A packed Santiago Bernabeú erupted in delight and Real Madrid exhaled with elation as Xabi Alonso earned his first victory as Real Madrid manager over Barcelona with a 2-1 result. Goals from Kylian Mbappé and Jude Bellingham confirmed a win that helped extend the team’s lead at the top of LALIGA — and most notably its opponent — by five points. It was also the end of a horrific winless run for Madrid, which had not beaten Barça since April 2024.
But on Sunday, in a Clásico that had two English players on opposing sides for the first time in history, it was Madrid that had the final say.
As predicted, the first half gave us a perfect stew of delicious chaos, which involved two disallowed goals, a penalty that was overturned and despite all of those canceled opportunities, we still saw three goals. That’s the thing about this fixture and what makes it so special: neither team really cares about the midfield. Each sequence is met with absolute intent and aggression and as a result, the audience sees non-stop action.
Kylian Mbappe’s opener in the 22nd minute was taken in excellent fashion but the real star of the goal was the magnificent assist from Jude Bellingham. The English star turned two Barcelona players before delivering a majestic ball for his French compatriot that went past Pau Cubarsí.
Fermín López, who scored a hat trick a few days ago against Olympiacos in the Champions League, netted the equalizer and once again, it was an Englishman who gave the assist as Marcus Rashford fed López with a lovely ball from the left side of the box.
But just before the break, Bellingham stole the headlines once again with an easy finish in the 43rd minute.
By the end of the first half, everyone — not just the players — needed a rest.
The pace of El Clásico is extremely frantic. It is the football equivalent of the 1985 boxing bout between Marvin “Marvelous” Hagler and Thomas “Hitman” Hearns, titled “The War” where two explosive boxers threw caution to the wind and delivered high-octane entertainment who didn’t just want to win, they wanted to end the other opponent. And that’s Real Madrid vs. Barcelona — a fixture born out of two teams who deeply and quietly respect each other, but want nothing more than to destroy their opponent with blow after blow. What made this matchup even more fast-paced was that these were the two youngest sides in LALIGA, so the exuberant need to push until the last second is even more apparent than in past seasons.
The second half, therefore, was a resumption of the first half’s chaos. After five minutes, VAR intervened once again and this time it was for a penalty against Barcelona when the ball ricocheted onto Eric Garciá’s arm, but it was a very harsh decision as there was nothing he could have done as he was already sliding to make a block from Bellingham’s effort. But justice was served as Wojciech Szczęsny made a fantastic save to deny Mbappé. But, in all honesty, I don’t think I know the handball rule anymore.
As the 70th minute approached, Bellingham was there again, thinking he had made it 3-1 for his side but again, there was an obvious offside in the build-up to the goal.
From that moment, both sides kept pushing knowing that a 2-1 scoreline doesn’t really cement anything in this fixture. Madrid had the advantage but the hosts knew that Barcelona enjoyed late surprises as It was only a week ago when Flick’s side came out victorious against Girona thanks to a 93rd-minute goal from Ronald Araújo.
