'The worst Clásico ever?' Real Madrid & Barça set unwanted records in disappointing cup clash
The Blaugrana edged out their fierce rivals in a 1-0 win at the Santiago Bernabéu in the teams' Copa del Rey semi-final first leg on Thursday, but it was no classic...
It was a classic in name alone. The 252nd meeting between Barcelona and Real Madrid will be remembered for all the wrong reasons: Madrid failed to record a single shot on target at home since those stats were reliably recorded in 2008; and Barça had just 35% of the ball, their lowest possession figure for 861 matches. It was one of those games. And fittingly, perhaps, it was decided by a scrappy own goal.
Was it the worst Clásico ever? On TSFP (The Spanish Football Podcast), Sid Lowe and Phil Kitromilides asked that question. After all, this famous fixture has produced some spectacular matches over the years, but this was definitely not one of them.
The 0-0 draw at Camp Nou in late 2019 was definitely dull, the worst Clásico I have attended. The 1-1 draw in the Copa del Rey that season was another. On the scoresheet that day, not Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, but Malcom and Lucas Vázquez. Exactly. There have been other sub-standard Barça-Madrid meetings, of course, but you have to go back a long way.
Much has been made in the Spanish media of the way Barcelona played. Old quotes from Xavi, in which he says he would not play defensive football with men behind the ball, have been gleefully reproduced. But after the match, he admitted he had not set out to defend. “We didn’t [choose to] play that way,” he said. “Our opponent forced us to play that way. We weren’t good with the ball. We haven’t betrayed our model. You have to defend too. It’s part of the game.”
Barça had lost their previous two fixtures: 2-1 away to Manchester United in the Europa League and 1-0 at Almería in LaLiga. The Blaugrana were also without Pedri, Robert Lewandowski and Ousmane Dembélé. Of course they want to play better, but Xavi also knows that in an open game, Madrid are extremely dangerous.
Against a low block, Real have struggled before this season: Los Blancos lost 1-0 at Mallorca and drew at home to both Osasuna and Girona. Against Barça, they had most of the ball, but did very little with it.
Xavi had been pleased with the outcome, though not with Barça’s football. For Carlo Ancelotti, meanwhile, it was the opposite. “It’s the match we wanted to play,” he said. “But not the result.”
Ancelotti seemed pleased overall. “If we play like that [in the second leg] at Camp Nou, I think we’ll go through,” he said.
His optimism seemed exaggerated. Madrid threw away a great opportunity to take a lead in this tie against a Barça side missing key players. Quite simply, they didn’t do enough. The stats show that. And if Franck Kessié’s goalbound shot hadn’t hit team-mate Ansu Fati in the second half, Xavi’s side may well have been taking a 2-0 lead to Camp Nou next month.
Barça and Madrid meet again in LaLiga on March 19 – also at Camp Nou – before the Copa del Rey semi-final second leg on April 5. And with Real looking to close the gap at the top of the table (currently seven points) and in need of another stirring comeback in the cup, the next two Clásico clashes should at least be more exciting than this one.
It's so amazing that people are even talking about Barcelona defending... in years past, we'll definitely lose that game, Barca showed courage defended excellently and got the win... If we lose or draw all the tunes in the Spanish media, it will be different. Barcelona is leading la liga with 7 points, but you don't hear about it much until we drop points.
Thanks so much, Ben, for always writing objectively.
While Barça missing key players were understandably dull, Real Madrid could and should have done better. Instead, everyone from Modric to Ancelotti was blaming luck after dominating the game. That's rich coming from a Madrid team that won the UCL vs. Liverpool with one lucky goal.
Also, AFAIK they didn't dominate a single match in the Champion's league last season notwithstanding the heroic comebacks.