Barcelona schooled Real Madrid’s attacking line
Real Madrid arrived at the Clásico with the good feelings of Liverpool (although slightly attenuated by the poor performance in the derby against Atletico) and encouraged by the numerous casualties of Barcelona (Lewandowski, Pedri, Dembélé, Christensen…) to get a positive result with which to half tie the tie and begin to put the pass to the final of the Copa del Rey on track. But nothing could be further from the truth: Ancelotti’s team accumulated a lot of the ball (65%), but they hardly brought any danger to Ter Stegen’s goal and, in fact, they did not finish off once on goal, something that had not happened in a Classic in the 21st century.
First game in the season to fail a shot
It is the first game of the season in which Madrid does not even take a shot between the sticks; his average this season has been 6.5 shots on goal per game. And in all of last season it only happened once, in the terrible match in Paris against PSG, in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16, which they lost 1-0. A piece of information that denotes offensive ineffectiveness and that clearly points to Benzema, for whom the figures, despite everything, continue to accompany him (12 goals in 14 games after the World Cup), but who is still far from his best feelings, those that the last season, opening a debate for next summer.
Benzema started this season at the age of 34 and a half, but his numbers from the previous season distorted everything; also the conclusions reached by Madrid regarding the future of the attack . A player capable of scoring 44 goals in 46 games did not seem in need of relief at all; Madrid bet heavily on Mbappé and let Haaland pass by, the plan went wrong and this course was presented only with the Frenchman in the lead, with a Mariano in whom nothing is trusted in the reserve and with an army of players from band (Asensio, Rodrygo, Hazard…) to play that role when the time comes.