On one side of El Clasicothere was Kylian Mbappe. There were Vinicius Jr. and Jude Bellingham. There were the reigning European champions, the latest wave of Galácticos, the most feared attack in football, the reason Real Madrid were overwhelming favorites to win La Liga.
And on the other hand, on the Barcelona side, there was no fear.
Instead, there was a daring offside trap that thwarted and frustrated Real Madrid; and in the second half there was Robert Lewandowski.
Lewandowski scored twice in three minutes on Saturday to silence Madrid’s palatial Santiago Bernabéu stadium and open up the first match of the season Classic. Barca’s teenage sensation, Lamine Yamal, eventually added a third. Shortly afterwards, Raphinha achieved a deserved 4-0 victory.
But the game’s story unfolded in a fascinating first half. Time and time again, Real Madrid raced ahead. And time and time again, Mbappé was thwarted by a strategy that Barcelona, the experts insisted, would not dare to implement.
Under German manager Hansi Flick, Barça has forced their opponents into submission. Attackers have been chasing the ball. Defenders have maintained a dangerously high line that limits the space in front of them, allowing Barcelona to play 90 frenzied minutes on the front foot.
But if they did that against Mbappé and Vini, the thinking went, with so much space behind them, they would be punished.
“If they play like that, they’re going to concede goal after goal,” ESPN color commentator Steve McManaman warned as the match started.
However, Barca did not flinch for a moment. They didn’t just “play like that”, they played the high line perfectly. In the first 36 minutes of the match, they caught Real Madrid offside eight times. (Eight! In 36 minutes!)
Mbappé scored, but VAR overturned the goal because he was half a body length wide.
Vini broke the fall once, but dragged his shot wide of the near post – and that was the only shot Real Madrid managed in the first half.
Mbappe finally beat the kick in the 71st minute, but his shot was saved.
And by then, Barça’s rampant attack, the best in Europe of the past two months, had undone Real Madrid. Lewandowski beat a sloppy offside trap for his first. The four goals took Barcelona to 37 in 11 games. And the win put them five points clear in La Liga.
