underneath new coach Hansi Flick continued on the dwelling of their largest rivals.
Listed here are the large speaking factors from El Clásico:
Mbappé has a Clásico debut to overlook
This was alleged to be the Clásico of Mbappé, his first since becoming a member of Madrid from Paris Saint-Germain in the summertime within the largest blockbuster transfer of the summer season switch window. He has at all times loved enjoying Barça, scoring six occasions in opposition to them in 4 appearances with the French facet, however his luck was out on Saturday.
An early miss, later dominated offside anyway, set the tone for a night of misses and offsides. A type of offsides was given after he thought he had opened the scoring, dinking the ball over Iñaki Peña, however the VAR revealed he mistimed his run behind Iñigo Martínez.
In whole, Mbappe was caught offside six occasions within the first half, greater than he has been offside in any sport beforehand in his profession, earlier than one other two offsides within the second half. His eight offside calls in a single sport is is tied for probably the most of any participant within the final 15 LaLiga seasons.
His first official shot on purpose did not arrive till the 61st minute ultimately. Extra adopted, in addition to one other offside purpose, however his ending left one thing to be desired. Peña denied him each time. He might have discovered a factor or two from Lewandowski on the different finish.
It has not been a disastrous begin to his Madrid profession by any means, however these are the video games he was signed to have an effect on.
He has eight objectives in all competitions up to now, however the feeling is Madrid followers are nonetheless ready for him to click on in a new-look assault alongside Vinícius Júnior and with Jude Bellingham behind.
There was palpable frustration from supporters as extra offsides adopted within the second half and the sport, maybe fittingly, ended with one other offside flag and one other save from Peña as Mbappé raced via.
Lewandowski anchors the youthful revolution at Barcelona
Barça fielded their second-youngest crew in a Clásico fixture in 80 years and their youngest since 1956. The difference-maker, although, was 36-year-old Lewandowski, who wrestled this sport away from Madrid with a masterclass in ending at the beginning of the second half.
The Poland worldwide, performed onside by Ferland Mendy, completed brilliantly within the 54th minute after being performed via by Marc Casadó after which, three minutes later, guided an excellent header previous Lunin from Alejandro Balde‘s left wing cross.
Lewandowski’s kind was criticised at occasions final season, however he is been sensible underneath his former Bayern boss Flick. He has now netted 14 objectives in LaLiga in simply 11 appearances this season — and 17 in all competitions. He’s benefitting from staying extra centrally, getting extra of the ball in and across the space and letting the kids do the operating round him.
It was one of many children, 17-year-old Yamal, who took the sport away from Madrid late on. Predominantly left footed, he maybe caught Madrid out by taking his likelihood early on his proper foot, blazing the ball previous Lunin as a surprised silence fell across the Bernabeu. In doing so, Yamal grew to become the youngest ever scorer within the Clásico.
Raphinha, contemporary from a midweek hat-trick, added the fourth and Barça will look again at missed probabilities earlier than Yamal’s purpose — one completely evident miss from Lewandowski particularly — and marvel if they might have scored much more on the evening.
Barça’s excessive line reaps rewards once more
A theme of Barça’s season has been their aggressive excessive line, together with their relentless urgent. Previous to the Clásico, they’d the best line of defense in LaLiga at 61 yards when the ball is within the opposition half. Because of this, they’ve this season drawn over 70 offsides — greater than double every other facet within the prime 5 European leagues.
After coming although the Bayern take a look at in midweek, the large query was whether or not they would pull it off in opposition to Madrid, Mbappé and Vinícius?
1:42
Moreno: We did not know Barcelona had been at this degree
Ale Moreno pours reward on Hansi Flick and his younger Barcelona crew for demolishing rivals Actual Madrid 4-0 away from dwelling.
There have been some furry moments within the first half, not least the disallowed purpose from Mbappé, however Pau Cubarsí and Martínez caught to their process, caught as near the midway line as attainable and caught Madrid offside time and time once more. In the long run, Los Blancos had been offside 12 occasions within the sport — and eight within the first half alone.
The offside entice was helped by the relentless urgent in midfield and additional ahead from the likes of Casadó, Fermín López and Raphinha, with the previous rewarded with an help for the opening purpose. It looks like this crew underneath Flick might go far now.
Ancelotti has work to do along with his Actual Madrid crew of superstars
No matter method you take a look at it, it was a disastrous evening for Madrid. Not solely did they lose their lengthy unbeaten run and fall six factors behind Barça in LaLiga, however they suffered their third largest loss in LaLiga of all time. They haven’t suffered such a defeat at dwelling within the league since 1974.
It brings again to the the floor quite a lot of points which have been current all through this season, even when they’ve usually been papered over by sensible particular person shows, equivalent to Vinícius’ hat-trick within the midweek comeback in opposition to Borussia Dortmund.
Nonetheless, they deeply miss Toni Kroos. What Mbappé and Vinícius would do to have his passing in behind. There may be nonetheless one thing missing in assault, regardless of the plain high quality, and there may be the Bellingham problem. He’s with out a purpose in 11 video games this season after registering a career-high 23 final time period.
To cap all of it off, with Courtois and David Alaba lacking, they collapsed defensively within the second half.
The season continues to be younger, and Madrid have a behavior of peaking when it issues, however Ancelotti has work to do.
