Barcelona crushed Real Madrid 4-nil in the first Clásico of the season this weekend, extending their lead of La Liga to 6 points.
Ever since Frank Rijkaard and Ronaldinho exorcised the Santiago Bernabeu, it’s become tradition for every great Barcelona team to have at least one masterclass in Madrid.
Rijkaard had the 0-3, Pep Guardiola had the 2-6 and the 1-3 and the 0-2 Champions League semi-final, Luis Enrique had the 0-4 (without Messi!), Ernesto Valverde had the 0-3 in the afternoon sunshine and even Xavi’s boys had the Aubameyang-inspired 0-4 win in the Senyera kits.
Now Hansi Flick has his first masterclass in Madrid with Saturday night’s monumental 0-4 win. His first Clásico couldn’t have gone better with four fabulous goals to cap a magnificent performance.
For the sake of poetry and being fancy, here are four key points that defined the win:
1. This Is The Way (offsides!)
With no Ronald Araujo in the team and having to face down both Vini Jr. and Kylian Mbappé, Hansi Flick had a serious problem heading into this Clásico.
Well, he would have but for his side’s devastatingly efficient offside trap.
Barcelona came into the Clásico with a league-high 65 offsides provoked. They were actually leading every side in Europe’s top five leagues.
Barcelona then proceeded to catch Real Madrid offside 12 times at the Santiago Bernabeu. They now have 77 offsides provoked, more than twice as many as the next highst side in Europe’s top five leagues (Brighton with 35).
8 of those 12 offsides belonged to Kylian Mbappé, which proved a devastatingly efficient way of dealing with the French striker.
Pau Cubarsi is a 17 year-old wonder (and honestly, given his age and position, probably even more ridiculous than Lamine Yamal) and Iñigo Martinez is a wily 33 year-old veteran, but neither could come close to Mbappé in a footrace.
This offside trap meant they never had to. All they needed was the co-ordination and confidence to hold their line and Mbappé, or any Madrid forward, would be neutered.
Aided by Jules Kounde (who, bar a couple runs, put the clamps on Vini Jr. out wide) and Alejandro Balde (who erased Jude Bellingham from the match) as rock-solid full-backs, that is exactly what they did.
“I am proud of the team, especially Iñaki (Peña). We defended well.” — Hansi Flick
Quick sidebar to shout-out Iñigo and Balde’s magnificent assists. Martinez's ICBM of a pass to Raphinha allowed the Brazilian to make it 0-4 but Alejandro Balde’s pinpoint cross to Robert Lewandowski for the second goal so soon after the first was the moment that Barcelona truly took control of the match.
2. Iñaki Peña is The Man
As good as Barcelona’s offside trap is, it didn’t work every time. There were times when the defence got beaten by a good ball finding a great run.
And when that happened, Barça are in trouble.
Or, they would have been if not for Iñaki Peña.
“I feel very happy and proud. I've been a Culer all my life.” — Iñaki Peña
While he’s nowhere near the injured Marc-André Ter Stegen in many facets of goalkeeping (especially his passing) one area that Iñaki Peña has always had over the German is his willingness and competence to sweep behind his high-line.
While Ter Stegen can remain rooted to his six yard box, and new signing Wojciech Szczęsny has the same issue, Iñaki Peña is all too happy to leave his line and boot the ball away if his defenders are beaten, and he did so a couple times against Madrid.
One gets the sensation that this is why Flick has stuck with the 25 year-old rather than immediately bringing the much more experienced and proven Szczęsny into the starting XI. Iñaki’s sweeping is essential.
“There's no reason to change goalkeepers. Iñaki will play” — Hansi Flick
Moreover, once the magnificent Luka Modric came on, Madrid did manage to get Mbappé away a few times close enough to goal that sweeping wasn’t an option. Iñaki Peña was going to have to save some shots.
And while Mbappé produced two nerveless finishes when offside, when the flag stayed down Iñaki Peña had his number, denying him in two epic 1-v-1’s that, as much as any of the goals, allowed Barcelona to win the game.
3. Midfield Chemistry
Barcelona started the match with their trusted double pivot of Pedri and Marc Casado with Fermin Lopez as the 10. And while Casado was doing great work and Pedri was running the show, Fermin wasn’t as effective as he was against Bayern Munich.
So at half-time, with Casado on a booking, Hansi Flick made the bold decision to take off Fermin and bring on Frenkie de Jong.
Frenkie wasn’t Frenkie (bar one moment we’ll get to in a bit) but he didn’t have to be to, in many ways, change the game.
Frenkie being deeper pushed Pedri further forward between the lines, which granted Barcelona more composure and control when in possession.
Watching the opening goal for Lewandowski, and as Casado is advancing up the pitch Pedri is moving laterally and pulling Antonio Rudiger away from his usual cover position. Then when Eder Militao tries to jump and block a quick pass in to Raphinha, the trap has been sprung and Casado has a lane to slide the ball through to Lewandowski.
It’s a tiny lane, mind you. But Casado has the skills to drill the ball perfectly into the Pole’s path, and with Rudiger too high to make any sort of recovery run, Lewandowski is free to open the scoring.
The second goal came three minutes later and saw the ball worked up to Raphinha who bounced it back to Frenkie de Jong who was basically in the same spot where Casado had been minutes earlier.
This time Madrid had adjusted. Militao stayed while Lucas Vazquez tracked Raphinha to block the easy pass, but this meant there was acres of space where the right-back was supposed to be, and it was into this space that Frenkie was Frenkie and dropped a perfectly weighted pass into the path of Alejandro Balde.
Balde whipped a gorgeous cross in and Lewandowski headed home. Two goals in five minutes, both made possible by midfield passes and a midfield chemistry that Madrid couldn’t get a handle on.
After this, Flick withdrew the classy Casado for Dani Olmo, also back from injury. Pedri returned to the pivot and Olmo took up spaces between the lines. Within minutes a gorgeous pass from Olmo released Raphinha who squared it for Robert Lewandowski to bag his hat-trick, only for the Pole to inexplicably hit the post. Finally, Gavi came on late, taunted Vini and got booked. Legendary cameo!
Despite the injuries and the lack of a “true” defensive pivot, Barcelona’s midfield dominated the second-half and led the Blaugrana to an impressive victory.
4. Mission Complete for a Ferocious Front Three
Much as the midfield did run the show it was the forward line that provided the killer punch to turn that dominance into actual goals. So often Barcelona’s problem last season, sticking it in the back of the net has not been a problem so far this season.
Barcelona lead La Liga with an incredible 37 goals scored (Madrid are second with 21). Their goal difference is +27. And that is powered by their latest “trident” attack of Lamine Yamal, Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha.
Lewandowski scored the first two goals of El Clásico. His movement was sharp and the finishes were absolutely lethal. Lewandowski didn’t dither, he just acted. The header was particularly devastating as he thumped it perfectly into the far corner of the net beyond the reach of Andriy Lunin.
Lewandowski now has 14 goals in La Liga (17 across all competitions) and leads the way, but it should be 16 (and 19) because he missed two sitters soon after. Each one was set-up by his forward partners, and each miss made no sense given how good the previous finishes were.
“It's a great experience when your own fans are louder than the home team's fans in the opponent's stadium. It's incredible.” — Lamine Yamal
Lamine Yamal and Raphinha made up for their strikers misses, however, by scoring the third and fourth goal for Barcelona. And while Raphinha’s goal was a lovely chip following the aforementioned Iñigo Martinez ICBM pass, the third goal was a front three masterpiece that summed up the connection between this trident.
A long ball from Iñaki Peña found Robert Lewandowski who beat Antonio Rudiger in the air to knock the ball down to Raphinha. The Brazilian stole in front of Lucas Vazquez and took a heavy touch to send the ball infield.
Raphinha raced after it and Ferland Mendy stopped tracking Lamine Yamal and tried to close the Brazilian down. Raphinha took a touch and fed #ElProdigi on the right and the wonder boy took a touch and than smashed it top corner near-post with his right-foot. Lunin was caught off guard and stood no chance.
It was a masterpiece of a goal. And this is a masterpiece of a front three. One world-class veteran, one unheralded player in his prime and one teenage prodigy.
Across all competitions Lewandowski has 17 goals and 2 assists, Raphinha has 10 goals and 7 assists, Lamine Yamal has 6 goals and 7 assists. 49 goals from the attacking trident, a perfect trio.
Barcelona’s only real concern with the attack is the lack of back-ups. But with the correct managing of minutes as well as the return to fitness of multi-faceted players like Ansu Fati and Dani Olmo, there will be chances for rotation.
Before the midweek win over Bayern, Lamine Yamal posted to social media that he was “on a mission” and, now, after two magnificent wins in two massive games, 8 goals scored and just the 1 conceded, he posted “mission complete.”
Now Barcelona have a week of rest before a fiery Catalan derby against Espanyol. A different kind of mission, for sure, but one Hansi Flick’s brilliant Blaugrana side will be confident of completing.
And who could blame them?
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