Madrid, Yeda, Seville … Montjuïc. This is the road map of the classics of a course in which up to seven could have been held, but that will end four. The last one will be played this Sunday, and will not be decisive, but it will be transcendental for the outcome of the League, because if Barça wins It would place him with 7 points of difference and 9 to be disputed. Part with a mood advantage of the Barca picture, in addition to the environmental for the Montjuïc scenario, with the 3-0 of the victories that this campaign has been pointed out.
Although from the Madrid trench you see another optic. The elimination in the Champions, in addition to a mood stick by the cruelty of formmust weigh on the legs of the Catalans, who had to play 120 minutes to elucidate the outcome of the semifinal before Inter. Something that Ancelotti He maintains that he will condition the party for the premises.
Hansi Flick has fulminated the defeat tendency from Barça de Xaviwhich accumulated four consecutive after having conquered the Super Cup in January 2023 at the coast of the White and a 0-4 in the Bernabéu, results that also turned against him in the 2024 Super Cup, and in the Cup semifinal in the Camp Nou.
Real Madrid players, desolate, in the third classic of the season. / Valentine Enrich / Spo
The panorama with which the beginning of the current campaign was presented was that of An unbeatable Real Madrid, League and Champions champion with the addition of Kylian Mbappé in front of an impoverished Barça, with two signings (Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor) and a skeleton formed by Young the quarry. The reality on the pitch has been very different and explained by the results: win at the Bernabéu by 0-4, beating in the 2-5 Super Cup final and traced in the conquest of the Copa del Rey by 3-2.
Alejandro Balde shows Lamine Yamal's shirt, author of 0-3 at Bernabéu. / Valentine Enrich / Spo
12 Game and four goals
He went to Barça to play the first classic with three advantage points After having hit Bayern three days before in the Champions (4-1) and Sevilla (5-1) the previous Sunday. There were six when they left Bernabéu, a valuable advantage that disappeared in a month, four days later. Six casualties suffered Hansi Flick: Ter Stegen, Eric Garcia, Araujo, Christensen, Bernal and Ferran Torres.
However, he aligned at the eleven of gala. But with Iñaki Peña Under the sticks, which was a doctorate with a sensational performance that sealed the goal to zero. He made four stops; Actually, there were many more in actions that were invalidated. Barça surprised with its advanced pressure and a very high defense that ridiculed Madrid with 12 Game.
Raphinha raises a petroleum jerk over Lunin after overcoming Lucas in the Bernabéu classic. / Valentine Enrich / Spo
Disoriented and frustrated, not knowing how to advance, Madrid received the four impacts in the second half, When you should have corrected at rest. Marc Casadó discovered the gap in the center of the defense to put Lewandowski in the race and then it was the others who undressed Lucas Vázquez's weaknesses. Baldé conveniently focused Lewandowski, Raphinha attended Lamine Yamal, who nailed a right to the squad, and Raphinha again surpassed Lucas Vázquez.
Madrid appeared to the match with Rodrygo's decline, which allowed Ancelotti put cement in the spinal cord assembling a 4-4-2 with Valverde, Tchouameni and Camavinga, But Lucas Vázquez's patch on the right lane and the appearance of Lunin by an injured Courtois passed the whites. Mbappé was frustrated by his first classic Trapped by Flick's trap in the offside, and Barça punished the lack of white forcefulness in his area. It was October and Madrid understood him as an inconsequential accident.
Joan Laporta, with the Super Cup trophy, next to the template. / STR / EFE
The lesson is repeated
The Super Cup final gathered them again in Yeda in January with a Barça relegated to third place in the League, five points from Madrid and six from Atlético. There was no more relevant change than the alignment of Wojciech Szczesny under the sticks. He had two games in the goal when this second classic of the course attended. It also happened that Madrid scored a goal, through Mbappé, in a background, after three occasions from Barça.
The favorite panorama of Ancelotti: anchor the team behind to surprise the ambitious Barca picture. Nor could it prevent another four -go cataract from preclaiming even having Thiabut Courtois under the sticks, This time in the first half. The problem did not live in the goal, but in its poor structure.
Alejandro Balde celebrates his goal, the momentary 1-4 in the final of the Super Cup, and Raphinha behind. / “Associated Press/LaPresse Altaf Qadri” / LAP
Lamine Yamal scored again with a goal Messianico. And Lewandowski, this time by penalty. And Raphinha, with a great header alone in the area, to central Koundé. And bucket, who went from scorer assistant in a counterattack armed with his friend Lamine Yamal. The little hand fell into the resumption. In the second classic of his life, Casadó gave his second assistance. In October to Lewandowski; In January to Raphinha for the double of the Brazilian. Rodrygo marked missing thanks to the expulsion of Szczesny.
Madrid again showed the same defensive fragility, this time with a rear in which Lucas Vázquez repeated as lateral and Tchouameni formed a couple on the axis with Rudiger. Carletto aligned the 'fantastic four', that failed loudly, despite being the classic of this year in which the whites discussed more possession to those of Flick (49% for 51 of the Catalans).
The white box fired more, 19 times from Barça, but from half of the Barca launches that took door ended on the network. Carlo Ancelotti returned very touched by Arabia and the president's surroundings came to propose the relief of Santiago Solari, in what the second notice for the Italian. The first arrived in November, after 1-3 in the Bernabéu against Milan, criticism that were silenced by a 4-0 against Osasuna in a meeting in which Carletto's continuity was questioned.
Koundé shoots the Courtois frame to score the 3-2 of the Cup final. / Valentine Enrich / Spo
Third classic, second title
The Cup final raised the level of transcendence for the greatest importance of the title at stake. It was Flick's third consecutive victory, the only one who has followed The stele of Pep Guardiola, who gathered five in a row Before the eternal rival. The Seville marker was the most tight, to the point that an extension was played. The usual balance returned to the classic, which remained dyed from Barca. The 3-2 implied that Madrid has cut football differences. The history accumulated as a visitor in recent years (four victories in five games) cultivates the white illusion, which hopes to get to the league or finally say goodbye to it.
Kylian Mbappé scores the moment of the momentary tie to one in the Cartuja. / Julio Munoz / EFE
Barça premiered scorers in La Cartuja. Pedri placed a cross ball to the squad arriving as a second line, Ferran left the aggressive Rüdiger again, also saving the bad departure of Courtois, and Koundé culminated the victory by intercepting and taking advantage of a bad pass from Modric to Brahim.
Nonetheless, Madrid had traced Pedri's goal with two ball actions stopped in seven minutes. First, a foul released by Mbappé; Then, a corner headed by Tchouaméni. Seven minutes later, indifferent to the adverse score, there was a new removal of Barça. At the conclusion of the party, Ancelotti gathered his in the costumes of La Cartuja and made an optimistic reading of this last defeat: “This is the way. We have only lacked luck. If we continue like this, we will win the League match in Montjuïc “.
Carlo bet again on populating the midfield, leaving Rodrygo on the bench, and Madrid won in Rdefensive obust. That will be the path that will explore this Sunday in the classic in Barcelona. A 4-4-2 with a midfield midfield in which he will bring together Ceballos, Arda and Bellingham around Valverde. The disturbing thing is that Lucas Vázquez and Tchouameni will appear again because it has no other alternatives.
