FC Barcelona have outplayed Real Madrid for the second time this season. The 5-2 in the Supercopa was even more lopsided than the 4-0 in the league.
Is Barca better than Real? A glance at the La Liga table suggests the opposite. The Champions League may favor the Catalans, but the “king’s” might be back in “their” competition.
The two direct duels this season, however, suggest not only a class difference. The second, the Supercopa final, could not have made it more clear on Sunday evening in Saudi Arabia. Barcelona demolished Real 5-2, and from Real’s point of view, this result was even pleasant.
It was already 4-1 at half-time, and 5-1 shortly after. The only reason why Hansi Flick’s team did not achieve a historic triumph in this relatively insignificant competition was probably because substitute goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny left his colleagues short-handed early in the second half. And that Vinicius Junior avoided an inevitable yellow-red card a little later.
Barca from a single mold, Real a bunch of chickens
Despite Madrid’s early lead, a textbook counterattack via Kylian Mbappé, it seemed in the biggest duel in Spanish football that Barca could do whatever it wanted with Real. While the capital city team had started well in the league Clásico and had not played badly overall, the clear result this time was completely appropriate and logical. At least.
In an impressive manner, FCB held up a mirror to its arch-rival, in which the latter had to painfully look at absolutely everything that it lacks in terms of footballing ability. Quite fundamentally, for a start, the context. While Barca, especially in pressing and transition play, acted as if from a single mold, Madrid – once again – didn’t even get its isolated, highly talented attackers to combine. “We didn’t play football,” said coach Carlo Ancelotti quite correctly. And at the back, the record champions were, not for the first time, nothing less than a bunch of chickens.
That Lucas Vazquez, a trained outside forward in his mid-30s, is a weak substitute full-back, especially in the air, and is the final stage of a weak point? That Antonio Rüdiger is too easily caught out of position when the center forward – Robert Lewandowski in this case – goes down? That midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni also lacks all-round vision in central defense, often losing sight of what’s happening behind him? Flick and his coaching team were aware of this. Barca ruthlessly exploited all of this in its goals.
The height of embarrassment came in the 59th minute when Real, with a man more than half an hour up front, never managed to convince the crowd of this superiority. It just didn’t look like it. There was no sign of a real pressure phase, and a Real-style comeback was never in the air – although Rodrygo had immediately converted the free-kick for the Szczesny foul to make it 2-5. As it turned out, it was the final score.
Ancelotti does not line up according to performance
While an ambitious Mbappé, whose offside positions were primarily responsible for the defeat in the league, largely delivered this time, this thrashing, which was even more evident on the pitch, bore the signature of coach Ancelotti. The tactically apparently haphazard Italian had once again neglected balance by fielding four offensive players, but also once again not really set up according to performance.
Vazquez’s starting place against Raphinha, who scored twice, was simply disastrous, as was Tchouameni’s position in central defense. Defense talent Raul Asencio, who, after his substitution, was one of the few to show the necessary dedication and an appealing performance, should not have been allowed to play until it was already 1:5.
But Ancelotti, who of course also has few defensive personnel at his disposal, prefers to line up by name. And Ancelotti, as successful as he has been with his individual players in the past, is currently unable to instill cohesion in them. No collective functioning. Not against intense pressing, not against deep-lying back lines. Especially not against this FC Barcelona, even if it also has weak points. The league table shows it.
But the fact that Real was sometimes completely helpless even with a man more is above all Ancelotti’s work. You can’t lose a trainer duel more blatantly than that. But whether this glimpse into a mirror full of pain will purify him is far from certain. The league and Champions League are still too tangible for that.
