El Clasico: 5 things we learnt from Barcelona's 5-1 win over Real Madrid
El Clasico ended with 5-1 to Barcelona, with the Catalan club enhancing their position at the top of the table.
For Barcelona, this is a stunning win and performance against their old enemy, and they now lead La Liga on top of Atletico Madrid by two points.
Real Madrid, however, is in a depressed state, and currently are in ninth place. The Ninth place for a club of Real Madrid's standing is very poor, in any season. Maybe they didn't strengthen in terms of replacing Christiano Ronaldo, who is lighting things up in Italy and Serie A with Juventus.
But it's clear that something is wrong, and this game (and to whom they lost to) shows something deeper is afoot.
For Barca, their La Liga dominance of late may well continue, and with Lionel Messi to come back from injury, it may be set to regain the Champions League also.
So "the Classic" lived up to its billing, between not just Spain's two biggest clubs, but arguably the two biggest clubs on Earth. And between many of the world's top footballers.
So what five points can we note from Barca's demolition of Real Madrid today?
For Barcelona, the critical points would be:
- they can win without Messi
- Suarez is still a great scoring threat
- They haven't lost their clinical edge in front of goal
For Real Madrid, the key points are:
- Julen Lopetegui has to go as manager
- There were some positives, in terms of chances created by their forwards
- The club needs renewal, both on and off the pitch
- Ronaldo's influence possibly led to complacency
As per most El Clasico's of late, it was a match of high technicality, physicality, and with many chances a piece for both sides.
There was talk that Florentino Perez, the Real Madrid President, had already decided to ditch Lopetegui as manager. Surely now, the decision is a formality, nay a necessity. But who can replace him? Antonio Conte? Rafael Benitez? Arsene Wenger?