What it could have been, but how it went! Real Madrid scored two past Barcelona within 14 minutes and was cruising for a win before Barcelona stepped up and changed the complexion of the game. Despite conceding two from Kylian Mbappe, the Catalan giants didn’t lose composure and maintained balance to turn the tide. Playing against arch-rivals and conceding two goals and ruining the morale of a club, but Barcelona thrived and produced a brilliant performance.
In the first half, Eric Garcia pulled one back in the 19th minute of the game, while Lamine Yamal made it all square in the 32nd minute. The 17-year-old showed immense maturity in placing the ball, which was out of Thibaut Courtois’ reach. The Madrid goalkeeper stretched to his left, but he couldn’t get any closer to the ball that was placed on the second bar while Lamine shot it from the right side.
After the score was settled, Raphinha handed two more blows to Real Madrid, making it 4-2 in favour of Barcelona. The Los Blancos seemed clueless at one point as their defence had no answer to Barcelona’s attack. Lucas Vasquez, who played as a right back, flopped yet again as Raphinha managed to keep him out of the game for the majority of the match.
Real Madrid also felt the absence of Rudiger, who was suspended after receiving a red card in the Copa Del Rey final. The pair of Aurelien Tchouameni and Raul Asencio failed to live up to the expectations, and that ended Real Madrid’s dream of winning the La Liga.
In the second half, Carlo Ancelotti made a couple of changes as Luka Modric and Brahim Dias replaced Dani Ceballos and Arda Guler. It helped Real Madrid organise well defensively as they didn’t concede again in the second half. In the 70th minute of the game, Mbappe completed his hat-trick and Real Madrid had 20 more minutes to score one or more but they couldn’t breach Barcelona’s defence.
Meanwhile, Rodrygo didn’t take any part in the El Classico, which remains controversial, especially when Endrick and academy forward Victor Munoz were introduced in the dying minutes of the match. With the win, Barcelona now have a seven-point lead in the La Liga, with only three games remaining.