Jude Bellingham Gives Madrid a 2-1 Victory in El Clasico

Real Madrid snapped their 4 match losing streak in the El Clasicos with a 2-1 win yesterday. In one of the most entertaining El Clasicos in a while, complete with all the drama and raucous we’re familiar with during this fixture, Los Blancos prevailed through goals from Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham either side of a goal from the in-form Fermin Lopez.

Xabi Alonso continued the trend of naming a different XI for just about every game and yesterday it was a 4 man midfield with Aurelien Tchouameni, Eduardo Camavinga, Jude Bellingham and Arda Guler with Vinicius and Mbappe up top, we also saw the return of Dean Huijsen into the XI and Federico Valverde continued at right back.

Injury depleted Barcelona started with Wojciech Szczesny in goal and a CB pairing of Eric Garcia and Cubarsi with Ferran Torres leading the attack, flanked by Marcus Rashford on the left and Lamine Yamal on the right.

Madrid started brightly, immediately pressing from the first whistle and forcing Barcelona to be far more cautious than usual. The first few minutes were chaotic and in the 3rd minute, Madrid thought they had a penalty as Lamine Yamal seemed to foul Vinicius in the box, getting none of the ball and making contact with Vini’s foot instead but VAR checked and eventually overturned the early penalty decision.

Madrid continued to look the sharper of the two teams and in the 12th minute, Kylian Mbappé had a superb half-volley goal disallowed for a very marginal offside after a VAR check. Mbappe wouldn’t be denied though and Real Madrid took the lead in the 22nd minute through his goal after he was found by an excellent through-ball from Jude Bellingham. For the next 15 minutes, Madrid kept creating chances as Barca looked visibly shaken from the pressure Madrid was applying, but several shots and half-chances from players like Vinícius Júnior and Mbappé were missed or saved by Szczesny who had a commendable match.

In usual fashion, Barcelona punished Madrid’s inability to take their chances when they equalized in the 38th minute through a goal from Fermin López. Arda Guler received the ball a little outside his box and seemed to go in a trance as he couldn’t decide what to do with it despite having enough time and he was duly dispossessed by Pedri who laid on a pass to Rashford, the Englishman sent a low pass across the box and Fermin made no mistakes, putting the score at 1-1.

However, just before half-time, Bellingham restored Madrid’s lead with a well-timed run and finish after some good work by Vinícius on the left as he beat Kounde and sent a cross into the box with his left foot and Militao headed the ball in the direction of goal where Jude Bellingham was on hand to tap the ball into the net to become the youngest person in the 21st century to both score and assist in an El Clasico. Madrid took a deserved 2-1 lead into half-time

The second half started with the same fast pace as the first and Madrid still looked the more likely to score in the early stages. In the 50th minute, they had the perfect opportunity as they were awarded a penalty for a handball by Eric García, but Mbappe’s effort was saved superbly by Szczesny. Between the 57th and 70th minutes, Madrid continued to fashion nice chances with Vinicius and Bellingham denied as they went in search of a third goal to potentially kill the match.

In the 66th minute, Madrid made the first substitution of the night with Brahim Diaz coming on in place of Arda Guler and 5-7 minutes later there was another round of substitutions, this time on both sides with Xabi Alonso bringing on Rodrygo for Vinícius Júnior who was bewildered that he was getting subbed and showed his irritation very clearly. Dani Carvajal also came on for Valverde while Barcelona brought on Marc Casado and Ronald Araujo in place of Ferran and Eric Garcia.

From then on, Barcelona pressed hard and had long spells of possession but Madrid defended well, only allowing a few crosses and half-chances for the away side, but they couldn’t convert any. Barcelona made another substitution around the 83rd minute with Roony Bardghji replacing Pau Cubarsi.

In the 89th minute, Jules Kounde inexplicably failed to level the scores as he missed arguably the clearest chance of the entire match. He was found by a brilliant ball into the box from Lamine Yamal who had had an otherwise subdued performance. Kounde’s decision to control the ball on his chest and volley was the right one but the execution was poor as the ball bounced off his chest and into Courtois’ hands.

In stoppage time, tension spiked when Pedri received a second yellow card for a bad tackle on Tchouameni and was sent off for the first time in his career, reducing Barcelona to ten men. After the final whistle, there was even more drama and a heated confrontation ensued involving Dani Carvajal, Lamine Yamal, Vinicius and Andriy Lunin who was eventually given a red card for his troubles.

Real Madrid deserved to win this match, perhaps by an even bigger scoreline as they created 3.60xG against Barcelona but they’ll be happy with the 3 points as it takes them 5 clear of Barca at the top of the table. Barca will look to bounce back in their next match against Elche at home while Madrid welcome Valencia to the Bernabeu.