Real Madrid 0-4 Barcelona: Hansi Flick's side seal statement win at the Bernabéu
Barcelona thrashed Real Madrid in a brilliant win in El Clásico to move six points clear at the top of LaLiga and end a 42-match unbeaten run for Los Blancos
Barcelona have had some big wins at the Santiago Bernabéu in recent years and on Saturday night, the Blaugrana added another. Hansi Flick’s side ran out 4-0 winners away to their fierce rivals, matching victories by the same scoreline in 2015 and 2022 and following on from the famous 6-2 success in 2009 and 3-0 triumphs in 2017 and 2019. At an arena where Europe’s elite teams so often suffer stage fright, Barça have regularly run riot.
Despite the nature of those wins, the Catalans have not had things all their own way in the fixture in that time, nor in LaLiga. And they might not have done even in this match; up until half-time, it was Madrid looking likelier to take the lead. But in the second half, everything changed.
Ahead of this game, Barça had beaten Bayern Munich 4-1 in the Champions League in a morale-boosting win over a side which had been something of a bogey team for the Blaugrana in Europe in recent years. In 2020, with Lionel Messi still at the club, Barça were trounced 8-2 by the Bavarians in the Champions League quarter-finals in Lisbon.
Bayern’s coach that day was Flick and with the German now in charge at Barça, things have gone full circle. It has been risky at times, with his high defensive line conceding chances against both Bayern on Wednesday and versus Madrid on Saturday. But one big virtue of Flick’s side has been his defenders’ impressive application of the offside trap. Los Blancos threatened to break it on a number of occasions, but fluffed their lines. Barça’s back four, by contrast, got theirs spot on.
Kylian Mbappé had the ball in the net in the first half but was just offside and it happened again in the second period. In total, Madrid’s players were caught offside on 12 occasions by Barça – which was as many times as in their previous 10 LaLiga games this term.
And when Mbappé did manage to stay onside, he came up against a formidable Iñaki Peña in the Barça goal. Madrid’s fans responded by showing their frustration at the French forward, who has yet to hit the heights despite some moments of promise since his summer switch from Paris Saint-Germain.
But the second half was all about Barça. Robert Lewandowski, revitalised since Flick’s arrival, opened the scoring with a low finish from the edge of the area following a Marc Casadó through ball and made it 2-0 a couple of minutes later with a header from a fine Alejandro Balde cross.
The Pole then missed two super chances to complete his hat-trick, but Barça remained on top. Lamine Yamal blasted a third with his first El Clásico goal at the age of just 17 and Raphinha beat Lucas Vázquez all too easily before delicately lobbing Andriy Lunin for number four.
“Today we played a fantastic match and I’m proud of the team,” Flick said after the match. And asked about his defensive line, he said: “That’s the key. We train a lot on how we want to defend. It’s very important when you play against teams like Real Madrid because they have world-class players.”
After masterminding the 8-2 win over Barça in 2020, Flick heaped misery on the Catalan club and their fans. Now he has brought hope and evidence that the Blaugrana can compete with the very best both in LaLiga and in Europe – despite the club’s precarious financial situation and the young age of his team.
“I’m very happy to be at Barcelona and to live in Barcelona,” he said. After a wonderful week featuring big wins back to back against Bayern and now Real Madrid, Barça’s fans are very happy too.