The four-year title drought is all but over for Barca. Barcelona have overcome Real Madrid once again in El Clasico as they won 2-1 with a 90th minute winner, solidifying their double-digit lead atop La Liga.
There’s no way Barcelona is choking this lead with only a dozen games left in the season.
In this year’s second and final league El Clasico matchup, Real Madrid failed to claw their way back into the title race as they were once again humiliated at the hands of Barcelona, leaving the Catalonian club a full 12 points ahead of their Madrid-based rivals.
It was honestly a pretty standard game from a Barcelona perspective as even though they went down 1-0 inside 10 minutes due to a hilarious Ronald Araújo OG (it’s really funny how the ball bounced off his head, hit the post in exactly the right place, and drifted past ter Stegen), they dominated Madrid throughout the rest of the match.
Madrid did generate a few good chances (ex: Marcos Asensio’s offside goal in the 80th minute), but they were playing a strict defensive game for the entire match.
Robert Lewandowski (who scored the game tying goal in the 44th minute) had 4-5 ‘A+’ chances that were beaten out by Thibault Courtois, Barca’s midfield of Franck Kessie, Sergio Busquets, Sergio Roberto, and Frankie de Jong dictated play as easier than they could have imagined, and Barca’s defense wasn’t trouble at all apart from one offside goal.
Truthfully, I was expecting a lot more fight and ferocity from Madrid as they not only had to win this game (they came into the match down 9 points in the standings), but they also were the side with more threating firepower. For an attacking lineup of Karim Benzema, Vini Jr., Fede Valverde, Luka Modric, Rodrygo, and Marco Asensio to only register 3 shots on target is kind of pathetic, even if it’s against Barcelona.
Yes, Barcelona has an outstanding defense in La Liga this season (they’ve only conceded 9 goals in 26 games), but their offense wasn’t firing in the past few weeks as they had won 3-straight 1-0 victories before yesterday. If Real Madrid was able to add another goal before the 65th minute or so, they could have really forced Barca to open up and come at them with more men than Xavi would have liked.
Thus, it would have left wide open holes in Barca’s staunch defense a great counterattacking side like Real Madrid could have exploited. The title was all but decided in this matchup, and Real Madrid just didn’t show enough desire to take it.
Though, that’s what was to be expected as they were playing in the Camp Nou as Barcelona truly are the one team Real Madrid fears, as the great Thierry Henry once stated.
As for the winning goal, it was a great strike from Franck Kessie. With all of Madrid’s players spread across the field due to them pressing in the dying embers of the game for a game-winning goal (which they should have been doing 20 minutes earlier), great link-up play between Lewandowski and Alejandro Balde gave the later an open lane to cross the ball into Madrid’s box.
And, right in front of Ferland Mendy, Franck Kessie simply opened up his body and side footed a volley past Thibault Courtois to win the game, send the Camp Nou rocking with joy, and (practically) clinch the league title for Barcelona after four long, trying, difficult years.
Obviously, the league title race is not completely over as Barca could either collapse or Madrid goes on an unexpected 12-game winning streak, but it’s pretty much settled as both clubs have distinctly different goals for the final quarter of the year.
Barca only have to win eight of their next twelve games to official clinch the league title, while Madrid would have to win their final twelve games to simply match Barca’s points tally in that scenario.
And, with Barcelona already possessing a better GD (+40GD for Barca vs. +30GD for Madrid) and playing against bottom-half teams like Elche (20th), Girona (12th), Getafe (13th), Espanyol (17th), Valladolid (17th), and Mallorca (11th) in that span, I think it’s safe to say the title race is over.
Reversely, Madrid are through to the Quarterfinals of the Champions League (which Barca was knocked out of in the Group Stage, and then knocked out of the Europa League in the Round of 32) and have a big task of beating Chelsea to advance to the Semi Finals in their quest for a record-breaking 15th Champions League win.
The only thing these two sides have in common this season is their desire to win the Copa del Rey as Barca currently hold a 1-0 lead over Madrid with the two playing the decisively 2nd Semi Final leg two weeks from Wednesday.
Nevertheless, it’s always a joy to watch these two sides compete in the biggest football matchup in world football.
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