In a suspenseful matchup, Barcelona's defense suffered a major blow when Christensen suffered an ankle injury, while Araujo's injury is even more serious, making his trip to the World Cup unlikely. Barcelona had no choice but to bring in Kounde and Eric Garcia to partner the center backs. In the midfield, Gavi was dropped and F.de Jong took his place, while the forward lineup remained unchanged.
(starting lineup)
Real Madrid, on the other hand, stuck to a fixed starting lineup, with all the players being members of last season's Champions League finalists, except for Tchouameni at defensive back.
What was expected to be a sparkling national derby was lost in the opening 11 minutes. Real Madrid took advantage of a quick counter-attack from midfielder Kroos, launching an attack as Busquets and F.de Jong moved up the pitch.Kroos, before being pulled down by Busquets, played a ball to the left, where Vinicius swiftly inserted himself into the box and fired in a shot.Kroos was able to get on the end of the ball, but he was able to get on the end of it, and the goalkeeper was able to get on the end of the ball. Although ter Stegen parried the ball, Benzema had raced to the 13-yard box and pushed the ball home with ease, and none of Barcelona's three defenders were able to stop the quick attack.
Barcelona had a chance in the 24th minute when Raphinha crossed from the right and Levan came close at the far post, but it didn't change the team's unfavorable situation. The midfield was not as physical as Real Madrid's and had to press forward in order to maintain possession, making it difficult for the wingers to get deep. Real Madrid's counterattack naturally handy, once the two sides of the midfield one-on-one, Barcelona will gradually fall into passive, which is related to the team's three midfield and front of the three forked trident cooperation is insufficient, the three forked trident in the organization of the midfield is not good at it, and Real Madrid's three midfield and the defensive line of the tacit understanding between them is quite good.
Subsequently, Real Madrid constantly let the center backs greet Levan, who was put down many times and his form was affected. And Barcelona three midfield once up, the back of the convenience of the empty. It is worth mentioning that the veteran Kroos this game activity is very large, almost chasing Barcelona players to the bottom line when defending, and then quickly rushed back to the midfield, the whole field constantly back and forth, so that Modric was able to easily control the rhythm of Barcelona's three center midfield is also therefore disintegrated. It was Busquets' loss of positional mastery and physicality to Kroos that allowed him to make that pass for the first goal.
In this state, Barcelona were effectively defending without a waist. Real Madrid utilized this tactic again in the 35th minute when Carvajal watched his teammates' positions on the right and played a ball into the center of the field.Vinicius took the ball and waited for Tchouameni and Mendy to make a mess of things out in front of him. At this point, Barcelona had seven players back in the box, but no one noticed the top of the box. As a result, Mendy played a cross to Valverde, who sprinted to the top of the box and scored with a high speed low cross.
After 2-0, the game was practically over early. Barcelona tried to attack, but Real Madrid always dealt with counter-attacks with ease and Barcelona struggled to control the situation.
As the second half progressed to the 60th minute, Xavi began to make substitutions, removing Balde, Busquets and Raphinha and replacing them with Gavi, Jordi Alba and Ferran Torres.Tactically, it was a good idea to have the two wing-backs move into the center of the field to deliver the ball near the center line, while the midfield was slightly withdrawn, to prevent Real Madrid from launching another counter-attack. After controlling the situation in this way, it wasn't until the 73rd minute that Ansu Fati was replaced by Dembele, which changed both the left and right flanks to players who could play in the center of the field, so that Real Madrid couldn't attack that strongly anymore. Then, in the 83rd minute, Ansu Fati suddenly accelerated and broke through from the left, and directly played a quick ground ball, which Levin in the center purposely missed the ball, and Ferran Torres came up from the back and pushed the empty goal.
Barcelona had seen a glimmer of hope for an equalizer, but Real Madrid also brought on Camavinga, Asensio and Rodrygo one after the other to strengthen their midfield and physicality before running out the clock. In the 90th minute Rodrygo forced his way into the box for a 12-yarder, which he scored straight away to bring the score to 3-1 and pack the game in.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Sports Vision
Now Barcelona, after a full reorganization, has given Xavi the strength to be able to fight against Real Madrid with substitution tactics, but the overall quality of the personnel is not comprehensive enough. For example, in terms of physical confrontation, this game will be difficult to beat Real Madrid. For the experienced, shrewd playing style of Real Madrid, Barcelona is now unable to fight against it. Perhaps wait until the second half of the season back to Camp Nou to observe the situation.
