The bride was in black. Abandoning its usual white colors for a dark outfit that announced the tone of its evening, Real Madrid certainly thought it was going back twelve years, when the Barcelona rival inflicted on it a “manita” remained in all memories. Imperial in the midfield that day, Xavi this time engineered everything from his bench. His team, undefeated since the start of 2022, simply flew over this Clasico, Sunday March 20, to return to 12 points from Real. La Liga has not yet been revived, but the Catalans, at the cost of this show of force, have given themselves the right to believe in it.
The start of the match did not foreshadow such a disintegration of Real. Even deprived of Karim Benzema, injured against Mallorca in the last match, Real unfolded and was very close to opening the scoring after a festival of Vinicius on his left wing, the Brazilian serving perfectly behind Valverde whose strike was deflected from the end gloves by ter Stegen (7th). Without this parade from the German, who knows how this meeting would have changed? Because, from then on, Barça became the Barça of the 2010s again. Relentless possession, permutations and shifts incessant, Pedri and De Jong despotic in the middle … The Catalans offered themselves a makeover.
After having stumbled for the first time (12th) on Courtois, Aubameyang took advantage of a service from Dembélé to score, with a header, his eighth goal in eleven games in his new colors (0-1, 29th). The aerial game is what perhaps differentiates Barça 2022 from its illustrious predecessors. With Dembele still on the last pass, but this time from a corner, Araujo flew over Alaba and doubled the lead at high altitude (0-2, 38′). Under a monstrous bronca obviously. The cheers of qualifying against PSG already seemed a long way off…
And they moved away even further as soon as Ferran Torres concluded a “Barcelona” movement still involving Dembélé, De Jong and Aubameyang (0-3, 47th). The former Gunner, untenable, even went there for his double a few minutes later, taking advantage of Madrid’s total apathy. Translucent, Carlo Ancelotti’s players no longer had anything of these warriors who overthrew PSG. And this time, there was no longer a French number 9 to put them back in the right direction…
2 – Ousmane Dembele is the second @FCBarcelona player to provide two assists in a first half of #ElClásico at the Santiago Bernabéu in all competitions in the 21st century, after Xavi Hernández in May 2009. Stellar. pic.twitter.com/z1Oos803bP
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) March 20, 2022
With nine points ahead of Sevilla FC, the “White House” is not yet burning. But she sees the building of her hated rival, doomed to be razed not so long ago, regain a luster that we thought was lost. Barça can thank its new architect: even if he is no longer on the site, Xavi still has the right plans.