Real Madrid can continue to rely on Bellingham. In the Clasico, the royals fell behind early, then struggled – and still celebrated a 2-1 victory in the end, as Bellingham scored twice.
Barcelona coach Xavi brought on Christensen, Balde and Gavi for Inigo Martinez, Oriol Romeu and Lamine Yamal (all bench) after the 2-1 win over Shakhtar Donetsk. The 43-year-old coach was still without the injured de Jong, Pedri, Koundé and Sergi Roberto. At least Raphinha and Lewandowski, who had been absent recently, made it to the bench.
At Real Madrid, things looked quite different. With the exception of the long-term injured Courtois and Eder Militao as well as problem child Arda Güler, coach Carlo Ancelotti can draw from a full complement. Compared to the 2:1 in Braga, the Italian brought Alaba, Mendy, Tchouameni and Kroos new in the starting eleven, Nacho, Fran Garcia, Camavinga and Modric made themselves comfortable on the bench instead.
Gündogan’s lightning start
With Balde, Lopez and Gavi, the Catalans had three U-20 players on the field – and yet the hosts showed the more mature game in half one. Barça had a clear plan, played against the ball in a 4-5-1, consolidated the midfield well and won the ball in this way.
This is how the early lead came about: Gündogan was not consistently attacked in the center and then also benefited from an uncontrolled ball by Tchouameni and a suboptimal tackle by Alaba. Gündogan ran through, was rewarded and did not show any weakness in front of Kepa by shooting into the far corner – so in his first Clasico the 33-year-old scored at the first attempt (6.).
Real can’t find solutions
The goal was also basically the first successful action of the game, which had been very disjointed at the beginning. After the 1:0 it got better, but mainly for FC Barcelona. The Catalans didn’t let anything go defensively against uninspired Madrilenians and also radiated more scoring danger: Lopez was unlucky with a goal against the post (16th), Carvajal just managed to tip the ball off Joao Felix’s foot in the nick of time (28th), before Lopez’s long-range attempt just before half-time went over (38th).
And Real? The Blancos came up with very little, they found no solutions at all, developed no penetrating power up front, had too little access in midfield and as a result also repeatedly had problems in the rest of the defense. Ancelotti could not be satisfied at all, the best thing from Real’s point of view might have been that they only went into halftime with a 0:1 lead.
After the change of ends, the royals showed a little more verve and scored their first good goal early on through Rodrygo (47th). Barça, however, remained dangerous, which was impressively demonstrated in minute 51, when Inigo Martinez first hit the post and Araujo then failed to beat Kepa, who reacted well.
Ancelotti reacted as the game progressed, first bringing on Camavinga and later Modric and Joselu. But it was “Rocketman” Bellingham who scored the equalizer. For large parts of the game, the Englishman had not made a stab against Gavi, but in the 68th minute, he clawed an uncontrolled header near the penalty area, spun around on his own axis and hit full into the right corner from 23 meters – 1:1.
The goal was a real impact goal, suddenly Barcelona acted nervously, while Real became stronger and stronger and took more and more command. Xavi reacted and brought on Raphinha for the final phase as well as Lamine Yamal, who at 16 years, three months and 15 days became the youngest Clasico participant ever. The measure seemed to bear fruit, the thereafter, the home side made the game more open again, even let themselves look offensively again (Lewandowski, 79th, Gavi 80th).
But it wasn’t the Barça jokers who put their stamp on the game, it was Bellingham: In injury time, the 20-year-old was in the right place for a Carvajal cross extended by Modric and slipped the ball through ter Stegen’s suspenders for the 2-1 winner (90.+2).
The action continues for both in a week’s time: Barcelona travels to San Sebastian next Saturday for a clash against Real Sociedad (9 p.m.), while Real Madrid hosts Rayo Vallecano the following day (9 p.m.).
