Raul Araujo celebrated with teammates after he scored his second goal in La Liga between Real Madrid and Barcelona. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice and created another goal as Barcelona beat Real Madrid in the first Clasico of Xavi as head coach at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Barcelona reached new heights under Xavi, beating 4-0 in the Clasico and avoiding league leaders in Real Madrid. Barcelona beat fugitive leaders Real Madrid for their first Clasico victory in three years and their biggest league win at the Bernabeu since 2015. Barcelona is 11 unbeaten in all competitions and ten in La Liga. Except for the first 10 minutes, Barcelona absolutely dominated, and, of course, they have created the best scoring chances. It’s almost as if Barcelona could score every time they had the ball in the third final.
Most of the hosts’ chances came after the score was 4-0, and Barca conceded several attempts to score a fifth goal. However, it didn’t take long for Barcelona to regain their dominance, and they continued to attack and try to achieve more goals in the final minutes. On top of that, Barça had the best 45 minutes of their season and just needed to finish the second half to earn all three points.
Barcelona created chance after chance, and there was no reaction to their moves and passes, and even after a couple of excellent opening saves by Thibaut Courtois, it felt like it was only a matter of time before the guests scored. Carlo Ancelotti tried to change the momentum by making two half-time substitutions. Still, Real Madrid got off to their worst start when they conceded the third goal in the first minute of the second half when Ferran Torres’ kick found the back of the net from a Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang heel kick pass. As Ousmane Dembele and Ferran Torres showed the fragility of Real Madrid’s opponents on the flanks, a rejuvenated Barcelona opened the scoring in the 29th minute when Aubameyang fired a header from Dembele’s cross.
Since the start of the year, Ousmane Dembele, another reborn player, assisted both goals at half-time as Barcelona ran rampant against a Real Madrid team, conceding heavily injured Karim Benzema and Ferland Mendy. There were great opportunities for Ferran Torres, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Ousmane Dembélé to add to Real Madrid’s suffering. Still, in the end, it didn’t matter as Barcelona extended their La Liga away unbeaten streak to 11 in a memorable fashion.
Only Sevilla have conceded fewer goals than Real Madrid in La Liga this season, but Ancelotti’s rearguard failed to respond to Barcelona’s breathtaking attacking spectacle. Runaway leader Real Madrid is nine points ahead of Sevilla with nine games, with Barcelona in third after three more with one game to go.
How do you anticipate the position of the top three teams by the end of the season? Can Barcelona bounce back and get to the second position, or will Real Madrid drop points at the top?
