Real Madrid beat Barcelona, take control of La Liga

See the world through blaugrana glasses and it's not so bad. Barcelona marched into the Bernabeu, created three solid chances in the first half and eventually lost 2-0 to a deflected strike from Vinicius Jr. and a garbage time goal from, ahem, Mariano Diaz w88 casino .

While the above is true, it's also fair to say that Real Madrid's Clasico win at the Bernabeu since 2004 wasn't down to chance. They made the adjustments they needed to make in the second half -- namely, pushing up and passing higher and making it hard for the opposition to get into the final third -- and looked more threatening almost immediately. Quique Setien didn't have the answers to counter that. Martin Braithwaite, coming off the bench, isn't Luis Suarez and all that was left was the usual, sterile possession.



The game could easily have taken a different turn but for those first-half misses, particularly from Antoine Griezmann and Lionel Messi. It happens: players miss chances, even ones who are paid handsomely to convert them, because they usually do. More of a concern was the lack of answers in midfield not through lack of application, but simple lack of quality. Adding an extra midfielder didn't make their possession any more incisive though, to be fair, at least Arturo Vidal offered a bit of oomph w88thais.com .

Gerard Pique said afterward that this was the worst Real Madrid in recent years, which naturally raises the question of what it says about Barcelona, who are now one point behind them in the table with 12 games remaining. They're still close enough to the top of table that, despite arguably a tougher run-in than Real Madrid, La Liga remains wide open and, of course, they've got the Champions League to look forward to. But there's no escaping the fact that unless things suddenly, magically come together for Setien, any silverware they win this season will be down to the superhuman efforts of Messi and Marc-Andre ter Stegen.


Real Madrid's gritty win over Barcelona tilted La Liga in their favor and showed that they're much closer to being the finished product than their clasico rivals. Ricardo Nogueira/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images
Real Madrid, on the other hand, showed grit and self-belief. I didn't pick up on it watching on TV, but my colleague Sid Lowe, who joined us on the Gab + Juls podcast, pointed out that the atmosphere at the Bernabeu was dire at half-time. They had dropped five points in the previous two Liga games, they could have been two or three goals down by half-time and they'd just been beaten at home by Manchester City in the Champions League. That's the sort of negativity in which you can easily drown. Instead, they pushed on. Zidane didn't make any personnel changes, as if he was telling them: "OK, it's a major rough patch, we've got one foot out of the Champions League and we could be throwing the league too ... but we got a reprieve and live to fight another day. You guys were out there, you guys turn it around w88 mobile ."

Isco forced a world-class save from ter Stegen, Vinicius' furious running turned him into an ideal spoiler, Toni Kroos' passing became crisper and Raphael Varane continued his defensive master class. Even Marcelo, with one notable lung-bursting recover tackle on Messi, chipped in with some defensive heroics. Character and personality aplenty. This is a team that, post-Cristiano Ronaldo (who was up in the stands), is less about individual match winners. It might have been a different story if Eden Hazard hadn't gotten injured or if Gareth Bale didn't have his string of ailments/passion for golf. But in terms of where they are now, a point clear of Barcelona, they'll sink or swim based on their collective efforts.


Most of all, they have enough individuals who, on their day, can go to the next level. Isco, for one, and Varane, Sergio Ramos, Kroos, Luka Modric and Karim Benzema. None of these guys might be difference-makers in every game, all of them can be difference-makers in a given game. Barca don't have that, at least not to this extent, which is why Real Madrid have to be slight favourites for La Liga at this stage.