There have been few encounters between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid that have been as anticipated as the most recent one. With both teams having dismantled two of the Bundesliga’s most prestigious teams in their previous outings, there was a lot of hype for this El Clasico. The scoreline at the end, however, was all in favor of FC Barcelona.
With La Blaugrana scoring four goals in the second half, it was clear to see that they were not fooling around with this Madrid team. In fact, as Lamine Yamal pointed out previously, Barcelona did not want to stop scoring even when they went ahead by two goals.
This instinct to keep hunting down their wounded prey was exactly the kind of push that Barcelona needed in this game. However, unlike the second half, the first 45 minutes were rather nervy from Barcelona and even saw them struggle at times due to their own high line.
However, things took a drastic turn in the second half after Hansi Flick gave two specific orders to his team following the half-time break. As highlighted by SPORT, these instructions would ultimately allow Barcelona to turn the tide of the game and completely demolish the home side at the Santiago Bernabeu.
The first instruction was to stop panicking with the ball when in possession and to lose their fear with it. This had previously already caused them problems as Real Madrid almost always took advantage of it, but with their more composed performance in the second half, Barcelona hurt Los Blancos as much as they could.
Secondly, Flick told the team to target and punish Lucas Vasquez within the Real Madrid backline. With Dani Carvajal injured, he was their most obvious weak link at the back and Flick wanted to make sure that Raphinha took advantage of it as much as possible.
The Brazilian forward, who is currently in sensational form, has already proven himself to be capable of hurting teams with his runs in behind. He did it against Bayern Munich and he has done it against numerous opponents in La Liga this season.
Ultimately, both of those instructions proved to be perfect. With more control in the game, especially with Frenkie de Jong’s entrance, Barcelona were able to pick out passes that would find their forwards in favorable positions.
Similarly, the advice to target Vasquez was also spot on, as both he and Ferland Mendy were out of sync with the rest of the backline when Real Madrid conceded the first goal, and he was also directly responsible for Barcelona scoring their last two goals through Lamine Yamal and Raphinha due to his inability to stop the Brazilian forward, resulting in a 4-0 thrashing by the fulltime whistle.